Athletes under 18

"Can the kids workout with a USMS group (and not be registered) and maintain liability coverage? No, all participants must be a 1) USMS member, 2) USA Swimming member, 3) Guest members in their 30-day tryout period, or 4) Foreign Guest members. Foreign Guest members must be a registered swimmer with their national governing body and guest members must be 18 or older." Rob - for clarification: In the past I have been told that kids under 18 (regardless of USAS membership) could not swim with me as a USMS coach and be covered by USMS or USAS insurance. Has something changed so USAS swimmers under 18 can swim with a USMS coach who does not have USAS credentials? Or am I misunderstanding your statement above?

You can refer to www.usms.org/.../gto_ins_guidelines.pdf for more information, but in short Can the kids register for USMS membership so that the liability insurance remains intact? No, you must be 18 to be a member of USMS. Can the kids workout with a USMS group (and not be registered) and maintain liability coverage? No, all participants must be a 1) USMS member, 2) USA Swimming member, 3) Guest members in their 30-day tryout period, or 4) Foreign Guest members. Foreign Guest members must be a registered swimmer with their national governing body and guest members must be 18 or older. Can the kids be in a separate lane but still have the USMS coach at same time as USMS swim group? I don't believe there are rules or policies against a USMS coach performing other activities, provided the person on deck is directly supervising the USMS workout. However FAQ 1 contains the word "only" so don't hold me to this. If you have questions about covered activities, I suggest you contact Anna Lea at the national office.

Thanks Rob. I was struggling to find that info.

Hello everyone, We have information on the requirements for workouts to be covered by our insurance on this page: www.usms.org/.../insuranceinfo A workout that consists of both kids and adults (USA Swimming members and USMS members) is covered by insurance provided that the following conditions are met: Pool or Open Water Workouts (USMS-USAS combined) All participants must be: --USMS registered members, or --Guest members in their 30-day tryout period, or --Foreign Guest members, or --USA Swimming Athlete members and There must be a person on deck directly supervising the workout who is: --A USMS registered member AND a USA Swimming certified coach To answer gobears' question, if USA Swimming members are in the water you would have to be both a USA Swimming coach as well as a member of USMS. This is because USA Swimming requires that all of their coaches to go through their Safe Sport training if they are coaching kids under the age of 18.

Rob - for clarification: In the past I have been told that kids under 18 (regardless of USAS membership) could not swim with me as a USMS coach and be covered by USMS or USAS insurance. Has something changed so USAS swimmers under 18 can swim with a USMS coach who does not have USAS credentials? Or am I misunderstanding your statement above?My statement wasn't clear, sorry. Anna Lea, thanks for the clarification. If there are USA Swimming members in the workout, USA Swimming requires a USA-S certified coach supervising the workout. USMS insurance covers the Masters Swimmers and USA Swimming insurance covers the USA-S swimmers.

Thanks for the clarification Anna Lea and Rob. Much more stringent requirements to coach kids with USAS so that makes sense. :)