Loved the home page feature on the USMS website today...
www.usms.org/features.php
Since the NCAA Championships are all around us these two weeks, who hasn't thought about our outstanding collegiate swimmers?
But have any of us considered inviting them to join us at masters in their near future?
Masters Swim Clubs in college areas could do all kinds of great things to inspire a retiring collegiate swimmer to join them.
Invite them to talk to the team at a social event would be an easy no-brainer.
But even beyond.
How about asking them to hold a clinic for your club?
And pay them since now they can accept the cash - and probably need it?
What else can we do to entice them to join our clubs (rack up points at the championship meets) and begin the rest of their healthy fit lives?
Former Member
I was actually recruited to USMS by a NCAA swimmer. He is the son of a friend who has been asking why I wasn't swimming with Masters since he was a senior in High School. :cane:
Rumur has it, that there's a splinter group of vigillantes called the USMS Cougar Committee, (USMS CC.) They forumulated aggressive "enticement" plans years ago. Various USMS members confirm sightings of successful implementation as their prey "racks up points" at meets in the pool & other places like hotel hot tubs. Further the USMS CC creates an annual target list & most wanted posters. They are a highly effective covert operation doing most of their work under covers.
AJ
What else can we do to entice them to join our clubs (rack up points at the championship meets) and begin the rest of their healthy fit lives?
Be careful, you might get what you wish for. If too many 20-somethings join USMS the old farts might feel outnumbered and follow CremePuff to USS where we would all swim in the 18-and-over age group! ;)
I agree with this. A lot of people have the attitude that if you're in your 20s you're not a "real" Masters swimmer. Very unwelcoming. But if we got more young people competing, there would be a snowball effect, where you feel more like you belong at the meets, which would bring in even more people. Getting the process started is the hard part.
Now, Jazzy, don't get all up in arms. Of course you are a real master's swimmer and a welcome member of the gang. However, I contend that the competition in masters doesn't really get going until 35-39, when the college studs have burned out, gotten fat, had a kid or two and need to change their evil ways and come back. You are fast by any standard.
As a 20-something the biggest "issue" (if you could call it that) I have with Masters is that it doesn't really cater to us. I think out of all the people on my team maybe 6 are under 30, and we have a pretty big team. And as nice as everyone is on the team (they're GREAT wonderful people) it's awkward to go to team social events where everyone brings their kids and talks about work. Other than swimming it's hard to find common interests. I think that is the biggest challenge when you're talking about recruiting new grads to swim. You need to overcome the stigma that Masters is for old people before you can try to recruit younger people.
I sympathize. A lot depends on the mix of ages of the team partyers. I won't show up to a masters swim party unless Santa is going to be there, or if there will be a bounce house. Thinking only of myself (actually, for my girls), I was somewhat offended that this past year's Halloween party explicitly said No children allowed!!! heeheehee!
I see a fair amount of recently graduated college swimmers come and go with Sun Devil Masters as well as Brophy...Although a lot of us really enjoy having them around and the stepped up intensity they can bring I also see how there is a bit of a genertional gap for some folks...given how much Laura and I like to rpestend we are still in college we seem to have far less of a problem with that!
I'll go back to what I've said a few times before on this topic. To me the "low-hanging fruit" if you will is not the recent college grad but rather the high school senior who swam but may not be good enough to swim in college...I've seen far more of these come on board at ASU and they tend to stick around.
Warning: I never swam in college.
I think the main reason to encourage post-collegiate swimmers to keep swimming is that it is an excellent lifetime exercise. How many of you ex-collegiate swimmer types got back into the pool after a long hiatus in part because you were now N pounds overweight? Even if they don't compete or swim 5000yds per practice, there is a valuable benefit to just keep the motor running.
Skip
I just graduated from college last may and I really didn't take any time off from when college ended to beginning post collegiate swimming career...As soon as school was done, I watched the olympics and I just knew I had to be back in the water competing.
But I do feel kind of out of place at meets...Usually being the youngest or one of the youngest there really limits how much participation you want to do with masters swimming. If there was more geared to our age group then I could see the 18-24 age group growing in numbers, and having a larger turn out. If they keep the appeal up for the younger crowd then you would have more ex college kids comming out.
I just graduated from college last may and I really didn't take any time off from when college ended to beginning post collegiate swimming career...As soon as school was done, I watched the olympics and I just knew I had to be back in the water competing.
But I do feel kind of out of place at meets...Usually being the youngest or one of the youngest there really limits how much participation you want to do with masters swimming. If there was more geared to our age group then I could see the 18-24 age group growing in numbers, and having a larger turn out. If they keep the appeal up for the younger crowd then you would have more ex college kids comming out.
I agree with this. A lot of people have the attitude that if you're in your 20s you're not a "real" Masters swimmer. Very unwelcoming. But if we got more young people competing, there would be a snowball effect, where you feel more like you belong at the meets, which would bring in even more people. Getting the process started is the hard part.
