Levelling Up: How Market Harborough Swimming Club helped more girls attend our swim camp

At FAST & Female, our mission is to keep girls in sport especially during the years when their bodies and confidence are changing. One of our favourite moments from this year was working with Harborough Swimming Club (MHSC), who went above and beyond to make sure their female swimmers could attend our Coventry camp in August.

MHSC is an East Midlands based club welcoming members of all ages and abilities, from those looking to improve their fitness and technique, to those with a passion for competition and high performance.

At FAST and Female we know swim camps can be expensive for families who are already paying for training fees, kit, meet entries and travel to competitions, so we were delighted to hear that MHSC had a plan to support their swimmers and enable more girls to attend our camp.

Donna, Committee Member at MHSC explained:

“So many girls drop out of our sport when their bodies develop and change. To find a swim camp that specifically dealt with issues impacting female swimmers was amazing and sits well with the in-house support that the club offers to our female swimmers.”

The executive committee made the decision to subsidise the cost of the camp by £50 per swimmer (& offered full payment to anyone experiencing financial difficulties). This increased the uptake by 50% and parents were really pleased that the club was able to do this. Donna added that she felt the stigma of 'financial difficulties' meant that no swimmers took up the offer for the club to pay the full amount for the camp, even though full discretion was offered.

Many of the committee had seen the positive effect on swimmers when they have attended camps in the past and they wanted to do as much as they could to support their current swimmers.

The club has a robust plan in place to support and help educate swimmers and parents around body changes. Donna said:

“We educate our swimmers and parents from an early age about the changes that take place in their bodies - we use an information leaflet that we send out each year to swimmers aged 9yrs upwards (via their parents). We also work hard to ensure that our parents feel comfortable and can speak to us about their concerns and there's never any pressure for our girls to swim or train during their periods etc. We also encourage peer support through the use of poolside helpers, paying for swimmers to complete their swim teacher courses and volunteering with us. This helps our younger swimmers to feel more comfortable speaking about their concerns with other swimmers”.

We were keen to know how the club was able to fund this fantastic initiative - given too, the challenges faced by clubs who are mainly volunteer run and facing increased costs.

Donna said “we do fund raise and we apply for grants from local charities specifically for training courses. We didn't use those funds for this course, instead, we are lucky enough to have good reserves in the bank which we work hard to maintain and we used some of these for the swim camp”

We were keen to know whether the girls enjoyed the camp and found it a valuable experience:

Donna said:

“They loved it. The training (land & water based), the emphasis on technique and being the best version of themselves, whatever that looks like, meeting Freya who was so very lovely with them all, talking about health & nutrition and they were buzzing about the fact that it was aimed at them and was so relevant to where a lot of them were”.

The club aims to source another activity in 2026 that supports both their male and female swimmers, but for now are happy that helping their female swimmers attend a FAST and Female camp gave them an important opportunity:

Donna concludes

“We know from personal experience that girls face very specific barriers and have a tougher journey through the sport, we saw the 'expense' as a levelling up opportunity”

Some of the Market Harborough Swim Team with Freya Anderson MBE, GB swimmer

Thank you Market Harborough Swimming Club for going out of your way to help your girls attend our camp and we are thrilled that they enjoyed it - wishing you all the best of luck for the coming season.

The FAST and Female Team