Work the waters

The weather is heating up and the water is beginning to look inviting again. Before you cannonball into the nearest public pool, why not consider taking a more focused approach to swimming with the Wett Ones, Sydney’s gay and lesbian swim squad.

Started in 1991, the club now boasts a robust membership of over 40 people who take over the lanes at the Sydney University Fitness and Aquatic Centre three nights a week before a weekend training sojourn to the Andrew Boy Charlton pool.

Under the guidance of the club’s four trainers, even the most hopeless swimmers will move quickly from the beginner’s to advanced lanes, with major benefits to fitness along the way, says club president Matt Besanko, who joined the group four years ago.

There are three different lanes -” slow, intermediate and fast -” so while the club does compete there are a number of swimmers who just come for fitness or training, so it really depends on what your goals are. The club caters to both types of people.

If competition is the impetus you need to get in the pool, the Wett Ones don’t disappoint.
We’re part of the NSW Aussie Masters, so we compete in the Aussie Masters Competitions quite regularly and we’re a very strong squad. We tend to target the carnivals we compete in so we’re competing against a lot of swimmers and we do really well.

There are real fitness benefits that come from regular training like improving your cardiovascular level and building up your endurance.

info: For details on training session times and joining head to http://www.wettones.org/index.html.