Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Swimming has a problem...



USA Swimming announced a bold new initiative recently, with its main focus to get more participation in the pool.  Similar to initiatives launched by USA Hockey, USA Tennis, and the PGA – USA Swimming is realizing that other sports are taking their future into their own hands and recreating their sport to different age, gender, and socioeconomic groups.  Swimming has been a good sport at retaining its “clients”, but not great compared to other sports for participation, and that competition is growing.  So USA Swimming has a problem…..

I believe that adapting to a model serving more dual meets, shorter, faster and fun events is going to do a lot more to get people involved than by trying to recruit athletes in parts of the country that don’t have pools.
 
Question – What should the sport of swimming do to increase participation?