Saints Swim Team

The Saints Swim Team caters for junior swimmers of all ages. The club provides a clear pathway from swimming lessons and enables children to improve their technique and enjoy the sport under the watchful eye of experienced and qualified coaches.Saints is the squad name for the teams that represent Southampton Dolphins Swimming Club, a non profit club affiliated to Swim England.

To become a member of the club, swimmers will have achieved ASA “legal” standard for all four strokes.

The after-school swimming club is the next stage in the lesson programme. Youngsters that have mastered the four main strokes are invited to join the swimming club,  The Saints Swim Team.

The sessions increase to one hour in length, with the last 10 minutes set aside for play. There is a little of everything – Diving Skills, Personal Survival, Rookie Lifeguard, Surf Lifesaving, Water Polo, Team Games, Advanced Stroke Technique, Competition Racing, and always popular … playtime!

Swimmers can then move into sessions that use the whole pool.

The extra time and distance builds stamina and makes good technique permanent. Coming just once a week to this group is enough to give the children great strokes that will last a lifetime. If they are keen to progress, this group is the launchpad to swimming sports.

Children can choose to swim between one and four times a week, either specialising in their chosen discipline or enjoying a broad range of aquatic development.

Costs start at £50.50 FOR ONE SESSION, £61.40 FOR TWO, £70.80 FOR THREE AND £79.00 FOR FOUR.

Weekly session schedule

Rookie Lifeguard

Swimmers that have stepped up to the Club from the swim school are gradually introduced to swimming longer distances, always sustaining fine technique. Each session uses the whole (25m) pool,

The nuances of racing are broken down, learnt carefully and practiced until perfect. The swimmer can choose to increase training sessions and build stamina in preparation for competition or they can just swim weekly, just for fitness. Either way they will be classically trained and secure great stroke technique that will last a lifetime.

The majority will use the unique fitness that swimming training creates to springboard into their chosen sport. Many of our swimmers have become high competitors in diving, sailing, canoeing, water polo, synchronised swimming and triathlon events. At the very least, swimming through the developing years enables each DNA to reach its full potential.

A ten week cycle introduces key skills in many aquatic sports, Water  Polo, Lifesaving, racing techniques including starts and turns and introduces Junior Surf Lifesaving, Open Water skills and even synchronised swimming.

Weekly session schedule

History of the Club

Shirley Pool was originally built in 1974 with the inspiration of Frank Perry and the support of his wife, Val, and  a young family of four. Frank was a County level water Polo player and a keen competitive swimming coach in the heyday of swimming in the City. Alongside Derek Snelling and Dave Haller, Frank worked with many local kids that went onto Olympic success. In his new pool, all Frank wanted to do was coach swimmers. “West End Swim Club” was the first ASA club at Shirley Pool and the launchpad for many swimming careers.

Southampton Dolphins Swimming Club was formed in 1993 by David Perry and invited the best swimmers from Shirley Swimming school to introduce them to competitive swimming. Coaches such as Paul Lanham, Gary Abraham and of course the ever enthusiastic Frank Perry, put hundreds through their paces and were for some years the Top Club on the South Coast in the younger age groups.

The club had become a teaching and feeder club with an emphasis on technique and strokes in the 6 -13 age groups. Swimmers could take part in up to three sessions a week including water polo and rookie lifeguard.

In 2007  the sessions were increased and a head coach appointed. Chris White had been with the pool as a lifeguard and teacher. He had swum nationally with Eastleigh with some success and was keen to expand the club.Swimmers could now remain at the club beyond the age of 13 and the club retained the majority of its members well into their teenage years.

In March 2010 with the continued success in local competition and ever increasing numbers, Dave Perry decided to offer swimmers who wanted to progress their swimming the chance to remain at Shirley Swimming Pool. The club was restructured and registered with the ASA club code SDOS. More hours were made available for training and land training was introduced.

From its reregistration the club has evolved and gone from strength to strength , having success at County, Regional and National  level.

Recent History

Every year since the club first entered the Hampshire County Championships in 2011 they have produced at least one County Champion. Over two successive seasons (2015 and 2016) the club won 56 Hampshire County Championship medals which is unprecedented for a club of it’s size. But this was emphatically eclipsed in 2017 with the team winning an astonishing 79 Hampshire County Medals,  31 Gold, 26 Silver and 22 Bronze ranking third in the County medal table. 2017 was a historic and record breaking year with the club winning it’s first team and open relay title in the ladies 4 X 200m freestyle event, Isabella Fraser-Corbridge (14) won the ladies open 100m butterfly just 0.20s off the all time county record and Max Nugent (16) qualified for men’s open finals for the first time in the clubs history.

The club has also enjoyed Regional success increasing qualification at this level year after year with its first qualifier in 2012 through to a club record 15 qualifiers in 2017. The club have also won a multitude of medals at Regional level, in 2014 Filip Fraczek-Krygier became a Regional Champion in the boys 11 years 200m freestyle. In 2015 Amy Thompson (16) won a Bronze Medal in the 50m Breaststroke becoming the first swimmer from the club to win a medal at the youth/open championships.

Later that year Amy Thompson (16) and Filip Fraczek-Krygier (13) qualified for the ASA Summer Nationals for the first time in the clubs history, Amy in the 50m Breaststroke and Filip in the 50m Freestyle.

In 2016 Isabella Fraser-Corbridge (14) became the first swimmer from the club to qualify for the British Swimming Championships. Isabella swam in the 50m Butterfly finishing 15th in Great Britain. In 2017 Max Nugent (16) became the first Dolphins swimmer to qualify for a British Championships final finishing 9th in the 50m BF, whilst Kate Baxter qualified for an astonishing 9 British and Summer National events.

Kate Baxter (12) became the first swimmer to represent the club in a National final at the ASA Summer Nationals in 2016. Kate qualified for the 200m and 400m FS finals finishing 8th and 10th respectively. Filip Fraczek-Krygier (14) also swam at the ASA Summer Nationals producing outstanding results becoming the ASA Summer National Champion in the 50m FS and claimed the silver in the 100m FS becoming the first swimmer in the club to win a national medal and national title. In 2017 Max Nugent (16) replicated his friends achievement by winning the 100m BF in 58.11 and Kate Baxter (14) took Silver in the 200m IM and Bronze in the 100m BK.

The club also actively take part in Biathlon’s (separate swim and run). In 2015 Kate Baxter, Fae Thompson and Max Nugent made the National Schools Finals at the Olympic Park in London. Kate finished a fantastic 7th Nationally. This inspired more swimmers to take part and 13 Dolphin swimmers qualified for the 2016 National Finals where Kate Baxter claimed a national silver medal and best swim.

In July 2016 Rhyseren Taylor (9) became the first swimmer from the club to represent Great Britain in the European Biathlon. A year younger than most of the other competitors Rhyseren finished an amazing 7th in Europe. In the team event (top 3 athletes) Rhyseren took Gold for team GB. The following year in 2017 Dolphins swimmer Lucy Phillips also represented GB in the European Biathlon winning Bronze in the 13 years and under category aged just 10.

Chris White left the pool after twenty years of dedicated service in March 2018 to join a major London Club with aspirations to coaching in the GB set up.

Filip and Kate 2 (1)Rhyseren Euro BiathleKATE BAXTER - counties 2015