Welcome to Gloucester City Swimming Club.

The Club has a proud history, which has been built by the success of outstanding swimmers, together with the commitment and support of coaching staff and Club members over the years.

The Club was founded in 1910. Much of what is now recognised as Gloucester City Swimming Club is due to the tremendous work of previous Chief and Age Group coaches Henry Meinike and Helen Stephens.

Together they were instrumental in building the club into what it is today.

The Clubs quality coaching team headed by current ASA Coach, Graham Brookhouse, who represented Great Britain at two Olympic Games, winning a Bronze medal in 1988. 

The coaching team also contains Andy Osborne who was 2008, South West Grass Roots Coach of the Year.  

Gloucester City Swimming Club is located in the Gloucester Leisure Centre, GL1 which has international standard facilities.

With a quality coach and a dedicated team in place, GCSC is in an excellent position to offer swimmers opportunities to achieve ever-higher standards.

The club has achieved Swim 21 Accreditation in April 2009.

The club and its coaches are committed to ensuring that being a member of the club is a positive experience for all and that every swimmer in the club has the chance to realise their full potential, while at the same time enjoying themselves.

Feature Article : Swim 21 - Success to top the Season

Gloucester City Swimming Club (GCSC) has gained further accreditation at Swim 21 . The club has been awarded the  Skill Development and Competitive Development levels along with Masters Swimming.

Swim 21 is the ASA's Club Development model - a planning tool, based on the principles of Long Term Athlete Development, enabling clubs to help athletes, teachers, coaches and administrators to achieve their full potential.  This accreditation is a ‘Quality Mark’ that regionally and nationally recognises clubs that are committed to providing safe, effective and quality services for the benefit of their members. 

Clubs achieving Swim 21 also automatically meet the standards of Sport England’s Clubmark, signifying the commitment to being a safe, effective and child-friendly sports club
GCSC achieved Skill Development accreditation in 2009 (revalidated in 2010), recognition of the provision for athletes to develop technical skill within a quality programme of coaching and competition. 

In July 2010 the Club also earned Competitive Development accreditation, recognition of the quality training and development programme, which consistently enables swimmers to compete successfully at all levels from early Junior galas to British Championships and beyond.  Masters Swimming has also been accredited in 2010. 

Attaining accreditation is not where it ends; ‘Swim 21 is a journey, not a destination’ and the standards and good practices highlighted through the accreditation are embedded in the routine running of GCSC, forming the basis of all that we do and strive to deliver to our swimmers.

Accreditation is a fantastic achievement and GCSC is currently the only swim club in the county to be accredited at Competitive Development level.  It is no small feat to deliver first rate training and competitive opportunities to over 160 club swimmers includng the recently introduced Disability Group. The award is the culmination of  the outstanding work and highlights the commitment of the Coaches, numerous volunteers and club Committee. 

Head Coach Graham Brookhouse had the opportunity to talk with Tom Love of BBC Gloucestershire on on his early Saturday morning show.

Catch the interview here.  Move the time to about 1 hour 20 into the show.

Youth of Today!

How many times have you heard that comment? Not here at Gloucester City, a group of swimmers kept busy with their training and very often doing activities that have a benefit for the local community,we are teaching them well at GCSC.  

On Saturday afternoon 27th March , Junior and Senior squad swimmers including Head Coach     

answered the rally cry from Sarah Samways to take part in the 31st Cleeve Hill 41 Club Swimarathon.

This is the 4th year that Sarah has been able to gain support from the swimmers to compete in this annual event, the target to raise sponsorship for a local charity whilst completing as many 25 metre lengths in 45 minutes.

The 19 swimmers , many having completed the 2 hour 6.00 am morning training session, turned up at Cheltenham Boys College ready to do their best, nothing at stake with the exception of trying to beat the target that was set by both teams in 2009 and supporting each other.

The hard work had already been achieved in raising £900.00 sponsorship between them; it was the fun bit now. Supporting Sue Ryder, the teams Supporters of Sue Ryder A & B lined up against each other for the challenge.

The Senior A team saw Georgia Fuller, Aimee Carter, Oliver Samways, Liam Davies,

Gemma Barwell, Jenny Hewson-Barsellotti ,

Dan Hudson, Charlotte Smith and coach Graham Brookhouse all set a nice steady pace being on target at 5 minute mark with 19 lengths.

The enthusiastic Junior B, kept pace with the A’s for the first 15 metres! Oli Fell, EllIe Bruce, Holly Whitton, William Carter, Kieran Naylor, Mikey Stalker, Jordan Lee, Liam Raybould, and Elyna and Alex Seymour one length behind at 5 minute mark , however one up on last years similar split.

Both teams swam very well, maintaining an increase on last years figures, the juniors just edging each 5 minute split ahead by 4 lengths on 2009 with the seniors consistently up by 2.

The half way mark saw both teams well up on the previous outings and heading towards the end and getting excited at how far they could go on improving. The senior team hit the 100 mark first, with big cheers from the crowd, Graham was putting his training ethos “no breathing in last 5 metres” to the extreme by not breathing in the pool for each of his 25 metre lengths!

The other two competitive teams had the good fortune of vocal support as each of them passed the 100 mark, this came from good collection of parents including many from GCSC along with friends and family.

As the final seconds ticked away the cheering from the crowd and encouragement between the swimmers led to a fantastic final effort when the claxton sounded the Supporters of Sue Ryder A had reached an incredible 172 lengths and the Sue Ryder B finished at 162.

Both teams claimed the top two distances on the day, the Top Senior team and Top Junior team, the same accolade as 2009 along with improved distance.

2011 they know what they will have to achieve, with I suspect an eye on the all comers records!

Gloucester City in the PINK

Congratulations you raised £250.

Every now and again we all think about what we can do to help others or make things a little better, the things that are important, sometimes thinking is as far as it gets when lives are so busy.

This has not been the case with Club Captain Emily Piddington and fellow swim club member Charlotte French, both girls took timeout from their studies, training, coaching of the clubs younger swimmers and the lifesaving job to bring attention and awareness of Cancer Research to the GCSC swimmers and members.

The girls organized a swim in pink day at the recent Gloucester County Championships final day (March 14th). This was a fund raising even that saw swimmers, parents , coaching staff and supporters of the club turn up in pink, t-shirts, tights , tutus and all sorts of pink items.

The atmosphere was excellent with both boys and girls looking fetching in Pink.

Each of the GCSC Relay teams wore Pink swim caps that really stood out in the pool, many leading to victory.

Emily and Charlotte must be commended for the hard work they put in, along with the swimmers who dressed up for the occasion collecting between them and a very supportive watching crowd a sum just in excess of £250.   

To add to the day's fun feel Gloucester City Swimming Club treated the majority of Mothers with a cake, served on silver plates from the boys in Pink, it was Mothers Day!

Anything you would like to bring to others attention. Let the Committee know.