Re-Creating America's Club Swimming System by John Leonard, Executive Director, ASCA

Part 4:  Club Swimming  - is it important?

More of this Feature • Part 1: What's Wrong? • Part 2: Need to Invest! • Part 3: We're Afraid • Part 4: Is Club Swimming Important?   Join the Discussion "The National Governing Body for swimming in the USA is USA-Swimming. Does it work to benefit swimmers in the best possible way? Do our swimming clubs have what they need to continue to compete at the world level, or will our countries size continue to allow us to luck into a enough good swimmers from time to time to keep us happy with the status quo? What systems do other countries use that seem to work? Look at the Aussies - much smaller than the USA, but as good or better in many areas. Why?" About Swimming Guide      Related Resources • Governing Bodies • Find your team • Other Aquatic Sports    Elsewhere on the Web • ASCA Online • Seven Traits of a Successful Age Group Swim Club

Number Nine - Club Swimming Has To Be Important 

This one is simple. Being important in America 2001 is being on TV. Splash TV is a good start. It's on the wrong channel. Bubba watches the Outdoor Life Network. Bubba's kids generally don't swim, and won't. We need to be on Nick, and some of the other "cool channels" for kids. We aren't now because we didn't have enough cash to buy our way on. At least we're on TV somewhere, and that's a good start. Now let's get better. Let's get on the right channel. Let's improve the programming to appeal to KIDS we want to recruit to the sport, and lets do it consistently, not features on some of our very fine volunteers. We love the volunteers, but they're not recruiting kids to swimming by being on TV.

We need KIDS on our TV show…ten year olds, who other 6-9 year olds want to emulate. The best Splash shows have focused on cool kids. Let's do more, do it better. And keep the college teams off of there….we're not trying to promote college swimming by itself, we want to use TV to build our sport, and the kids come to swimming at the Clubs. Need in Search of a Solution: Club swimming on TV makes it important. If club swimming becomes "cool" and important, money will follow. Good start from USA Swimming. Now, let's get a "real number" of what it costs to be in the right place, learn from our programming development, and come to the USA convention with a budget resolution that will allow the House of Delegates decide if being on TV is more important than another set of Committee Meetings. Want to invest in the future of our sport, or a weekend away from home in Colorado Springs?

Number Ten - Leadership. As in, we need some

Who leads American Swimming Clubs? Chuck Wielgus…no, he leads the national office of USA Swimming…selling our sport, organizing our national effort, marketing USA Swimming, making sure Dennis Pursley has the resources he needs to bring home those Gold Medals from Greece that keeps our sport in the limelight sometimes. John Leonard at ASCA? Heck no. He's supposed to be raising our level of coaching through Certification and Education of our coaches. Dennis Pursley? No, he's the Medal Man. Keep the national team strong and productive. That's plenty to do with the world challenging us at every level.

Fact is, since the beginning of USA Swimming, NO ONE has been in charge of improving American Clubs. No one. Ever. Why? As I stated earlier, the business of USA Swimming has been seen to be the LSCs, not the clubs. That's WRONG. We need someone (actually more than one) whose job it is to help the clubs get better each day. Need in Search of a Solution? We need to borrow a page from American industry and create "Brand Managers" for our clubs.

Maybe by demographics...clubs over 200 swimmers are a "brand" with similar problems, needs, and potential solutions. Clubs between 100-200 swimmers with a full time coach is a "different brand" and clubs below 100 swimmers may be perfectly happy being small and cozy and with a part time coach. Maybe they don't need or want a brand manager. Or maybe, they do.

And the brand manager has to be TERRIFIC...a coach or General Manager who has been there…been successful with that brand himself…who comes to the position with credibility. A person who can provide LEADERSHIP to each brand of club and help them, daily.

What We Should Want The USA Swimming Club of the Future to Be.

A Summary of Sorts

• Stable. Stable coaching, stable leadership. Very low turn over.
   
• Predictably productive in terms of serving youth and producing fast swimming. 
   
• Professionally coached and managed with increasing standards across the board. Our coaches are the best in all of sport and all of the world. 
   
• Holding a USA Swimming Club license has economic value. Not everyone can be a USA Swimming Club. A license is meaningful. 
   
• USA Swimming clubs can choose to make decisions on facts, because we have the measurement devices in place to make that practical.

And this is supported by: 

• Our national governing body, USA Swimming, is in the club business. They provide brand managers who work to improve the clubs in their brand.
   
• USA Swimming Clubs are accountable to USA Swimming to meet established standards, or their license can be bought back by USA Swimming and sold to someone else to serve that part of the country. This does not imply geographic restrictions. 
   
• USA swimming gets American Club Swimming on TV and in the media as the vital link in the production of the world's greatest sports team in history, the USA National Swimming Team. 
   
• USA Swimming allows and encourages experimentation with meet formats to recognize that competition experiences are fundamental to the success of our sport, and these experiences must be exciting and enhancing for the child. 
   
• A "franchise system" either legally as such, or a licensing system that provides for 1-5 above, where the most productive clubs can be properly rewarded by USA Swimming for their commitment and productivity relative to the goals of USA Swimming.

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