4 Steps To Attracting Summer League Swimmers To Your Swim Team

August 2015 will be quickly upon us and all year round swimming organizations shall be clamoring to bolster their rosters with new members. For some programs, a pipeline has already been established with the summer league programs in their area. But for other teams, the opportunity to attract athletes from summer clubs has not been explored. This article will provide interested coaches with a simple 4 step process to attract summer league talent to their team. 1. Make the decision to build a relationship with a summer program in your area: While many head coaches are not willing to coach a summer program there is probably a younger assistant on your staff who will gladly accept the challenge of running a team. And with some networking, you will likely learn that some of your current families have solid connections with the summer team. Once you determine the leadership at the summer pool, set up a meeting with them and extend the offer for your assistant to run their team. A seasoned year round assistant coach can be quite an attractive option to a summer program and likely can result in a hire. 2. Develop a structure and framework for your summer program: Many summer programs are run by well intentioned high school/college aged coaches with limited swimming knowledge. Position your assistant for success and help develop a framework for him or her to follow during the summer. This pre-planning and structure development will become immediately evident to the families on the team. A focus on fundamentals, coupled with a mix of fun and fitness is a proven formula in the summer realm. While the summer season is short (generally 6-8 weeks), you can focus on fundamentals and technique for the first portion of the season. This will pay dividends not only in performance during the meets but also in families wanting to learn more about year round swimming. Teaching fundamentals and technique should become one of the cornerstones of your summer team. 3. Make a statement in the pool: Nothing helps more with attracting athletes to your year round teams than seeing and achieving success in the pool. By having some of your current year round athletes compete in the summer league meets, this will create a definite buzz on the pool deck. “Who was that kid? How do they swim so fast?” And if your year round families are in attendance at the meet they can answer those questions for you. “Thank you for the compliment. That is my son and he swims for Coach X year round at the city pool.” Nothing is more powerful in attracting new athletes to your club than word of mouth from parents. The other facet to consider is that by teaching fundamentals to the summer team the overall performance of the athletes will improve. And as athletes garner more success in the water this can very well lead to greater interest in year round swimming. And if you can secure a championship or completely transform the success of the entire team as compared to previous years then this will help your recruiting efforts as well. 4. Provide an informational meeting/open house for interested families at season end: While you cannot make recruitment for your year round program your sole focus for the summer, you can mention to families at the end of the season that you are going to have an informational meeting/open house for families interested in learning more about year round swimming. The families are excited about the success they have achieved over the past 8 weeks and many will be interested in what you have to offer. One creative way to approach this meeting is to have some of your advanced swimmer demonstrate various strokes and techniques to the crowd. Following the demonstrations you can have the interested new swimmers compete in fun relays and games with your year round kids while you have a question and answer session with the parents. During this Q&A you can extol the virtues and strengths of year round swimming and your organization while the kids are having a blast in the pool. This meeting format has proven to be quite successful and can help lead to greater enrollments for you in August. Good luck to all of the coaches out there this summer and best of luck to the year round programs during registration in August. With some initiative and planning, you can greatly reduce your stress related to attracting new members. Once you establish a solid foundation and culture, a well run summer team can become a huge positive force for your year round club. As with every goal in life, it all begins with the decision to start. So get out there and create success for your team in the years to come with a solid summer league pipeline.

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Written by Spence Royer. Spence Royer is a USA Swimming and AAU coach living in Southeast Missouri. Spence is a collegiate All-American in backstroke and also an All-State swimmer in multiple events. His passion is creating lifelong swimmers who are successful both in the pool and out. Spence blends the concepts of fitness, fun, and fundamentals in his competitive swimming programs.