Over 18?

In total agreement--it was ridiculous. But still...when you burn out, you burn out, regardless. When my son eventually stops playing hockey I'm not going to push him to play adult hockey. He knows it's available as he watches his dad play, but it's up to him, not me. Also, the training program you were told to do was probably ridiculous. If you trained properly back then, you might not have burnt-out at all. forums.usms.org/showpost.php

Actually, I listened to my parents, or rather my mother. She was of the opinion that if I didn't make money it wasn't worth doing. There was no way they were going to put another penny into my swimming. How could I argue, the year before they spent over $30,000 just so I could compete at an international level. So at 18 I was a wreck. The thing is, the year before at 17 I was the fastest in all history for the 100 free in my province for 15-17, #1 in Canada that year, and 9th in the World for 17 and under. Yet, I couldn't pay rent. So now I'm of the opinion that there should be age-group carding, and I'll spend the rest of my life working towards making that a reality. If you're top 8 in the country in 11-12,13-14, or 15-17 you should have financial support. Interesting thought. We spent no where near that amount, but it is quite expensive to have a child or two or three in swimming, not just money, but time as well. How do you pay for that financial support? By raising everyone's membership fees? Also, I wonder if this might make it worse for the "pushed" 12 year old. I saw too many of those in my day. Incidently, my son asked where the pool schedule for open swims was yesterday. Does not mean he will go, but does look like he might be interested. I think we need a pool that is open all night though, he is very much a night owl!

We would have 70,000 swimmers in Canada with corporate web sites saying please donate and help me achieve my goals.

I can't see how it would be feasible to have a web site let alone a publicly traded company per swimmer. The market for accessories just wouldn't support it. My first thought was some sort of organized betting system would be more feasible and frankly in the same spirit as you are suggesting. I'm sure swim meets would be more entertaining if they were more like the horse races, but gambling has its own set of issues. Perhaps they could set up a "American Swimmer" show where people vote swimmers onto and off of the Olympic team, with each vote putting a small charge on your phone bill or whatever. That would be much more democratic than this fastest two swimmers go stuff! :D

Our club dues at the highest level is 125.00 per month. Then the cost of meets, usually a 3 day meet will cost you around 50.00 in fees, cost of staying in a hotel, cost of equipment, gas to get to practice and meets. For us, it was around 2K for the more competive kid, 1k for the less competive kid(she simply did not want to compete that much and was in a lower training level, so not as much monthly fees). Pool time these days is quite expensive, upwards to 60 per hour. Clubs have to pass that on to the swimmer, so it gets expensive.

The thing is, the year before at 17 I was the fastest in all history for the 100 free in my province for 15-17, #1 in Canada that year, and 9th in the World for 17 and under. Yet, I couldn't pay rent. So now I'm of the opinion that there should be age-group carding, and I'll spend the rest of my life working towards making that a reality. If you're top 8 in the country in 11-12,13-14, or 15-17 you should have financial support. I thought the first idea was dumb...I was wrong. This idea is even worse. You talk about wanting swimming to be fun,enjoyable, how great a sport is for people. You talk about how you are tired of seeing young people quit the sport for various reasons. Well, this idea will have them fleeing in masses at the age group level. There are parents that put a lot of undo pressure on kids at any sport. If age groupers(not pro's) were to start getting money for it, even if it were for travel, training, there would be tons more put on kids than there is now. If one kid was good enough to get money at 11-12 and then aged up, that kid would start getting even more pressure to continue to get the money, esp. if their times were a bit behind at the next level. Besides, what happens if a kid gets injured or sick(like mono) where they miss a big part of the season, then they lose money and get more crap from their parents to rush back into training too soon, just because they will feel the need not to let parents down. This idea is so stupid it's not even funny

$30,000 where did you swim? WOW $2,500 a month. Our club charged $15.00 a year. Did you swim at the Winter Club in TO? You must have been involved in swimming in Alberta when they were using a has been Australian Coach. Lots of parents sent their kinds to chase a dream coaches. When their kids could probably receive better coaching at the local club. That is when kids all over the country went to swim at a club 1500 or 2000 miles away. That is costly. There were no Universities in Canada offering scholarships. But the good local coaches managed to get them scholarships in USA schools. My brother had a few swimmers go to U of Maryland.

If you're top 8 in the country in 11-12,13-14, or 15-17 you should have financial support. Can you elaborate on why an 11 or 12 year old should be paid to swim?

The money goes to the parents, obviously. At least this way there would be positive support to continue swimming, it's not like it would even be enough to cover the "total" cost. People talk about pressure, and somehow having financial support would cause more pressure. That is ridiculous when you compare to the reality... Mom and Dad are broke, little jonny made the national cut, so dad has to work triple over-time to pay for his son's swimming. Mom and Dad fight constantly, some parents get divorced. You want to talk about pressure? Can you elaborate on why an 11 or 12 year old should be paid to swim?

The pool/club fees were about $350 per month, plus we were "required" to go to 3 Nationals per year if we hoped to make the National team. There was 4 traveling training camps that year, one was on another continent, and about 15 inter-provincial competitions. If you add up the flights, hotels, food, and double pool-time costs, 30k was done cheaply. The thing is, I could have trained just as hard for $35/month, which is what I do now, as a master. $30,000 where did you swim? WOW $2,500 a month. Our club charged $15.00 a year.