WSJ Article on Masters Swimming

A telling stat, if possible, would be to cross reference those who compete with their average number of years as a member versus those who don't compete. That would give us a good idea of how important competition is to USMS as an organization.I think that would be very interesting. If you think about USMS as a business, most businesses have very high customer acquisition costs relative to customer retention costs, so retaining customers is a good thing. I would suspect that USMS customer retention costs are lower for people who compete (but, again, that could be my bias) and, hence, their "lifetime value" to USMS is better. It would be interesting to understand what the USMS membership retention looks like over time and how much churn there is. Great coaches and great clubs are the secret sauceI agree they are part of the sauce and I LOVE USMS and seek out these great clubs when I travel - but a great club for me is a great coach on deck and fast swimmers in the water who can push me and challenge me. I know I'm an outlier since I train so much on my own due to my work life (e.g., either because I'm traveling or because I try to minimize my time away from my family when I am at home and the great local teams are too far away), but I get the most social value / camaraderie out of swim meets when there is more time to actually talk with people. Trying to be a bit more objective about this, though, I think competitive swimming has a cultural problem from the age-group/college days where swimmers just end up burnt out and never want to compete again. Like you ... I joined masters at a pretty early age to work out in a stress-free envmt ... I joined USMS to train and was lucky enough to be working a few blocks away from Phoenix Swim Club when Matt Rankin was coaching. I wasn't thinking about competing, but Matt and others on the team encouraged me and I started competing. I was STUNNED to find out how utterly, completely different competing as a Masters swimmer was versus competing in my youth. The fun atmosphere, the relaxed feel, the camaraderie was awesome. It was revelatory and dispelled all of those "bad emotions" that I had about the intensity of competition from my age-group/collegiate days. That was 2001/2002 and I've been a member ever since, with the joy of competition and the camaraderie with people I get through those competitions being the drivers that keep me coming back. Yes, the health benefits are swell, but those are secondary now. I think USMS can be a great force for the swimming community by helping to eliminate that burn-out and get more swimmers engaged over their lifetime, but not by avoiding competition, but showing there is a healthy form of fun competition. It boils down to this: I think the competitions are the absolute best feature of USMS and I want to share that joy with more of our members. For those former age group/collegiate swimmers, I think they'd find a lightness and joy in racing they never got to experience from their pressure-filled days of making specific cuts, placing in a certain place, etc. For those who never competed before, I think they'd be pleasantly surprised with how much fun it is and how motivational it can be for them. I feel like USMS has this "killer app" called competition that they are not promoting enough to their members.

A telling stat, if possible, would be to cross reference those who compete with their average number of years as a member versus those who don't compete. That would give us a good idea of how important competition is to USMS as an organization.I think that would be very interesting. If you think about USMS as a business, most businesses have very high customer acquisition costs relative to customer retention costs, so retaining customers is a good thing. I would suspect that USMS customer retention costs are lower for people who compete (but, again, that could be my bias) and, hence, their "lifetime value" to USMS is better. It would be interesting to understand what the USMS membership retention looks like over time and how much churn there is. Great coaches and great clubs are the secret sauceI agree they are part of the sauce and I LOVE USMS and seek out these great clubs when I travel - but a great club for me is a great coach on deck and fast swimmers in the water who can push me and challenge me. I know I'm an outlier since I train so much on my own due to my work life (e.g., either because I'm traveling or because I try to minimize my time away from my family when I am at home and the great local teams are too far away), but I get the most social value / camaraderie out of swim meets when there is more time to actually talk with people. Trying to be a bit more objective about this, though, I think competitive swimming has a cultural problem from the age-group/college days where swimmers just end up burnt out and never want to compete again. Like you ... I joined masters at a pretty early age to work out in a stress-free envmt ... I joined USMS to train and was lucky enough to be working a few blocks away from Phoenix Swim Club when Matt Rankin was coaching. I wasn't thinking about competing, but Matt and others on the team encouraged me and I started competing. I was STUNNED to find out how utterly, completely different competing as a Masters swimmer was versus competing in my youth. The fun atmosphere, the relaxed feel, the camaraderie was awesome. It was revelatory and dispelled all of those "bad emotions" that I had about the intensity of competition from my age-group/collegiate days. That was 2001/2002 and I've been a member ever since, with the joy of competition and the camaraderie with people I get through those competitions being the drivers that keep me coming back. Yes, the health benefits are swell, but those are secondary now. I think USMS can be a great force for the swimming community by helping to eliminate that burn-out and get more swimmers engaged over their lifetime, but not by avoiding competition, but showing there is a healthy form of fun competition. It boils down to this: I think the competitions are the absolute best feature of USMS and I want to share that joy with more of our members. For those former age group/collegiate swimmers, I think they'd find a lightness and joy in racing they never got to experience from their pressure-filled days of making specific cuts, placing in a certain place, etc. For those who never competed before, I think they'd be pleasantly surprised with how much fun it is and how motivational it can be for them. I feel like USMS has this "killer app" called competition that they are not promoting enough to their members.