And I thought the suits were killing the sport ...

Hey Ripple My point was this: In a sport where people move only a few feet per second, swimming with -or without- a tech suit isn't going to make a dime's worth of difference in my perception of increased speed. By the way, the word "Awingly" is legitimate: wordlist.com/awingly.htm Dolphin 2

Swimmers, clubs and even coaches get very hung up on the idea that the only benefit to joining USMS is the "insurance coverage". Sheez! Frankly, if even the USMS Discussion Forumites think of it in these terms, perhaps it is time again for a full run down review of USMS Membership Benefits. If I were swimming on my own or with a small group and -no coach, knowing what I know about the USMS, there is no way I would not be registered as a member. Especially if I cared about improving, stroke technique, or a planned swim practice with a purpose. Even with a team coach, a masters swimmer can learn so much more to help them improve their swimming with USMS as a resource. Any one here from the USMS Marketing Committee? Ahelee: I ran across this thread about marketing and there are some interesting comments from people regarding this. Start with post 61 on page 4. forums.usms.org/showthread.php

As a Boomer 0f 63 , I have been swimming since H S & college. It is still fun.

ehoch, Where do you swim that has so many people who are participating but not usms members?! I already was aware of the stats on usms members who didn't compete, but I didn't know there were so many adult swim groups who were not usms-affiliated. What would be an estimate of numbers? Are they from sports clubs/spas/colleges?

Los Angeles - Southern California Aquatics We have 8 pools in the area - part of the problem to get people to meets is that we are too big to create the club atmospere. There are many swimmers I never even see (I run the competition team). There was a guy swimming with us for 6 month - I never even heard of him or saw him and then he dropped a 35+ in a 75 from a push in a workout - word got back to me and we have now recruited him for several record setting relays. Then I saw somebody in a workout 2 months ago with a giant Olympic ring tattoo on his arm (and he has the hardware to along with that) ... we are still working on him. The other problem is that we do have quite a few very fast swimmers competing - so the slower swimmers think you have to be super fast to swim a meet. Ocean swims are very popular - pool meets are tough. Still - why would the team require USMS membership ?

So of these 14,000 Masters swimmers that compete in meets, how many are even wearing tech suits? 10%?

So of these 14,000 Masters swimmers that compete in meets, how many are even wearing tech suits? 10%? More like 80-90%, I would guess as a ballpark. Higher at traditional season-ending meets like zones and nationals, though even the in-season meets see a lot of tech suits nowadays. I asked a friend of mine who swims in Europe and he says it is the same over there at meets.

Most of the SCAQ's swimmers in the Van Nuys area are not that affluent I understand that, I really do, but if the $40/year for joining USMS makes THAT much of a difference in someone's balance sheet, then perhaps swimming isn't the right activity for them anyway.

Wow, judge and jury. Only when someone wheels out the 'can't afford it' angle as to why people don't/won't join USMS.

We're all pretty excited - but... 50,000 is still a low ball number considering there are many masters swim clubs in the USA operating WITHOUT requiring USMS registration of their swimmers! Sheez... I have to jump in... SCAQ has about 1,000 members and today only 4%-to-5% want to compete. It use to be 1%. I would go to championship meets and sit by myself for there was no interest whatsoever. In fact, it was one of the reasons why I started the SCAQ blog. The front office sends out emails biweekly at the very least encouraging swimmers to go race in a swim meet, to go and swim in one of Erik's sprint workouts, and there were regular emails encouraging SCAQ members to swim and win at the SPMA Regionals LCM Championships. (We did! - We owned you all! Muwahahahaa!) In fact, there is going to be a fund raiser for the LMU girls team on September 27th, in LMU pool and the girls team will be actually conduct an ad hoc clinic beforehand to encourage newer swimmers to show up and to see how fun it is to compete. I think that is terrific outreach and this is something SCAQ does not brag about. Joining the USMS must be a choice and not a "license" that you have to obtain just for the right to go swimming with a particular club especially if you are a beginner. Most of the SCAQ's swimmers in the Van Nuys area are not that affluent and 50% of the swimmers therein are either learning or simply enjoying themselves.