Ponds Forge International Sports Centre

A must-visit for anyone in the area who loves swimming. Perfectly situated not far from the railway and bus station and offering an excellent pool with flumes and lazy river. Perfect for young and old alike. I must also take this opportunity to highly commend the staff at the Speedo desk who are very well-informed on swim wear and other swimming related products. All the staff I spoke to seemed genuinely willing to help.

This huge sports centre has seen better days (things look a little worn), but it still holds its own as one of the biggest and best liesure centres in town.

The swimming pool is a 50m behemoth with wide lanes and diving blocks. The opening hours are the best around, open until 9.30pm on Sundays.

However, it is expensive at £4 a go.

A large multi-purpose, council run (sort of) sports centre. It has a 50 metre pool, a diving pool, a kids fun pool, various gyms and sports hall. They provide regular lessons and sessions for a vast variety of sports inc. badminton, yoga, pilates, aquafit etc. It has had a recent refurb and is now looking a lot fresher. Membership is reasonably priced considering the amount of stuff on offer.

There aren’t very many good public swimming pools round our way so in a fit of enthusiasm one day last summer we thought we’d take our two kids (then aged 4 and 2) to Ponds Forge for some swimming.

Ponds Forge is very close the Sheffield’s main railway station, which is very convenient for families used to travelling by train like ourselves.

The pool didn’t have quite as many features as we would have hoped for, but it was still good, and it kept the kids occupied for almost an hour in the water. The facilities were modern and pleasant, bright and airy; and the water was agreeably warm too.

All in all we thought it was a great facility, although just a little too far out of our way for us to consider using on anything other than a very occasional basis.

This is the best sports centre I have ever been to, especially if you love the water.

There is a 50m swimming pool that has a movable floor so its can be made deeper or more shallow depending on the sessions. Theres the diving area too and also a fun pool seperate to the swimming pool which has a wave machine. Some of the lane swimming sessions are laned width ways so you are still only swimming 25ms per lap.

Theres a relaxation area with sun beds you can pay for a session on, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room etc.

There are several different changing rooms depending which facilities you are using.

Theres a wide range of activities on offer for adults and children and they also do childrens parties. They do membership plans for individuals and families too.

The sports centre does have a car park with some disabled spaces underneath the building and there is parking nearby too at castlegate. If you take your ticket to the reception you will get cheaper parking if you are using the facilities. Obviously shoppers and other people can use the parking facilities too but they are charged more.

The facilities are always clean and tidy and the stadd are helpful and polite.

Big sports centre in the the city centre. Price to be a member is a lot cheaper than most of the other gyms around and there is a lot of variety as you can use the other gyms owned by SIV including the Hillsborough lesiure centre. Only downside is because it is in the centre of town there is no parking on site. You can use a car park near by, but you still have to pay.

this venue is one of the best sports centres with shefield and reasonably priced as well theres not b=much bad you can say about the place.

The venue plays host to professional events as well as being used by the public and a leisure centre, with a well equiped gym and large fun pool as well as a full sized professional pool for training/events the centre offers just about everything.

the staff are friendly and the space is clean, the only possible complaint is that changing areas tend to be communal with only one or two cubical which would be a little bi of a problem if you are body concious, apart from that i cant fault the place

This is a well placed sports centre within the city. It’s close to the tram and bus station.

The centre has just gone under a bit of a refurbishment with a new members gym being built, which was well over due. This means the gym has been moved from the main entrance creating a spacious lobby and some seating.

The new gym has all the facilities you would expect, with new changing rooms which are a little warm. There are more machinery and more space in the gym allowing more people to work out at a time.

There swimming pools are still the same and is a good place to do some lane swimming as long as there are no event on which writes off most weekends which is a shame.

The classes are good and the instructors are really motivated and friendly.

The centre has a car park which does charge but also has really small parking spaces, there is some street parking but is time limited to an hour not much use. When it becomes free parking in the evenings its really busy and could struggle to get parked.

The price of membership is not too bad and does give access to more then one gym as they have a few other centres within the city. It is cheaper to join for a 12 months. Also there isn’t a joining fee like some gyms have.

I visit ponds forge somtimes when i,m up north visiting family.
This is quite a few years old now but they seem to keep it looking quite clean.
The temparature of the water always seems to be abit on the cool side when you first get in i think they should heat it up a bit better.
They have two pools here a fun pool with a wave machine and a large international pool that the serious swimmers use aswell as international athletes.
Good selection of drinks and snacks at the cafe bar although a little too pricey i thought.

Ponds Forge was built for the student games a few years back, and as swimming baths go, is very good. having been built to house athletes and professionals, its clearly a step above the other local swimming places on offer. Its in the town centre and has good transport links.

Ponds Forge offers what is meant to be first class facilities. The olympic-sized pool looks great, although every time I have been, it has been in use for some even or other, so I have only been able to look at it so far. The “fun” pool is good, kids love it, although it is always busy and a tad overpriced. I found the womens changing rooms to be fine, although my partner found the mens to be utterly revolting and dirty. I hope this was a one-off and not a regular occurrence.
The gym is great though, if you go when it is quiet.

out of the entire sheffield i have been to. which is most of it. i would say ponds forge international sports centre is the best for swimming. There at ponds forge is where professional divers go (not christiano ronaldo and drogba, unfortunately). so you might get chance of spotting the G.B team down there one day.
the water is clean. plenty of space. they also do other activities there. indoor football, basketball, badminton, trampolining etc.

We have used the swimming pool here which was very clean and the slides are good. When we went it was pretty busy and the price was a little expensive for the time we had in the pool.

A fantastic municipal sports centre, Ponds Forge is a centre with a reputation for excellent standards and is always modernising something to keep itself up to date. With one of the only public 50m swimming pools in the country, it is used by swimmers up to professional level and the diving pool is currently being used to train olympic hopefuls who travel from all over the UK to train there. In keeping with it’s public ethos there is also a separate fun leisure pool with flumes and waves and plenty of classes and activities for adults and children.

In addition to the pools, there’s also a huge, well-equipped gym and studios for a variety of exercise classes.

The centre is very clean and welcoming and the temperatures are really good throughout.
The monthly membership also gives you access to 3 other Sheffield venues including the Don Valley running track and is exceptionally good value. You can also pay as you go.

Events are regularly held at the centre including international swim meets and there’s a conference centre available for hire with catering for corps.