How much do you pay to swim?

In Brazil, away from big cities such as São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, where a swimming pool at a health club might cost a lot. I pay around 60 equivalent dollars a month and that includes a coach (who is paid with parts of that fee) three times a week for one hour Tue,Wed and Thursdays. My fee allows me to swim any time I wish to, unless all lanes are taken up for other classes. The pool opens on Saturdays mornings, never on Sundays. It is partially heated, but not covered. At practice I usually share one lane with another guy, sometimes we have three and circle. Most in our group are older masters but the coach allows for the slower or older doing 75s instead of 100s when possible. I think I pay little for what I get. billy fanstone

$45/month for 4 coached practices per week, but you have to be a member of the YMCA which of course has monthly dues as well. There is also a yearly membership fee of around $100.

We're looking at paying around $80/hour just to rent the pool then we'll need to pay a coach on top of that. So for a 90 minute workout the total cost will be somewhere around $150. It's a six-lane pool, so with four to a lane that's $6.25 per person. Based on this I'm concluding that many teams must pay much, much less to rent their pools! Kirk and others - You need to find a successful model similar to your own to build toward. What works for large teams like MVN and SCAQ may not work for your club at least right now. Do you know there is a staff member at USMS dedicated to Club Development? It is no doubt a numbers game. As an assistant coach, something I have heard consistently from every head coach is, "all we need is 30-50 more swimmers". Those "all we need" numbers never change even when you have gotten them!! Consider asking some of your knowledgable, interested and enthusiastic swimmers to get into a rotation to coach the team until you can afford a regular "full-time" coach. Talk to the Long Beach Grunions about this program, they're a great example of a get it done organization - and still a good time club! You might be surprised to hear that there are many masters swim clubs out there - and very large clubs, who do not pay a cent for pool or lane rental. Coaches can make a decent living and age-group programs can be funded. Find the club model that matches your current situation. But keep an eye on the model your club has the potential to become.

I don't think an hour is long enough, but this is certainly an option if that's the only way to make the $ numbers work, I suppose. But you are a highly competitive distance swimmer, and you also may have more discretionary time than a lot of people who would or could join your team. For a lot of people, 90 min. is more time than they can or want to commit to a swim practice. Our team offers several one-hour workouts in a row on weekdays. Most people do just one, but some people on some days do 1.5 or 2 if we can stay over without bothering the people who are there just for the next workout. That compromise seems to work.

For a lot of people, 90 min. is more time than they can or want to commit to a swim practice. True. Typically the numbers started dwindling after the hour mark. Sometimes by the end of practice just the fastest couple lanes would still be well populated. But, IMO anyway, this works well. People know they are free to get out when they need to or have had enough, but those who wish to stay in can. I guess the question now is whether the additional 30 minutes is worth the extra money.

The coaches swim with us, but are pretty attentive to technique especially with the less experienced swimmers. It does seem that this is an arrangement by necessity for some clubs but it is not ideal for safety, actual coaching or team building. Questionaires, feedback, and actual experience show that the efforts of the coach and namely the coach on deck drives the energy and success of the program. Get creative and try to keep an enthusiastic coach on deck if at all possible. You might be right about the energy and success from coaching on deck, but our group is small and probably not going to grow significantly no matter how much horsepower and enthusiasm you put on deck. Such an investment would make no sense for the facility. I have swam with a few other masters clubs on occasion with deck coaches who were a whole lot less involved than our in-water coaches so I will take our arrangement any day. I don't understand the safety issue because there is a lifeguard on duty. Kirk, I swam in a really old facility in college (water coming into the pool was often rust colored) and an old hotel pool in high school so I completely understand. Our current underutilized pleasure palace is almost too good to be true for me and close to the house too. Thank you taxpayers! Tim

So for a 90 minute workout the total cost will be somewhere around $150. It's a six-lane pool, so with four to a lane that's $6.25 per person. Based on this I'm concluding that many teams must pay much, much less to rent their pools! First - I think you need to cut it to 60 min workouts. Will not add any members by offering a 90 min workout and it's obviously cheaper. Then - you need to look at it based on membership, not per workout. $100 per workout - let's say 60 workouts a month (2 per day) - you need at least 100 members to make it work. SCAQ (So Cal Aquatics) - I think dues are $65 / 8 pools / 64 workouts per week

You might be right about the energy and success from coaching on deck, but our group is small and probably not going to grow significantly no matter how much horsepower and enthusiasm you put on deck. Such an investment would make no sense for the facility. I have swam with a few other masters clubs on occasion with deck coaches who were a whole lot less involved than our in-water coaches so I will take our arrangement any day. I don't understand the safety issue because there is a lifeguard on duty. Tim Its always a shame when a paid masters coach is not attentive during workouts lowering the level of respect for coaches in general. But this is discussed on many other forum threads and unfortunately continues in all size clubs. I believe the arrangement that you are describing is referred to by USMS as a "Workout Group" rather than a Masters Swim Club. Since your group does not require USMS registration, it is perhaps a semi-organized group lap swimmers? Maybe some even compete in meets and so are registered with USMS. Demonstrating that this model or arrangement can also be quite successful since it answers the needs of the members.

We must join the park district for $ 195 / yr ,then it's $35 for the team. Our coach does not take any pay. I collect from the team for a gift at the end of the season. Same team as OZ. We have three coached workouts of 90 minutes each week - Mon & Wed Night and Sun Morning. There is sometimes an additional informal workout on Friday mornings coached by one of the team members. Since we have a membership we can also swim on our own anytime there is lap swimming.

Yeah, MVN is a great deal and it's a nice pool. Maybe I should just move to Orange County :) We're looking at paying around $80/hour just to rent the pool then we'll need to pay a coach on top of that. So for a 90 minute workout the total cost will be somewhere around $150. It's a six-lane pool, so with four to a lane that's $6.25 per person. Based on this I'm concluding that many teams must pay much, much less to rent their pools! Kirk, I know our main pool a few years ago charged $14 per hour per lane. I'm sure it's gone up to at least $18 now. So My team rents 5 lanes for 90 min $135 per morning session (based on $18 guess). That's just for the pool. Then we have 2 coaches on deck. This is for my age group team but would apply to the masters team that practices there as well.