Industry News: United States Masters Swimming and College Sw

Yeah, I quit my freshman year in college. I knew there was a Masters team out there but like was mentioned previously, I though it was for much older people (of which I am one now! LOL!). I don't know if I would have continued or not. I was pretty burnt toast at that point and needed a break. But it would have been good to have a better understanding of the opportunities out there once I was out of age group. This is an example why I think high school swimmers (who are not recruited for college) are a far more likely group to get involved with masters swimming...so many college swimmers leave very burnt out and need a break...high school kids who were not top tier USS swimmers and did it more for social and fitness reasons would seem to me to be a very recruitable group.

This is an example why I think high school swimmers (who are not recruited for college) are a far more likely group to get involved with masters swimming...so many college swimmers leave very burnt out and need a break...high school kids who were not top tier USS swimmers and did it more for social and fitness reasons would seem to me to be a very recruitable group. I will echo this. Many of my college teammates went on to do triathlon after they graduated. Some continued on but most either stopped swimming or came back after a protracted (>5 year) break. The kids are a great growth opportunity if properly marketed. "Swim for fitness, swim for fun, swim for life" or something like that would be a good tagline for the younger group. The perception is rampant that masters is for old folk and/or those who swim (slowly) at meets. While this is demonstrably not true, we need to keep in mind what our target markets think of our sport.

I always knew about Masters Swimming. My one coach at Suburban, Bill Crawford, was heavily involved with Masters swimming. Plus, one Masters swimmer decided to train with us kiddies in the late '80s and early '90s. She kept up really well. She would make finals at the USS meets that she went to. Plus, she was really nice compared to all those mean girls that I had to train with. The Villanova team is well aware of Masters swimming.

Paul, you are right-on both points. Most Age Groupers and High School swimmers don't know about Masters, unless their local team has a program. Also, most kids get burnt-out by their late teens and early twenties. Factors include psycho coaches, physical issues, work/school demands, parental pressure, and a bunch of others. Masters Swimming can sell the fun and fitness aspects to this market segment, which can enable people to rediscover how much fun swimming is. The mindshare out there for masters swimming is small. It may be strong in certain markets but in general, it is out of sight and out of mind. We have a story to tell and attract new, younger members. This will require us to engage the young swimmers at the local level and build awareness. Social networks will be one key component in this, another is marketing to the 18-25 age group. Lots of opportunity here.

The team I swim with is affiliated with the University of Washington. We practice immediately after the UW team in the evening and our coaches are their assistant coaches. However, for the most part, we haven't attracted recent varsity swimmers to the team. There's the odd one or two who swim with us, but usually they're gone pretty quickly. We'll also get college students who want to swim but couldn't or didn't want to swim on the college team, but that's still a very minor percentage of the masters team. Most of our long term members are people who have been out of college for a few years, at least.

Industry News: United States Masters Swimming and College Swimming Coaches Announce New Program My impression is that high school grads who don't go on to swim in college generally have no idea that masters swimming exists. I agree...I did swim in college...but...I am the only one of my college team who knew about masters swimming and the only reason I knew was because I was miserable on my team and looking for a better venue to continue my swimming career. Now that I am swimming on a club swim team in graduate school I am the only one on that team that knew that masters swimming was available for such young athletes (I think the problem is that most people assume that swimming masters is for an older population like some of the other masters teams...I am under the impression that a lot of the other masters programs start a few years/ decades after swimming masters does?)

I turned to swimming to get my body in shape for judo, and I just happened to like swimming more. I would have tried to get on my college team, but Rutgers got rid of their swim team. Go Rutgers! Anyway, I'm glad I went Masters anyway. My team is great, and the atmosphere seems to be much less about having the team win and about personal achievements.

Yeah, I quit my freshman year in college. I knew there was a Masters team out there but like was mentioned previously, I though it was for much older people (of which I am one now! LOL!). I don't know if I would have continued or not. I was pretty burnt toast at that point and needed a break. But it would have been good to have a better understanding of the opportunities out there once I was out of age group.

I was vaguely aware of masters swimming as a kid and even swam unofficially at a masters meet at age 14 (just to get a seed time for a USS meet, it didn't count for the masters meet of course). My USS team worked out at a university pool. Our coaches at the time were grad students who were also former college swimmers, and had some ties to the masters team. On another USS team, we actually had an adult swimming with our group at 5:00AM. Our coach introduced him, said he was a masters swimmer, and encouraged us to participate in masters swimming when we got older. In H.S. swimming I don't remember masters swimming being mentioned at all. After H.S. swimming I took a 20 year break.

Factors include psycho coaches Ahh, psycho coaches. That takes me back. One in particular was always on my back. That is until the parents observed this coach showing up to workouts drunk/hung over. Good times. I'll save the rest for the 'psycho coaches' thread if we ever have one. Luckily I've had more good coaches than psychos.