Ponds Forge International Sports Centre

Friendly staff but terribly managed, if you are here for gym and swimming, don’t bother, for 40 pound a month you get your money worth elsewhere. There are about 6-7 machines with OUT OF ORDER stickers for weeks and months and they seem like not bothering to fix them, just leave stickers on and hoping everything will be alright, you would think for a medium sized gym they will take care of the equipment and get them repaired asap, the cardio machines are poorly maintained and makes squeaky sound, the hand sanitizer boxes were empty 90% of the time. When I started my membership few month ago I was told that we get a locker key to keep and it only took 2 months to arrive, which meant that every time before you started working out, there were massive queuing in the reception area takes up at least 10 minutes of your time to get a temporary key. The swimming pool closes constantly, it disrupts your training plan before you almost form your own work out routine. I would give 1 star if weren’t for the friendly staff. Avoid at all costs.

Ponds Forge is just the best swimming and diving venue in the country. It is a wonderful facility, constructed specifically for the 1991 Summer Student Games. The facilities includes a 50m Olympic pool, diving pool, leisure pool, sports hall and gymnasium. I currently take my granddaughters for diving and swimming, previously my daughter for water polo. I've used the facility for triathlon swim training. Despite being 35 years old, the facilities a very well maintained for the 21st Century. It is just a fantastic facility in the heart of Sheffield.

Absolutely shambolic!! The online or app booking systems are incredibly difficult to use. I downloaded the app, expecting to be able to book a Pilates or yoga class. What a joke! The designer of the app should consider making it easier to use. Too much messing about. I downloaded it thinking it would be only exclusive to Sheffield but no, all council run gyms in England are listed. When I selected Sheffield I was instructed to download another app!! Don’t get me started about the cafe area!! How can any eatery be filthy first thing in the morning? I went to use it around 9am. The tables were very dirty, crumbs, sugar grains, drink stains etc. It was obvious that the mess was from the day before. The member of staff started cleaning tables (after 9) as I left because there was no way that would eat or drink anything from there. Management should consider wipeable plastic seats because the fabric covered ones are very badly stained with food and drink. It’s evident they are not steam cleaned regularly. Some serious hygiene issues that day! Even though the changing/shower area is spotless, the gym area is dirty, dusty and tired. The machines are definitely NOT state of the art either. I’ll be cancelling my membership!

The Leisure pool is a fairly small pool with a wave machine. It has a lazy river around it's outer edge. The river has floating rings for the kids. The pool is split in half if your kids can't swim the width of it you have to stay in the 1m area which gets busy. My kids had fun but prefer other pools. Cost wise it's definitely expensive for what you get. There are only 6 family changing rooms we had to queue to change both times.

If you don’t mind a sport centre with a supervisor receptionist who will shout at you, go to Ponds Forge. This mid age female receptionist with red hair and glasses, she was so aggressive to costumers, her attitude is absolutely not acceptable. She questioned me in a surprisingly loud voice and made me so upset. When I said I would cancel the membership because of her, she was like “THAT’S FINE” and couldn’t care less. This staff is the supervisor of the reception, now you can imagine how terrible the team is! This is not the first I have been disappointed by this place. From the booking system which is unbelievably difficult to use, to the enquiries that no one cares and responses. Their higher office, the so called management team, literally has no management skills. Not even mention the “refer a friend and get one month free membership” thing. It was totally fake. You had to “refer” a friend and wait till someone contact you and start a membership for you, but actually no one will contact your friend ever, so your referral would never be successful. How interesting is it! Not only that, they always change the rules without notifying people and they don’t see people equally! They don’t allow people who have swimming MEMBERSHIP to use the MEMBERSHIP changing room. That makes no sense. They set this nonsense rule this morning, no email, no notification, no explanation, just suddenly applied. I was told I couldn’t use the changing room I always use before as one of the members. If you ask them what time the rule was set, they say “the other day”, what an answer! Plus if you decide to buy the membership, be careful! You will have to pay “the last month fee” at the very first. I had terrible experience today so I wanted to cancel my membership, but I’ve been told my membership will have to finish on the end of December. If not, my “last month membership” fee will not be refunded. What a two month notice period! The only positive thing about this venue is the competition pool, although the 50m lane swim has been stopped for a long time. I have been swimming here for 7 months and have encountered so many problems. I've tolerated enough, I simply can't take it anymore. AVOID!