Joining Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough Amateur Swim Club (MASC) is one of the top competitive swimming clubs in the North East of England. We are proud to offer a broad range of provision to suit a wide variety of swimmers.
Our professional coaches welcome swimmers right at the start of their swimming journey, through to ambitious competitive swimmers of all ages, at the very top of their game. Our team work with swimmers of a range of abilities; from swimmers leaving the Swim England Learn to Swim programme right up to those swimming at a National and International standard.
At MASC we aim to offer an inclusive, flexible, and enjoyable environment for everyone to enjoy their sport. There really is something to suit just about everyone.
MASC follows the Swim England Athlete Development Support Pathway for Swimming in order to develop swimmers to their maximum potential, creating talented swimmers at all levels including swimmers attending County standard events, Regional standard events, Nationals and International events.
MASC operates a squad structure which is designed to be progressive, for swimmers to develop through various different pathways in line with the Long-Term Athlete Development Plan. The structure also aims to offer flexibility as well as fitness pathways to ensure that our members have options throughout their journey – for example to support swimmers during exams, injury or long-term health issues. All of our squads have individual squad criteria and squads train at both gym and pool facilities at the Neptune Centre and Rainbow Centre in Middlesbrough.
Transitioning from our Academy, our swimmers move into the Age Group squads, starting in the Development squad where they further develop skills and key aspects of training through the ‘learning to train’ stage of the Support Pathway. Swimmers begin to experience basic aerobic training at this stage which is then further developed and becomes more intensive with additional training methods and regimes in the other squads. By this point swimmers are at the ‘training to train’ stage of their swimming pathway where they further develop specific skills through a range of specific regimes and drills whilst also increasing fitness levels. We also have squads for swimmers who either do not meet the competitive pathway squad requirements, for swimmers who do not wish to compete or for swimmers who wish to continue to compete and train but on a reduced amount.
Swimmers can progress into Performance squad groups which are divided into Junior Potential and Youth Potential. Swimmers begin to come to the end of the ‘training to train’ stage of their swimming career, moving onto the ‘training to compete’ stage after becoming older with potential in Competitive B to move onto the ‘training to win’ stage of the support pathway at higher ages. Swimmers are aiming for National and in some cases International events in these squads (Competitive A and Elite).
The squads are as follows:
- Elite
- Competitive A
- Competitive B
- Youth Potential
- Junior Potential
- Active
- Masters
- Development
- Academy
Being part of the MASC family also give you access to great benefits including access to the fitness facilities at one of our home pools (Neptune Centre) and access to sports massage via one of our partners. This is all alongside some of the most generous pool/training times around, and great coaching.
Read more about our JOINING PROCESS.