I'm not so sure the number of super elite swimmers who don't swim masters is substantially different than the number of swimmers as a whole who swam when they were younger but don't swim masters. The bottom line is the vast majority of kids who were competitive swimmers leave the competitive side of the sport never to return.
This is precisely the major long term issue of Masters Swimming. The numbers are staggering if you include age group, high school and colligate ex swimmers. Sadly the issue is with their former swimming not Masters. How do we get the point across that Masters Swimming is both fun and self directed. The latter is the key. No one is going to tell you that you have to be the 200 Flyer. I always stress to prospective ex swimmers we swim fun things like 50's of all strokes and 100 IMs. The swimmer decides on the level of involvement such as to number of workouts a week, number of meets a year, and coached or self coached.
If USMS wants to get to the 100,000 member mark this is the group we need to attract. As always the devil is in the details but we should be willing to spend some money on a trial and error basis advertising wise.
I'm not so sure the number of super elite swimmers who don't swim masters is substantially different than the number of swimmers as a whole who swam when they were younger but don't swim masters. The bottom line is the vast majority of kids who were competitive swimmers leave the competitive side of the sport never to return.
This is precisely the major long term issue of Masters Swimming. The numbers are staggering if you include age group, high school and colligate ex swimmers. Sadly the issue is with their former swimming not Masters. How do we get the point across that Masters Swimming is both fun and self directed. The latter is the key. No one is going to tell you that you have to be the 200 Flyer. I always stress to prospective ex swimmers we swim fun things like 50's of all strokes and 100 IMs. The swimmer decides on the level of involvement such as to number of workouts a week, number of meets a year, and coached or self coached.
If USMS wants to get to the 100,000 member mark this is the group we need to attract. As always the devil is in the details but we should be willing to spend some money on a trial and error basis advertising wise.
