Picture that you have been suddenly transported to an alternative universe in which none of the swimmers enjoys competition. You find yourself the president of an organization sort of like USMS and have been put in charge of designing programs for swimmers who aren't at all interested in racing but who enjoy swimming and have a desire to improve. What do you think an organization like USMS would look like under such a scenario?
A couple of things have been suggested to me:
Think of swim clinics like TI offers but based on a largely volunteer basis like USMS is instead of having an entrepreneurial basis. Instead of going to meets to race swimmers would be going to clinics to learn, and yes, test their progress.
Consider the number of person-hours needed to organize a swim meet, just in terms of officials. A tremendous amount of effort is put into ensuring a "fair race" and that times swum at one meet can fairly be compared to times swum at another. If you were able to get the same number of people to volunteer the same number of hours and undergo the same level of training aimed in a more instructional vein what could you accomplish? It seems to me that you could organize really great clinics, that non-competitive swimmers would benefit from a lot more than swimming in a meet and perhaps still obtain a similar social experience.
Would it be possible to produce tools for evaluating swimmers progress that would be more informative than just time in a race? For example could one use stroke checklists to give more feedback on technique? Could you develop standardized evaluation tools that, for example, used inexpensive video equipment to do a detailed analysis of a swim, including all the stuff currently used for analysis of elite swimmers such as reaction time, distance under water, time to 15m, stroke count and turnover, turn time, etc..
I suspect that there is a lot of great stuff being done at larger more established clubs that have really good coaches that could be captured and documented and codified and used in the many clubs that are currently struggling to find a good coach in their area that they can afford.
What can you envision?
Parents
Former Member
Elaine -
Here are some random ideas for the fitness-based swimmer:
1) A benchmark can be set - this would either be a given time for a distance, a total yardage for a set time, or total yardage for a longer period of time (e.g. month/season/year.). Once the benchmark is set, then for every x percent of improvement or user-defined improvement, the swimmer would receive a certificate attesting to the fact. Obviously, this is an "on your honor" system and the certificates could be made available off the USMS website as a pdf file to be filled out by the participant. Minimal cost/administration/fuss.
2) On-line workout/benchmark tracking database. Available to any USMS member (sorry, but this probably has a cost associated with it) to keep his/her training log, goal tracking etc. Maybe some snazzy graphics, etc. Benchmark achievement automatically sent (if person allows) to a new forum, the purpose of which is to announce same. Also, it would be possible to have this trigger the user receiving an above-mentioned certificate(s). No idea if something like this is available commercially. If it would have to be developed by USMS, it's probably too involved/expensive.
3) Achievements (again, on your honor) result in a small discount on USMS merchanise (or a sponsor) - not enough to make it unprofitable for the sponsor, and hopefully the increased volume would result in greater volume discounts for the providers.
4) Arrange for discounts through USMS for a fitness member to get a discount at one of the diet services (Weight watchers, etc...)
5) Arrange for a discount at one of the fitness clubs (Curves, Gold's Gym, etc...)
6) Certificate if you compete in your first meet, regardless of time, place, etc.
7) Larger rewards if your name is "S. Elaine" and you tell me what the "S." stands for, since I am still curious.
-LBJ
Elaine -
Here are some random ideas for the fitness-based swimmer:
1) A benchmark can be set - this would either be a given time for a distance, a total yardage for a set time, or total yardage for a longer period of time (e.g. month/season/year.). Once the benchmark is set, then for every x percent of improvement or user-defined improvement, the swimmer would receive a certificate attesting to the fact. Obviously, this is an "on your honor" system and the certificates could be made available off the USMS website as a pdf file to be filled out by the participant. Minimal cost/administration/fuss.
2) On-line workout/benchmark tracking database. Available to any USMS member (sorry, but this probably has a cost associated with it) to keep his/her training log, goal tracking etc. Maybe some snazzy graphics, etc. Benchmark achievement automatically sent (if person allows) to a new forum, the purpose of which is to announce same. Also, it would be possible to have this trigger the user receiving an above-mentioned certificate(s). No idea if something like this is available commercially. If it would have to be developed by USMS, it's probably too involved/expensive.
3) Achievements (again, on your honor) result in a small discount on USMS merchanise (or a sponsor) - not enough to make it unprofitable for the sponsor, and hopefully the increased volume would result in greater volume discounts for the providers.
4) Arrange for discounts through USMS for a fitness member to get a discount at one of the diet services (Weight watchers, etc...)
5) Arrange for a discount at one of the fitness clubs (Curves, Gold's Gym, etc...)
6) Certificate if you compete in your first meet, regardless of time, place, etc.
7) Larger rewards if your name is "S. Elaine" and you tell me what the "S." stands for, since I am still curious.
-LBJ
