I think I'm going to have to disagree a bit with my Longhorn teamates Mr. Commings and The Raz on this subject. It's not good to rely on someone coming out of the woodwork in years to come or simply counting on cycles of ebb and flow over years in the sport.
I have been to many age group meets with my kids the last 4 years. In Georgia, Colorado.... and my home the Great state of Ohio, and enrollment of young boys (ages 8-14) is down further than at any time I can remember in the sport. Gone are the days when I grew up and boys ALWAYS outnumber girls in the sport, and its not merely because more girls are swimming now. It's because boys are interested in other sports..... many of which are easier training sports in my opinion.
This is NOT good for the future of men's swimming. I have a bad feeling the next Michael Phelps will be lured into Soccer or some other sport over the coming years... if not already. Swimming.... particularly the governing body USS.... does NOT do an adequate job marketing the sport to the general public during non Olympic years. We ride too heavily on the success of our Olympic performances in hopes of expanding enrollment, and then every 4 years it dies out quickly. With the added cuts of men's swimming programs in the NCAA Div. I level the growth and continued success of US mens swimming in my opinion is in jeopardy over the next 8-12 years. Michael Phelps is a lucky find for the US. I strongly suggest you take a look at some heat sheets for age group meets in your area. You will likely find that there are about 1/2 to 2/3rds the number of boys heats compared to girls heats in the younger age groups. It's shocking. You're looking at the future of our Olympic team in these reduced heats. You can't rely on a Rowdy Gaines to come into the sport late (like age 13) and dominate especially when the numbers are down so much.
USS needs to find money for a larger national campaign with TV time. Why is it I have NEVER been contacted by USS swimming to donate money?! Why is there NO marketing campaign to solicit funds from ex US swimmers from the past 40 years ?!
In my opinion, this is an all out war against soccer and the evil Big 3 sports. For example...... Australia is hurtin' if you take away their 2 big guns Hacket and Thorpe, there is virtually no one in the pipeline that will take over. The US is in a similar but lessor position. It was truly embarassing that the US had absolutely NO ONE in the 100 free at the Olympics. Let me say it again....
IT WAS TRULY EMBARASSING THAT THE US HAD ABSOLUTELY NO ONE IN THE 100 FREE IN THE FINALS AT THE OLYMPICS !
We should OWN that event ! The 100 free IS United States Swimming. It is our history! Our 400m free relay should NEVER lose at the Olympics or World Games as it is a reflection of depth and speed in our programs.
Face it, our volume of great sprinters are pretty bad right now and thats a reflection of basic athleticism and talent by taking (stealing) "athletes" from other sports with raw speed. Gary Hall saved his butt and the US in the 50 free at Greece, but let's face it, he's an archeology find and not a reflection of up an coming talent. We're relying on someone that probably peaked 2 Olympics ago in the sprints.
The picture is not good for the growth of US men's swimming, and we definitely need to do something about it.
John Smith
Originally posted by Peter Cruise
Need I point out that it remains a fairly expensive sport to participate in?
Actually I've always thought swimming was one of the cheaper sports. It certainly isn't gear intensive like a lot of other sports.
I think one of swimming's problems is that it isn't a team sport. I think this is much more a factor than that there isn't money in it at the elite levels. I doubt most parents initially get there kids involved in a specific sport based on how much money the kid could end up making in it!
I think USA Swimming should concentrate on how much fun it is to be part of a team. The sport will always be highly individual, but kids can have a lot of fun with their teammates.
Originally posted by Peter Cruise
Au contraire, Kirk. I have a fair number of parents of the local swim teams who shop at my store (& know of my swimming habit) & all I hear is how expensive it is becoming (both of money & parental time) esp. the new suits. Now Nanaimo is hardly an affluent area, so maybe that contrasts with your experience.
I guess most of my experience is from my own age group experience and it was fairly cheap in those days. Perhaps things have changed. However, kids certainly don't need to wear the expensive suits and parents who are concerned about the price shouldn't buy them.
Originally posted by knelson
Actually I've always thought swimming was one of the cheaper sports. It certainly isn't gear intensive like a lot of other sports.
I think one of swimming's problems is that it isn't a team sport. I think this is much more a factor than that there isn't money in it at the elite levels. I doubt most parents initially get there kids involved in a specific sport based on how much money the kid could end up making in it!
I think USA Swimming should concentrate on how much fun it is to be part of a team. The sport will always be highly individual, but kids can have a lot of fun with their teammates.
Cheap, right.
55.00 a year to be a member of USA swimming
126.00 to be a member of the Y(my kids team is a Y team).
125.00 per month training fees for the Senior swimmer
95.00 per month training fees for the 12 year old
Every swim meet has fees of 2.50-5.00 per event. 3-day meets, 4-5 events per day, gets costly.
Most meets are too far away to drive back and forth, so a meet weekend cost up to 300 in hotel and food costs(and I have packed a microwave before and done all meals in the room!).
And to address boys, there isn't a lot of places for them to go and swim because of the cut in boys teams. Having a 17 year old boy who quit last year.
1. he said he was burned out, tired of swimming every day, and the time the meets took from his weekends and friends.
2. What could he do with it after HS, hard to find scholarships.
3. Band and band related activities were taking his time.
4. He is old enough to know the cost of it was a source of stress.
5. His HS has no swim team, so it was not even a HS sport for him.
Now, he is thinking of coming back this fall, but it will be his decision if he does, and his decision if he wants to train in the National team, or stay at a lower level just for fitness.
Ironicly, the 12 year old is not near as good of a swimmer, but because she is a girl, the sholarship oppurtunities are much better.
John, I hope I'm wrong when I talk about a cycle that will end in three years.
And I'm in total agreement about marketing. They have these Olympians going EVERYWHERE to the point that they say it affects their training. But where exactly are they going? Yes, there was the Disney World tour, but that didn't reach lots of people. Photo shoots and small camps aren't going to help, either. They have to be doing national commercials equivalent to what basketball and football players are doing. And do them so training is not affected.
It's a difficult solution, but USA Swimming has people on their payroll to help out with this. There's supposed to be a campaign that they're starting this weekend with the TV broadcast of Duel in the Pool, but will it be a good start? We'll see.
My daughter swims for fun in the summer with a summer rec league. There are several swimmers(boys, she hangs out with the boys), who would be real interested in year round swimming. Talked to the parents, gave them the information about year round swimming. When they found out the cost, they said no. Cost is a big factor, and year round swimming is very, very expensive.
I agree, swim meets are snoozers. I was at a recent meet with 300 kids. The starter would take 60 seconds between each event to walk around and gossip and jibber-jabber as the next heat was on the blocks ready to go and the timers were ready. It was an indoor meet and it was blazing hot inside. It was infuriating.
Maybe this is a regional thing, because here in metro Phoenix, it seems most cities open a new pool every year, there are wait lists for swim lessons and city-run teams. There are so many kids interested that there are some that get turned away.
Yes, there are long hours, drives, fees, but yet that doesn't seem to bother people as much here. Is it because 95% of the pools are outside? Is it because 66% of homes built for the past 10 years have a pool in the backyard? Is it because the media reports drownings daily, and parents want their kids to at least learn to swim? Or maybe it is the cities constantly sending out and posting online all of their activities.
The city where I live (Chandler) has 3 high schools. Two of those have pools, the other school only opened in 2004, and a pool is in the future. One of them just had a new aquatic facility completed this year.
Who knows what is going on, but perhaps someone needs to start in an area where swimming is thriving and find out why.
Originally posted by aztimm
Maybe this is a regional thing, because here in metro Phoenix, it seems most cities open a new pool every year, there are wait lists for swim lessons and city-run teams. There are so many kids interested that there are some that get turned away.
Yes, there are long hours, drives, fees, but yet that doesn't seem to bother people as much here. Is it because 95% of the pools are outside? Is it because 66% of homes built for the past 10 years have a pool in the backyard? Is it because the media reports drownings daily, and parents want their kids to at least learn to swim? Or maybe it is the cities constantly sending out and posting online all of their activities.
The city where I live (Chandler) has 3 high schools. Two of those have pools, the other school only opened in 2004, and a pool is in the future. One of them just had a new aquatic facility completed this year.
Who knows what is going on, but perhaps someone needs to start in an area where swimming is thriving and find out why.
Sounds like a regoional thing. Here the 50 meter outdoor pools are being removed and replaced with zero depth, lazy rivers and slides. This state is losing more and more competition pools every year. 2 years ago the age group state meet was held in Wisconsin. This year the YMCA state meet will be held in Wisconsin. There are no pools available in Illinois the weekend of those meets and Carthage College has a nice facility so everyone has to truck up there. For us, that is a 3 hour drive, for people in Southern Illinois, 6-7 hours.
I got so I would pick separate travel meets to go to per kid. Because they are 5 years apart, it often meant all day at the pool, which is not good for the parents and not good for the kids.
I also have gotten smart in that there is one travel meet in the fall, one in the the January/Feb timeframe, and that is it. It simply is more feasable expense wise.
My husband and I also spend the whole weekend running our home meets, so by the time Monday comes, we often take a vacation day just to recover. 30 hours at the pool running the computer and timing system tends to be a might stressful...and I would shoot a starter who sat and gabbed between heats. Our starters listen when I say we need fly-overs to make the timeline better!
And yes, I have friends with kids in hockey, friends with kids in gymnastics, both much more expensive than swimming.
Former Member
Need I point out that it remains a fairly expensive sport to participate in? Yes, I know there are worse, but our sport recently took a quantum jump up for suit costs, not for workouts but for any significant champs kids expect to wear the lastest & slickest suit available. Come to think of it, it is the mens' suits that have increased the greater percentage as the suits gain more fabric compared to what used to be a racing suit.
I'm sure there's a lot more to it; it can't help that every time I come across the border I read that some public pool is under threat of closing, though I realize that shouldn't affect boys more than girls. Maybe the trend is related to one our teachers are noticing in schools up here: that girls are by far the dominant group of achievers these days in school- better grades, more participatory, more scholarships.
Former Member
Unfortunately, our entertainment shock jock world is becoming less interested in the subtle nuances of a sport such as swimming. Now, if the swimmers were naked and the pool was filled with sharks we would have excellent viewership. With the way our society has become addicted to becoming famous we would probably have a lot of contestants too. Hard work and patience is quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Hook'em
Blue
