WSJ Article on Masters Swimming

Is that a euphemism for died. When I cross my final finish line, I hope somebody has my splits.

When you get PWB and Chris to disagree you know you have a good topic! I tend to agree with PWB for the most part. Sure there is a camaraderie with working out with friends but nothing brings a team together like a swim meet. Competition is the core of USMS and those who compete are the ones you see for years on end. 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.

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. The issue isn't really "how important competition is" to USMS. Relative to the fraction of members who compete I think USMS allocates a lot of resources to competitive aspects of the sport. And I agree that those who compete tend to be more engaged. But the question Patrick was addressing is, I believe, how to best "sell" USMS to potential new members. I think once you get people in a good team environment where they like their teammates and coach, then you can convince them to go to swim meets. IMO emphasizing competition from day 1 will be a turn-off to many, including many former age-group swimmers who have been there, done that. I joined masters at a pretty early age to work out in a stress-free envmt, I stayed b/c I liked my teammates, I went to meets to meet more like-minded people. I don't think that's an unusual progression. Sure I grew to enjoy the competitive aspects of USMS but that wasn't the case initially.

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.

I might as well put it out there. Lane space is limited in most pools. Fitness and non competitive swimmers tend to be short term members. They also take up lane space. While it is good in theory to invite the huddled masses, these speed bumps impact others who are the core of every team. This isn't an issue for teams with ample lane space but is for smaller pools. I also agree with Chris' comments.

...USAT references about 500,000 members... FYI, USAT is including all of their "one-day" memberships in that total. They sell many more one-day memberships than full, annual memberships. Anna Lea Matysek

Fitness and non competitive swimmers tend to be short term members. Not true on my team. A high proportion of our long-termers are people who seldom or never do organized OW swims or pool meets. Also, even those of us who compete a lot in some years go through periods when testing ourselves in the pool is not even on the radar, but we still keep coming to the pool and we don't let either our USMS or team memberships lapse.

It would be much easier to reinvent USMS altogether than to change our reason for being. That is not competition, but fitness for adults. That simple. The 80+% of members who do not ever compete are members because they feel that swimming helps them in some way other than competition urges being fulfilled. If we are to grow, and I think we should be very aggressive about it, we need to find pools and people where there are not currently programs. As aquageek said, there is limited space in many pools and few people would relish the thought of having two new lane buddies at workout. On the national level, there are some who actively work against growth of the organization just because of that possibility. USMS spends a lot of money every year advertising competition but most of it is for our benefit. Competition events are a byproduct of the organizational structure of USMS, not a cornerstone. Many of the LMSC and National administrative members are competitors, so naturally give extra life and support to competitions at the expense of the majority of members who wish only to go swimming 3 or 4 times per week and work off some stress or weight. If we are to use competition as a recruiting tool for new members, it should be shown as a fun and social environment, inclusive on any level, and a great way to find out how your workouts have meaning other than to reduce stress and feel energized. Any other way will result in potential members walking away because they don't want to even consider competition. Even if (or maybe because) they have never participated in a competitive sport before.

I'm still confused. Why is growth the goal? I'm happy with my small team, and even happier when my open water swims have less than 25 people. :)

There are certainly hardcore triathletes who like to RACE but more who participate simply for the right to put that sticker on their car. And I use the word "participate" deliberately because they are not "racing" at all, they simply want to fuel their water cooler talk. I think you're on to something with the "water cooler talk" comment. The Ironman brand has become so strong, it casts an aura of mystique over the entire sport. The general public esteems the completion of a triathlon, even a sprint, to be an exceptional athletic achievement. There's just not the same perception about pool swimming. That said, the popularity of triathlons has brought us members, even if they don't regularly compete with our organization. I assume my workout group is quite typical where about a third are there just for the fitness, a third are at least occasional meet swimmers, and a third are triathletes (or aspiring triathletes) who come to us for the quality swim coaching. USMS Open Water events seem to be the opportunity where both competitive segments can converge.