At Sandwell Aquatics Centre — the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games legacy venue — Hydrohex outperforms every other virtual fitness format the trust runs. Validated by members aged 56 to 75.
Sandwell Aquatics Centre · Smethwick, West Midlands · Operated by Kore Sandwell (formerly Sandwell Leisure Trust) · Hydrohex since 2025
100%
of bookable Hydrohex slots fully booked in the captured week
#1
for uptake vs every other virtual class on the timetable (per CEO)
6+
Hydrohex sessions per week on the Studio Pool
56-75
age range of named members publicly endorsing Hydrohex here
Source: CEO statement (Mark Braithwaite, Kore Sandwell). Member ages from named public endorsements (Grapevine Birmingham · Hydrohex video testimony). Venue context from Kore Sandwell official page.
The story
Sandwell Aquatics Centre is the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games legacy venue — a 50m Olympic pool, a 25m competition pool, a diving pool and a community pool, run by Kore Sandwell (formerly Sandwell Leisure Trust; rebranded in November 2025 as part of an explicit multi-contract expansion strategy). When the trust set out to extend its aquatic programme, the bar was high: this is elite-tier infrastructure and the operator had already tried multiple dry-side virtual fitness formats.
In 2025 they rolled out Hydrohex across four programmes — CARDIO, POWER, MOVE and BEAT. The result is unambiguous in their CEO's own words: by far the best uptake of any virtual class format the trust has on its timetable.
And it works across the whole age spectrum the trust serves — from a 56-year-old park runner to a 75-year-old member who relearned strength and balance through it.
In the operator's words
“Their concept meant we could provide greater variety and capacity of classes but still keep our cost base low. These virtual classes have by far had the best uptake versus other dry based virtual classes.”
Mark Braithwaite
CEO, Kore Sandwell (formerly Sandwell Leisure Trust)
Pulled from Kore Sandwell's public booking portal. Hydrohex slots highlighted; other aqua classes shown as context — those are also fully booked, confirming the Studio Pool is demand-rich across formats.
6/6
Hydrohex slots fully booked
of 6 currently bookable
6+
Hydrohex sessions per week
captured across 4 programmes
13/13
All aqua classes fully booked
venue-wide demand for water programming
30-35
capacity per Hydrohex class
operator-confirmed (Sandwell ops team)
Thu
25/06
Good Boost - Aqua
Fully booked
Hydrohex POWER
Fully booked
Aquafit
Fully booked
Aquafit
Fully booked
Fri
26/06
Hydrohex MOVE
Fully booked
Hydrohex CARDIO (Ladies Only)
Fully booked
Sat
27/06
—
Sun
28/06
Hydrohex BEAT
Fully booked
Mon
29/06
Aqua Zumba
Fully booked
Aquafit (Ladies Only)
Fully booked
Hydrohex BEAT
Fully booked
Tue
30/06
Hydrohex MOVE
Fully booked
Aqua Zumba
Future
Wed
01/07
Aqua Zumba
Fully booked
Aquafit
Fully booked
Aqua Zumba
Future
The insight inside the timetable
Sandwell serves an ethnically diverse community where women-only swim sessions are a baseline access need for many members. Operators running on live instructors have a problem here: a reliable supply of female aquatic instructorsfor every women-only slot, every week, is genuinely hard — and exposes the schedule to staffing risk every time someone's off.
Hydrohex removes the dependency entirely. The class runs as scheduled, with consistent quality, no matter who's on the rota. That's why a women-only variant is a viable line item on the Studio Pool timetable — and why it's fully booked. Inclusive programming becomes operationally cheap.
Source: Kore Sandwell public booking portal ↗ · screenshot captured 24 Jun 2026 · “Studio Pool” activity filter applied. Hydrohex sessions marked in their canonical class colour; non-Hydrohex aqua shown muted as context.
Two voices, one venue
Both publicly endorsing Hydrohex at Sandwell. Both verifiable. Both representative of the demographic breadth the trust now serves.
Craig, 56
Park runner · joint-friendly cross-training
“I'm a park runner — the Hydrohex really supports my aerobic capacity and stretching. I tend to base my fitness around Hydrohex now.”Source: Hydrohex video testimonial · filmed on site at Sandwell Aquatics Centre ↗
Jacqueline Warhurst, 75
Strength + balance for sustained mobility
“At my age, strength and stability are vital. The HydroHex exercises focus on balance, and I can already feel a difference when I'm in the water.”
“So many women I know have had hip or knee replacements. I want to stay as mobile as I can, for as long as I can. Plus, if I can do it then anyone can.”Source: Grapevine Birmingham · "Age just a number says 75-year-old fitness enthusiast" ↗
Deployment summary
The bigger picture
This isn't a site-specific playbook. UK aquatic operators face the same equation: a finite pool estate, expensive to maintain, serving an ageing audience, with a shrinking aquatic workforce.
Workforce crisis
~12,000
vacant UK aquatic-sector roles
Swim England + STA Workforce Audit · Jun 2023 ↗Inclusive programming
Women-only
sessions are a baseline need in many UK communities — female instructor supply doesn't scale
Verified by Sandwell timetable (Ladies-Only CARDIO slot, fully booked) ↗What this case teaches operators
The female-instructor supply problem isn't unique to Sandwell — it's a structural reality for every multi-ethnic UK borough running aquatic programming. Sandwell proves you can deliver consistent women-only sessions without solving that recruitment problem at all — because Hydrohex makes inclusive programming a software dependency, not a workforce one. That's the lever for every operator with diverse communities asking for sessions they can't reliably staff.
Sources & methodology(9 citations)
Mark Braithwaite (CEO, Kore Sandwell — formerly Sandwell Leisure Trust) on Hydrohex outperforming other virtual class formats
Operator quoteMark Braithwaite, CEO Kore Sandwell · supplied to Hydrohex
Craig (56) verbatim quotes on Hydrohex as joint-friendly cross-training base
Member voiceCraig, member at Sandwell Aquatics Centre · Hydrohex video testimonial (filmed on site) ↗
Jacqueline Warhurst (75) verbatim quotes on strength, balance and mobility benefits
Member voiceGrapevine Birmingham · 'Age just a number says 75-year-old fitness enthusiast' ↗
Sandwell Aquatics Centre pool configuration (50m / 25m / diving / community)
Site specKore Sandwell official venue page ↗
Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games legacy venue context
Weekly Hydrohex schedule + 100% booking rate across all bookable slots in captured week
Live booking dataKore Sandwell public booking portal · captured 24 June 2026 ↗
22 million UK adults aged 50+ by 2035 (growing demand)
Industry researchONS 2022-based national population projections ↗
~4,400 swimming pools across ~3,256 sites in the UK (finite supply)
Industry researchWIRH UK pool register, 2023 ↗
~12,000 vacant UK aquatic-sector roles (~15% workforce shortage)
Industry researchSwim England & STA Workforce Audit, June 2023 ↗
30-minute call. We'll show how Kore Sandwell (formerly Sandwell Leisure Trust) unlocked their highest virtual class uptake with Hydrohex — and what a deployment would look like at your venue.