Avalon
We are the Student Swimming and Water Polo Club Avalon, the student swimming and water polo club of Tilburg. We offer challenging trainings at every level. That means you are welcome to join our trainings, regardless of your level. Our trainings are given on 2 levels, namely beginners and advanced. Since we are a student sports association, we can also poke you for a drink after a training.
Becoming a member
At Avalon you are welcome to become a member any time of the year. We offer membership for both a year and a half year. This means that in principle you can become a member of Avalon at any time.
Barely experience
The great thing about Avalon is that we are open to everyone, regardless of your level. We offer a beginner's training with both water polo and swimming. This gives you, as a new swimmer or water polo player, the opportunity to grow into an advanced player/swimmer!
Fixed training evenings and layouts
A week of training with Avalon looks like this:
Monday at 6 o'clock we will gather at the Sports Center for our land training. Then, under the guidance of Nick, we will work on our muscular strength and stability. The focus will be on improving our swimming and water polo performance by means of strength training.
Tuesday at half past 10 it's time for the swim training led by Rik. These trainings are aimed at all levels. This means that we will further develop our swimming technique. Occasionally this training will be taken over by a guest trainer who will work with us on a specific goal.
Wednesday at 9 o'clock it is time for both water polo and swimming. Because we have such a wide pool we can share the pool with the swimmers for the first hour. The water polo training starts with some swimming exercises, to warm up. After that it is time for the ball to get into the game. Here we work on both technique and tactics.
Thursday at 5 o'clock it's time again for our last training of the week. Again Avalon strikes down on the beautiful Drieburcht sports complex. This time it is the turn of the swimming committee to set up a nice training, and they certainly can!
The next times our training will take place:
Ma: 18:00-19:00 land training - SportsCenter Hall 4 or outside during the summer.
Di: 21:30-22:30 swim training - Drieburcht.
Wo: 21:00-22:00 swimming training - Drieburcht.
Wo: 21:00-22:30 water polo training - Drieburcht.
Do: 17:00-18:00 swimming training - Drieburcht.
Competitions
Avalon participates in the NSZKs and NSWKs. These are the Dutch Student Swim/Water Polo Championships. Here we fight against sister associations for a nice place on the rankings. These competitions are divided over the academic year.
Besides the student swimming and water polo competitions there are also standard water polo competitions. Between May and August there are water polo tournaments in other cities where Avalon is also allowed to register. Think of tournaments like Goffert, Moby Dick, or Warande. These are usually weekend tournaments from Friday to Sunday, where participants bring their own camping gear and spend the night in tents between parties and competitions.
Clubnight
Every month we have a fun activity for members with a party afterwards in Bolle. These activities can be anything: we went ice skating and eating pancakes together, held cycling dinners, game nights and crazy 88 tournaments and much more! These evenings are always a great success, we are with Avalon a close group that also welcomes newcomers with open arms.
Weekends
At Avalon we always go away weekends with the NSZK's, NSWK's and other tournaments.
At the NSZK's we always have a nice opening drink of the weekend on the Friday with the sister associations and we drink the necessary beers. After that you can go to the match with your (hopefully not too) broken head the day after. After the competition there will be a theme party at the association that organizes it. At this theme party we make beautiful (embarrassing) memories and the day after we drive back to the cozy Tilburg. These weekends can be all over the country; from Groningen to Maastricht.
International students
International students are more than welcome at Avalon! For example, our current president himself comes from Greece. People of all different nationalities make our association as cozy as it is.
Annual highlights
Avalon's annual highlights are really all the different tournaments. With a total of 9 student swimming and water polo tournaments and even bigger tournaments in summer time, there is a big event almost every couple of weeks to look forward to. Of course you will spend this time with the rest of the club and you will have a lot of fun between swimming and water polo. It is also easy to get to know the members of the sister clubs from other cities because you often see them at the same tournaments. This ensures further fun!
Subscriptions
A subscription costs 45 euro. For half a year it is 25 euro. To swim at Avalon or participate in water polo, you also need a Tilburg University sports subscription. For students it costs 135 euro for one year. This also allows you to go to the sports facilities affiliated with the university, such as the student sports centre and the skating rink.