GOOD SPORTS The love of a particular sporting activity brings many people together. Steve Ashfield gets the lowdown on OUT TO SWIM

When you start playing sport, there are a couple of routes you can go down. Go for personal success or join a sports group. Being part of a group entails training with others, helping your fellow members and, of course, there’s the reaction to how the results go.

Here we take look at what it’s like to be part of a local sporting club with views from Out To Swim

Pooling their energies.

Out to Swim (OTS) is a branch of the London-based club and, in normal times, they would meet three times a week at the Prince Regent Swimming Pool in Brighton. Members enjoy keeping fit, making friends and they can train for competitions.

As with all our sporting groupss, they welcome members of all abilities. It doesn’t matter what your sexuality, gender, body type or race is. Julia Rutherford told us

Our aim is to be inclusive and encourage everyone into swimming so they can thrive from the great health and social benefits it provides.

There are also weekly pub outings and a good support network. As you’ll read later, the latter is very important at present.

STARTING THE JOURNEY

Experienced swimmer Julia has always found that LGBTQ+ clubs are generally “really friendly and inclusive with a good social aspect too”. It was a no-brainer to join OTS when she moved to Brighton three years ago. Now she says her largest group of friends are in the group.