Fitness swimming

Good post, Connie. What would you say (about USMS) to a person who regularly swims by themselves (or maybe a couple others) during an open lap swim at a local pool or their health club? Maybe he/she "coaches" themselves or get advice/support from others seen at the pool. He/she might be interested in joining a group of swimmers for a workout, if the facility offered one or if it was offered at a convenient time not to conflict with work, commuting, family responsibilities, etc...He/she might also be interested, as you suggest, in an open water swim or a meet if there (a) is readily-available information about events and (b) that information suggests that the benefits outweigh the costs . Now that you've been to the convention, what would you say to such a person? (On the side, how do you expect the convention experience to benefit the USMS members that you represented?) - Dan

In Canada we tend to emphasize the 'social' aspects of both meets & attending regular workouts. As we get more 'wired' as a society it seems harder for people to connect & make new friends etc., and I am biased, but I think that Masters swimming both as a movement and a group of people are the nicest people to get to know on this planet. This is a real selling point as more people face a 'disconnect' in the regular rat race.

So exactly what argument would you present to a "fitness swimmer" regarding the benefits of belonging to USMS? It's required if one wants to race in USMS pool and open water events, that's a given. But if there is no desire to compete in those events, what's the benefit? carl

Well, guys... I don't know the answers at the moment, but I can tell you this, I joined the USMS marketing comitte and couple of others where I;m hoping to get to the bottom of this and maybe influence some changes. Thast's one of the reasons I want to hear from you guys, I need the food for thought, and I really want to hear your concerns, and I want to see what could be done to improve the action behind the objectibes that USMS has on paper. (limited to whatever I may be able to accomplish) Perhaps the 'powers to be' sand people in key positions have forgotten what it was like to be a novice in USMS, or coming from the USA seimming background they were nevere truly a 'novice' and need some fresh and different perspective. Right now I'm racking my brain and wantiong to see what kinds of things would be interesting to a prospective USMS member and a fitness swimmer, or just someone who is contemplating swimming... what info can be provided directly from USMS, what could local coaches be doing to make it more attractive. One iof the things that we started doing on our team is to have separated workouts, one for lap swimmers and entry level novice practices, and after that a full workout for the intermediate and advanced swimmers, to make it less frustrating for the advanced swimmers, and less intimidating for the new ones. This is just at the club level at the moment. Luckily, we're a team with 24 practices a week, so we can do this. I know that many coaches will have their swimmers separated in different lanes... buit still, for someone brand new, even that can be very intimidating. How about events? Someone mentioned to me top have a separate novice meet (for novices I think I would even want to depart from the nomenclature of a 'swim meet' nd make it sound more 'social', where the point of the event is not to be the fastest, but much like in siome novice triathlons, just to finish and experience it. Maybe have a stroke clinic during the meet, or just have a social postal swim at the LMSC level... Our team had a family pancake breakfast while some of the members were swimming the 5K/10K postal event, that made it more interesting. I think with some imagination a lot of different things could be done to attract different member profile. For one to get the current non-competing members more active, and to attract new membership.

Originally posted by Frosty Good post, Connie. What would you say (about USMS) to a person who regularly swims by themselves (or maybe a couple others) during an open lap swim at a local pool or their health club? Maybe he/she "coaches" themselves or get advice/support from others seen at the pool. He/she might be interested in joining a group of swimmers for a workout, if the facility offered one or if it was offered at a convenient time not to conflict with work, commuting, family responsibilities, etc...He/she might also be interested, as you suggest, in an open water swim or a meet if there (a) is readily-available information about events and (b) that information suggests that the benefits outweigh the costs . Now that you've been to the convention, what would you say to such a person? (On the side, how do you expect the convention experience to benefit the USMS members that you represented?) - Dan Well, I for one swam laps for abut a year or two before joining a team, and I can tell you, I wish I had joined the team 2 years sooner. The difference is huge between swimming laps and swimming with a coach. Annual membership fee for the USMS is CHEAP! it's slightly different for some LMSC's but on average it's about $35 a yaer. So come on people, lot of us spend more than that a year on chewing gum!!!!!! Coffee, other little things that we indulge in. I'm sorry, but I find it impossible to believe this is expensive (but, that could be just me) Not to answer a question with another question...but, I see a ton of triathletes finding time to run and bike and attend events, and by the same token, they find very little time to swim (in very general terma). Makes me wonder why especially with knowing that swimming requires more skill than the other two put together??? I can't say I really know. I may need to get inside the head of a few of them and see why. WORKOUTS ON LINE Well... I'd venture a guess that there are two kinds of people looking at the USMS workouts. Current coaches that need ideas and people who swim by themselves. Do you think it would be a pretty fair assesment that most of the people swimming by themselves are not most experienced or most competetive swimmers out there? Would you agree that a lower level workout would be welcome news for them? I know, I know, I can hear just abur every coach out there saying, well, the workouts can be shortened, time base changed etc... very true, but, do you expect a someone with little experience to be able to sucessfully do that for themselves? Well, if you want to make them feel welcome, I think that's expecting too much of a new member. I mean, if they are inthe pool in front of you, you wouldn't expect them to do it themselves, a coach would adjust the workout to the swimmer. There are a lot of little things like that that seem perhaps trivial oin the surface, but for someone looking from the outside could make this place (USMS) appear very friendly and welcoming, or very un-approachable. If we want to have new members, we need to make it a friendly place for them... I know, lot of it gets done by coaches and at the club, then at the LMSC and the Zone levels then at the USMS.. But also I think a lot of the zones, LMSC's and Coaches look at USMS to set the direction. As for USMS and it's membership numbers, I think they are a direct reflection of the image that USMS projects to public at large... and I can tell you, being a member of that public at large just a year ago, USMS looks very intiomidating from the outside. If my club doesn;t require the membership, it is likely that I still wouldn't be a member. It is thanks to my coach and several very personable members of my LMSC (Southern Pacific)... including the Chairman and the Vice Chairman that I became involved. Having been to the convention... I'm very glad I went. There is a lot that can be done. Every delegate (and a non delegate too) gets a chance to join a committee that works on various issues and influences things at the level where things actually get done (which is not this bulletin board). USMS badly needs fitness and non competetive swimmers to come to the convention, if they want better representation. It seems that by default it's mainly the top competitors and the coaches that are involved. Yes, there is a fitness comittee too. My impression is that it's somewhat missing the mark. It needs better demographic representation of USMS fitness swimmers. In general, there are a lot of areas in which USMS needs 'new blood', and every single member of this organization has an opprtunity to be that 'new blood'

Here's my 2 cents... If USMS wants to expand by attracting the fitness swimmer, we, as current members, need to focus on the social aspects of swimming. I've seen too many people start swimming or fitness programs that included swimming only to quit a few days, weeks or months down the road. I believe some of this is boredom and other may be scheduling conflicts, etc. The only way to keep them going, or get them back, is to have continuous events to act as a draw. They don't necessarily all need to be competitive events either. I've seen some people join just because they witnessed the "fun" between workout sets. Others join following a local event that got some press, as a New Year's resolution or following an Olympic year. Getting and keeping people interested is the key. How we do this is the big question. Could USMS be a liason soliciting funds from corporate sponsors to hold a nationwide but local or regional level event and the LMSCs be the ones responsible for getting the event in the press?...

The Masters club at my Y has two work-outs a week. Friday night 6:30-8 and Sunday afternoon 3:15-445. For 3 hours of pool time that a coach may or may not show up, I would have to pay 100.00 per semester. For me, while I really like the people in the group, swimming on my own time 6 hours a week is much better for me. If I did not compete, I would not shell the extra 35.00 to be a USMS member. The ONLY reason I compete is because I am goal oriented, and it helps to have something to prepare for when getting up at 5am to go swim a work-out by myself. Need that extra motivation knowing there is a meet coming up. Even so, I only have time for a couple meets a year. If for my 100.00 per semester, I could get 6 hours a week of coached pool time, I would shell out the money. I think someone above hit a very key point. USMS needs to look at the clubs, see how well they are doing recruiting members and retaining members. That is where they will grow. I believe USAS has also been discovering the same thing. You have to support your clubs and give them the means to get better.

And what goes along with having an active thriving club is having competition that is easy to get to. More people in our Y club might be interested in competing if it were an easier task. Each year there is one meet that is close, and close is 45 minutes away. The rest are a minimum of 2 hours away. I have done the get up at 4 am, drive to Indy to swim a meet on a Sunday morning, and believe me, the swimming tends to suffer when you do that. But hotel costs were out of the question. I am trying to do something about that by having my kid's USA club run a masters meet as a fundraiser for the USA club. I tried to get the Master's team to run one, but there just was no interest within the club. It is a dwindling club, and would be difficult to get the numbers to run it.

A key issue that needs to be considered is how to measure success. Should USMS success be measured by the number of USMS members or by the number of adults who are actively swimming? The mission statement supports the latter, but how do you measure that? One possibility is to find a way to get swimmers to register without necessarily becoming paying members, but you still need to provide some motivation to get them to spend the time to register. You could also try to get clubs to register the number of swimmers they have, you still need to offer the clubs something to motivate them, perhaps a listing on the web site to advertise their existance and services to potential new members. Dealing with clubs does reduce the overhead. Anyway, I just want to point out that number of USMS members is not necessarily the right metric for measuring success. In response to Emmett, what services would you like to see USMS offer to clubs and coaches?

Originally posted by Fritz If someone can show me where I'm wrong and show me the light then that would be great because I struggle with it and I'm exactly the person who should be spreading the message. Yes, you are one of the people who should be spreading the message. No, I don't think you're wrong at all. I do thinkthat with the current state of affairs USMS IS missing the boat with making the organization moire interested to fitness swimmers. I think that the organization needs to out some thought into figuring out what most fitness swimmers would be interested in and how to service them... and how to educate them about swimming, if they want to build their membership ranks. I do know that USMS does want to build their membershio, but i think that they are close to exhaustying to pool of inherently comopetetive swimmers. As for you, I wouls want you and coaches within the USMS to keep an ear open as to what works for fitness swimmers and what may be of interest to them, and keep us (perhaps me) informed. I'm doing the same thing at my club. Perhaps we can come up with things...