About Us
Bristol and South Gloucestershire Swimming Club (BSG) was formed in March 2025 from a merger between Bristol Penguins Olympic Swimming Club and Soundwell Swimming Club - two longstanding clubs within the Bristol area. The club now operates from multiple sites across Bristol and South Gloucestershire, including Hengrove, Henbury, Badminton School, Easton, Kingswood, Winterbourne and Bath University. Both clubs are known for their high standards and inclusivity, with Bristol Penguins winning the Swim England National Club of the Year in 2019, and Soundwell being awarded top British Club at the Aquatics GB Summer Age Group Championships in 2023.
Our ethos
Our ethos is to teach and coach our members, not just to swim but to become lifelong swimmers. We aim to provide a productive yet fun atmosphere where each swimmer can progress along their own individual swimming journey. We also aim to do our bit to help our young members develop as young people as well as swimmers, such as through our young volunteer programme. Our club is managed by a group of dedicated and well organised volunteer committee members. BSG is committed to providing a caring, friendly, and safe environment for all our members, so that when they participate in club activities, they do so in a relaxed and secure environment. The two clubs that have merged to become BSG both had Swim Mark accreditation and we will apply for this as soon as possible. This is the Swim England 'quality standard' to recognise the clubs that are committed to providing safe, effective and quality services for the benefit of their members. These are clubs with high standards of governance, sustainability and effectiveness.
Club structure
We are a friendly swimming club and aim to value each one of our members. We have over approximately 900 members ranging from those learning to be swimmers, competitive and less competitive swimmers and a masters section for adults which has around 60 members. Our squad structure can be viewed here.
We have members from across the city of Bristol and beyond. We have a policy to support those in hardship so they can remain in the sport. We have a strong Performance programme for swimmers wishing to compete at Regional and National level. We have a partnership with Badminton School and coach the school team. We also partner with Clifton College Swim Academy and SLM Ltd around learn to swim and pathways into club swimming, and provide a learn to swim programme from Stages 1-6 at Kingswood Leisure Centre. We are developing our Para Squad and aim to support swimmers with additional needs.
Club successes
We are proud to compete in the National Arena League team Western Premier division, and have a strong showing at county and regional competitions. By bringing two successful clubs together, we hope to continue to build on each club's successes at national level competitions in 2024, where we had successes in events ranging from para, open water and pool based competitions. We have 7 swimmers who have qualified for British Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre in April 2025.
We work hard to ensure there are appropriate competitive opportunities for all our swimmers ranging from local, county and regional level team and individual competitions.
Coaching team
Our coaching team is led by Performance Director Jon Wills, and Head Coach Josh Jobbins who work closely with the core coaching team: Ashleigh Backhouse, Ashley Barnett, Sarah Cozens, John-Paul Holmes, David Cousins, Emma Dodd, Simon Gale, Paul Laughey, Sophia Staddon, Helen Giles, Clair Silcocks and Jess Clements. In addition, there are around 7 support teachers and lane coaches who are professionally qualified and share a love for swimming, as well as our fantastic swimming teachers..
Open water swimming
In recent times, we have developed a summer open water programme to widen swimmers’ aquatic experiences and to enjoy swimming outdoors. During the summer months Bristol and South Gloucestershire swimmers can be found in weekly open water sessions at Cromhall Quarry. We also host the Gloucester County Open Water Festival at Cromhall Quarry every year in September.
Social events
Social events are an important part of the BSG calendar and help to build team spirit and our collective values for who we are as a club. The Christmas Party (at which Father Christmas often makes an appearance) and summer Portishead Lido swim and barbeque are popular events.
Community based and award winning
In summary, we strongly believe our community-based club is a friendly and enjoyable place for children and adults to develop themselves as swimmers and also as individuals. We are passionate about swimming and we look forward to continuing to strive to improve our provision to see existing and new members progress over time.
Ben Mullen
Bristol and South Gloucestershire Swimming Club Chair
