At the convention I kept hearing...
"Swimming is the number one choice of exercise in adults" and
"Ask anyone and they'll be able to tell you gow beneficial swimming is" and similar phrases...
Well, I can't dipute the facty that swimming is good for you, one of the best forms of exercise there is.
Now, having said that, I can't help it notice that even in this 'day and age' where so many people are close to obsessed with fitness and exercise - especially in California - the USMS membership of some 40,000 is only 0.15% of the population of the US.
This leads me to think that we (the USMS) has missed the boat somewhere!!!
Coming back from my fiorst convention, I see that thewre is a lot of focus on competetive swimming, and most of the delegates and BOD nad EC are either current or former competetive swimmers, and naturally the focus would be on competing.
That alone is wonderful... BUT...
It is my understanding that close to 80% of the USMS membership consists of fitness swimmers.
Also, I hear that :
- in the last 2-3 years the USMS membership has been stagnating.
- USMS does want to grow in membership.
And...
at the convention, I see 'fitness' as being an auxiliary, almost a stepchild focus to the competetive side.
Don't get me wrong, I love to compete myself, BUT...
Competetive adult swimmers are a very narrow demographic and if USMS wants to grow, they (we) need to find more attractive ways to "build-educate-service" our potential fitness swimmers.
I find it puzzling that many 'fitness swimmers' will readily enter open water swims, but when they hear of a swim meet, they don't think they're good enough for it... I've done both, and let me tewll you, swim meets are much easier, especially for a first timer, then an open water mile swim in an ocean or a lake.
I also see coaches right here in this forum that are having a hard time explaining to their fitness swimmers why (other then insurance that some clubs require) they should be members of USMS.
I think USMS is failing in it's core objectives when it comes to attracting membership, servicing them and educatiing them, which I strongly believe will mostly come from the fitness side.
Well, this is all that comes to mind at the moment. I'm hoping to eventually refine the thoughts.
Comments, thoughts anyone? I'd love to have some dialogue about this and hear what other people think.
Parents
Former Member
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.
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.
