Developing a Successful Swimming Club Social Program

By Wayne Goldsmith and Bill Sweetenham

A key element in the process of developing a successful swimming club is the development of an effective social program.

Under the direction of the team head coach, a well-designed social program is an excellent tool for encouraging attendance, developing team unity and building long-term friendships between team members and club families.

1. An effective swimming club social program includes an emphasis on team building and developing friendships between:

• Swimmers who train together (same squad)
• Swimmers who don’t train together (same club, different squads, different ages)
• Families
• Coaches and swimmers
• Coaches and families

2. The social program can be based on:

• Age of swimmers
• Level of commitment
• Attendance
• Goals
• Swimming ability

(A word of caution on swimming ability. Early developers may be advanced physically and training with the senior team, but still be "kids" socially. Including 12 years olds in 18-year-old activities may not always be effective).

3. Social activities should be restricted at times to different groups at different times:

• Sometimes all swimmers together (major holidays, presentations
• Sometimes senior swimmers only (e.g. personal development)
• Sometimes juniors only (fun, games)
• Sometimes swimmers and families (e.g. Christmas party)
• Sometimes only girls or only boys

Why? If you offer everything to younger swimmers, what can you offer them when they become older swimmers? If you offer everything to every swimmer, how can you target and encourage specific groups?

4. Types of social activities:

• Social (movies / bowling / BBQ’S)
• Sporting (tennis / bowling / basketball / skiing / other exercise e.g. run and BBQ breakfast on the river. (Careful - some of these activities carry high injury risks)
• Family activities (BBQ / bus trips / Seasonal activities like Easter Egg Hunt, Christmas party)
• Educational (lectures / seminars)

5. Timing of Social Activities:

• After important events (REWARD / INCENTIVE)
• Before important events (TEAM BUILDING / RELAXATION)
• Surprise (PICKUP DURING FLAT TIMES)
• Around Major holidays and in celebration of special events

6. Issues to think about:

Involve the swimmers in the decisions about social program, but consider the following:

• Paying the additional cost associated with social club activities. Do parents pay? Does the club hold fund raising functions to raise money to subsidize social events? Do you find sponsors to cover the costs?
• Injury risk / insurance cover. Will your coach’s insurance company cover social club outings? Does your club insurance (usually included as part of your affiliation to your state swimming association) cover social events?
• Parental support / transport. Who will take swimmers to and from social activities?
• Set down clear guidelines for involvement in social program and make sure they are widely distributed and well understood.
• Supervision responsibilities. Who takes responsibility for supervising the swimmers at social activities NOT attended by the coach?
• Safety is a clear priority at all times. Take a medical kit on all activities involving games, sports, competitions and physical challenges.

7. Other Considerations

• Have the birthdays of all swimmers noted. Ideally you need to know three days before the actual birth date to allow time to arrange to send a birthday card. A good idea is to start a "birthday board" a board placed prominently at the pool to recognize the swimmers’ birthdays, which can include pictures of individual swimmers on their birthday, pictures of their pets etc. Appoint a parent and a swimmer to take responsibility to keep the board up to date.
• Know the Competition calendar well in advance so that the social calendar is strategically well organized and can have the maximum impact.
  *Determine and agree on clear dividing lines between social groups. Is it appropriate to have girls only social activities? Boys only? Parents only? (Ideally the head coach should have limited involvement in parent-only social activities. Personal relationships between the coach and parents may lead to training and selection compromises and perhaps just as important, the perception of favoritism towards children of personal friends).
• How far do you compromise for the sake of club unity? E.g., if the requirement to be involved in the social program is 100% attendance, do you accept 95%? 90%? Set a benchmark of 98% or better and be unwilling to compromise this level.

8. Sample program outline

• June - Movie night (Squads only)
• July - Games / Pizza night (Juniors only)
• August - Trivia Night - All Families (Fund raiser for competitive swimmers)
• September - Bowling (Squads only)
• October - Mini Olympics (Juniors only)
• October - How to use make-up effectively (Senior Girls only, preparing for school graduation ball)
• November - Bus trip to easy meet (Confidence builder for all swimmers / team building)
• December - Christmas Party (All swimmers / all families)

Other social program ideas:

1. 10 years of age - Visit an animal park or zoo
2. 11 years of age - Movie Marathon
3. 12 years of age - Camp
4. 13 years of age - Go carting / fashion parade
5. 14 years of age Three day activity camp
6. 15 years of age - Birthday party / present
7. 16 years of age - Academic support program / academic dinner
8. 17 years of age - Help with getting driver’s license

9. Overall goals

• Create an environment where kids want to swim
• Create an environment where kids want to stay in the program
• Create a safe, stimulating positive environment where excellence in technique and improvement in skills at all ages is the priority
• Create an environment that facilitates swimmers and families "selling" the program to others through their enjoyment of the social program and confidence in the coaching program
• Encourage attendance at all levels.

10.When to start

In October 1997, Legendary Australian Swimming Coach (the late) Joe King was asked, "Mr. King if you were starting a swim club from scratch, what is the first thing you would do?" He replied, "Knowing what I do now, the first I’d do would be to put together a social program for the kids."

Copyright © 1998-1999 American Swimming Coaches Association.