Derby Excel swimmers train in squads depending on their age, and level of swimming. They will learn how to swim all the four swimming strokes, how to dive and do tumble turns, in a friendly, supportive environment. As swimmers progress, they move through our squads, training more often and can begin competing in galas if they want to, swimming for Derby Excel in league events, and entering Open meets run by us or other clubs. All our sessions are exclusively for members of Derby Excel, no members of the public are permitted in these sessions.
Club Squads
In 2025, we set up a new project called Excel Ignite. This is for swimmers aged 6-12 years who have had swimming lessons, and reached Stage 5 or thereabouts. They have blocks of 4 lessons, on a Sunday evening at Woodlands School, taught by one of our coaches. They learn swim skills, improve their strokes and stamina, and then have the opportunity to join the club proper. For more information about Ignite, click here.
Our youngest swimmers join our club into the Academy from Ignite or a Learn to Swim programmes, such as the one run by Moorways - but as long as you can swim, you can join our club.
We have 2 squads for our novice swimmers: Pre-Academy and Junior Academy - lead coach Grace Fuller
From there, swimmers progress onto Academy 1 and 2, also coached by Grace Fuller
Then we have the Development squad, currently coached by Glenn Fisher and Charlie Miller.
Then we go to Age Group squad, coached by David Pratt
The next squad is Excel, coached by Amr Abdin.
Performance:
The top squads at Derby Excel are our three Performance squads:
Elite - coached by Head Coach John Adye
National squad - coached by Glenn Fisher
Regional squad - coached by David Pratt
Swimmers in these squads will sometimes have joined us from other clubs, as part of a Performance pathway. They are still members of their home club (the Pathway club) but train with us. They compete for their pathway club at league events, and at the County Championships, and up until the age of 14 at Regional Championships. Over the age of 15, they compete for Derby Excel at National and Regional events.
For any enquiries/more information, please email Performance Membership: [email protected]
Masters:
We have two thriving Masters squad, for swimmers over the age of 18 who want to continue swimming regularly, and who also want to continue to compete. There are Masters events that these swimmers can enter, proving your swimming journey can continue indefinitely!
Our masters swimmers train up to 5 sessions a week, the monthly fee is £63:
Monday evening: 8.15pm - 9.30pm
Tuesday evening: 7.30pm - 9pm
Wednesday evening: 8.30pm - 9.30pm
Friday morning: 5.45am - 7am
Friday evening: 8pm until 9.30pm
For any enquiries/more information, please email our Masters Co-ordinator Yury Bocharnikov: [email protected] or our Masters squad coach Jamie Ellis-Brown: [email protected]
University:
We also have swimmers training with us from the University of Derby, who represent Derby at University competitions run by BUCS (British University and College Sport).
For any enquiries/more information about University swimming with us, please email Director of Swimming John Adye: [email protected]
