Fitness swimming

Originally posted by Conniekat8 I do know that USMS does want to build their membershio, but i think that they are close to exhausting the pool of inherently competitive swimmers. I disagree. Only a handful of the people I swam with in high school and college are USMS members. As for the rest, some may be swimming for fitness, but I suspect many are no longer involved in the sport at all (but could be "recruited").

Bigger is not necessarily better. Many fitness swimmers don't need an "organization" to swim for exercise. Our Y team has many swimmers who are not USMS members. They have no need to join. The folks who want to compete need to register USMS to attend meets so they do. Competitive swimming needs an organization to be able to host meets. Anyone can jump in the pool and swim for fitness.

Originally posted by emmett Seamless liability insurance coverage. Liability coverage regardless of USMS registration status of swimmers in the water. Opportunity to purchase health insurance at group rates. Online registration. Club management tools/services ala www.clubassistant.com (including credit card merchant service). That's for starters. Good Ideas! One thing about seamless insurance... Providing that would mean that member end up carrying financial burden for non members. I think that is unfair to members. I wonder if the insurance compamies would see thhat as too much risk as they wouldn't be able to exactly quantify the numbers they are insuring. Perhaps there could be a 'club fee' for covering the non USMS swimmers. Just thinking out loud here. I hear that the online registration is in the works. I'm hoping it will become available sometime in 05. Well, to clarify, swim meet registration for local meets. On the other hand, I think having online registration for the USMS membership would be wonderful. I;ll have a look at the clubassistant. To my knowldge, USMS relies on the local LMSC's for club assistance. In last few years when most of us have gotten accustomed to the immediacy of the infiormation available on line I wonder if this service has gotten lost... The information is not exactly readily accessible on the USMS website, and lot of LMSC's don't have really elaborate websites. I know as of late most people think that if something is not available on line, or at least not listed there that it doesn;t exist. I think USMS can improve tyhe information dissemenation quite a bit. I know the USMS website is being rebuilt. I'm hoping that will bring some good changes. I know many people (comittees) within USMS are anxious to get more representation on line. So far it's been the matter of getting to it all, and there are volumes and volunes of it to be done.

The problem here has a few facets: pool time, coaches, and interest in general. I know a couple of people who have asked me about swimming. I believe that if there was a masters team here I could probably get some people to join. I swim with the local USS team as there is no masters team. I've thought about starting up a masters team and coaching it myself. The problem is though, then I wouldn't get to train as much as I want/need. Even if I did find someone willing to coach (no clue who that would be other than myself), pool time is at a premium here - only 3 pools. 1 community and all of it's time is already booked & 2 highschool pools. I might be able to get time at one of the HS pools, but I doubt with an intial team of 4 or so people would cover the costs of pool time & a coach. Other thought I had was to just practice at the community pool during lap swim time. But that's from 6-7:30 am. And the 2 people I know interested in swimming have young children and time would not work for them. So what suggestions would have for me, and others in a similar situation?

Originally posted by waves101 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?... Thanks for responding. I know that the social aspect is important to all of us and to USMS. I think part of the reason we allow non-qualifiers into the nationals is the social element. I've seen at the convention that masters swimmers DO know how to party, more so than at nationals where most people are concerned about the events they are swimming tomorrow... I do keep thinking social events with just a little bit of swimming might be in order... I'm not sure yet exactly how I'd go about doing this and at what level (LMSC, Zone, National or something different) but I think the more we toss around the ideas, the more they'll start taking a more definable shape. Also, there is a question of WHO should spearhead the efforts. My impression is that (generally speaking) lot of traditional coaches and meet directors wouldn't be the ones to do it. I think they already have their hands full. It may have to be someone else on the team with the coaches (or club's executive structure) support.

Originally posted by emmett Professional instruction/coaching. Convenient location and times. Enjoyable, encouraging, friendly training environment. Feel they are no less important than the competitive swimmers. My point is that USMS, as a national organization, is not really in a position to effectively and directly serve the needs of fitness swimmers directly. Coaches/Clubs are. You're right about the clubs and coaches. Here's where I see some deficiency with that.. Most clubs and coaches are doing what they've been doing... catering to the more competetive swimmer, just because that is what is tradition. Also, most coaches become coaches because they enjoy working with the more competetive swimmer. I think there is room for a model of a coached fitness swimmer, but it would take a different breed of a coach, and a different club model. I think if USMS encouraged a pilot program, or even looked at the more sucessful heavily 'fitness' clubs they could encourage clubs and coaches to have some focus in that direction as well. With marketing it's core objectives USMS needs to have several different approaches, depending on who their target audiences are... be it clubs and traditional coaches, be it current fitness swimmers, be it potential fitness swimmers, be it competetive swimmers etc... There should be stuff to offer to all of them. I think there is a big opportunity for growth there, but it needs to be done carefully. If some forthought has been put into it, you can have a large organization that functions well, and at the same time does not appear too big and impersonal. Bottom line, I think USMS could provide tools and encouragement to it's local representatives. I think this could be one of the USMS's big strengths, but now it's appears to be a gaping weakness.

Originally posted by gull80 I disagree. Only a handful of the people I swam with in high school and college are USMS members. As for the rest, some may be swimming for fitness, but I suspect many are no longer involved in the sport at all (but could be "recruited"). But... You could much easier get someone back in the pool by getting them to just start working out a little bit, have fun. Months later as they get into better shape and start having fun, if they have an ounce of competetiveness in their body they will get bitten by the competing bug, and probably end up competing. If you approach them right now, after noth haviong swam for a decade or two and suggest that the USMS is a great place to compete, they're most likely to say, oooh, yea, the good old days, but I'm not up to competition now... It's been too long. When I say fitness, don't think of the ftiness swimmer always staying a fitness swimmer. Some of them will start competing (like I did) others may not. The progression usually goes... Non swimmers may become fitness swimmers (first baby step) Strictyly lap swimmers may discover the benefits of coached workouts (and some may remain lap swimmers) Coached fitness swimmers may discover swim meets, and become a competitor while others may remain just fitness and social swimmers. Most people will not be fixed in one of those categories forever. USMS (meaning from the national organization lever all the way down to the coach) and could provide them opportunity to grow as a swimmer. Even though I went from a non-swimmer to a fitness swimmer to a competing (very slow) member in 3 weeks I recognize that this is very unlikely path for most people. To digress... I think I'm one of those people that try really hard to blend in and not be different, but I'm just different, and can't hide for too long. :rolleyes:

I'm a life long swimmer and active participant as a swimmer, coach and administrative person in USMS. I'm also one of those people that can't quantify why a fitness swimmer should want to be a member of USMS. I haven't heard much concrete from the people on this board and it seems to be a difficult topic at the national level. If I'm wrong about the national level someone will point it out and I'll take it back. I'll say what I've said before. Lots of people join and stay on our local club because they like being part of the local group. Stroke and turn rules? Who cares. National debates about a magazine? Who cares. National meetings? Who cares. Seeding men and women apart? Who cares. Go down the list of all the "important" issues and most of our members don't care because they are unaffected by them. It doesn't change what they really want the most. They want an organized local group to play with. They want a good workout. They want folks to swim with and drink with. They want people to celebrate with when birthdays and babies come along. They want friends to go to movies with. They want a support group duing bad times. Being a member of USMS does nothing to enhance that experience for them other than, and maybe this is it, maybe making it possible for the local organization to exist in the first place. I have my doubts about that one as well. I think Clay has shown he might be able to exist without USMS. 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. As far as I can see, USMS is for competition. One way to test that would be to give people that workout with a local club the option of joining USMS or not. I suspect out membership would go down significantly. One last thing. Nothing bothers me more than the statement that USMS is cheap. It's cheap if you perceive the value you get in return is equal to or greater than what you pay. It will be cheap to some and throwing money out the window to others. I know plenty of people who have to think about writing the check.

Originally posted by Frosty Connie, Again, great subject...and thanks for taking the time to consider and respond to these messages. (You've earned my respect.) You can get inside of my (triathlete) head. I used to strictly be a swimmer, but as I developed triathlon skills I swam less and dedicated more time to the other two sports. I agree that swimming, in comparison with cycling and running, demands the greater amount of skill to perform optimally. Yet most triathlons are structured so that cycling takes up about 50% of the time it takes to do the whole race, running about 35% and swimming about 15%. I believe most triathletes, when pressed for time, will budget their training more towards cycling and running since they do take up the bulk of a triathlon. As for going to events...if you like to swim, bike and run that much, you like going to triathlons. They are fun, challenging, and satisfy many people from each end of the competitive spectrum. I wouldn't mind doing a few stand-alone running races, open water swims, and maybe a swim meet or two on occasion...yet most of the time (especially outside of Winter) those stand-alone events are scheduled on the same days as the triathlons that I desire more to do. Hi Frosty, Thanks for responding! Gained your respect? Uh-oh, that wasn't intentional ;) Okay joking aside... I hear that the general concensus is that swimming is the weakest discipline of the three for triathletes? Wuld you say that is your experience as well? Do most triathletes feel somewhat at loss as to where to turn to to get good swimming advice and or coaching? I would venture a guess that this is true, or Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion wouldn't be as popular as it is. I wonder if USMS couldn't do a thing or two to address this groups needs and concerns. Then there is the dreaded discussion about the wetsuits... I know, I know, purist swimmer doesn't do wetsuits, but what's to prevent us from having a separate 'wetsuit' category (other than more administrative work for USMS.) Also, when it comes to more administrative work, I'd say "TOUGH!" You want the organization to grow, there will be more work. There will also be more volunteers to help out and funds to draw from, so things will work out. Now, speaking of triathlons, eould you give me your opinion on this... I see many 'new' people trying the triathlons, run/walking the run, putting along on a department store bike and slowly swimming their way across 800 meter swim jsut to get the sense of accomplishment of finishing a triathlon, but on the other hand you can ask some of the same people to enter a swim meet and do a 200m and a 100m relay, just so you'd have a relay, and they go, oh, no, that's too competetive for me! I know one of the things that many coaches may fail to communicate is that you don't have to be fast to enter and participate in a swim meet, especially a local one. Entering and trying 2-3 events could give a person the same or similar sense of acomplishment as making their way to the finish of a sprint triathlon... But so many people find swim meets too intimidating. Tell you what, having been to swim meets, they're a piece of cake compared to triathlons! I think here I see a failure to popularize swim meets. They're still seen as competetive events, and not social events at all (when compared to the way triathlons are viewed). So, what's your take on this?

Wow! Hot topic! Originally posted by Fritz One last thing. Nothing bothers me more than the statement that USMS is cheap. It's cheap if you perceive the value you get in return is equal to or greater than what you pay. It will be cheap to some and throwing money out the window to others. I know plenty of people who have to think about writing the check. I would just like to point out that what I said was: "A lot of people who are new to swimming join our club because it is the cheapest way they can do some lap-swimming in this city!" Whether you go to a pool or a gym, you're going to have to write that check! Here (and this city just happens to be Florence, Italy, and we have NOTHING to do with USMS) a check written out to our club is a LOT lighter than any other option.