Swimming Year Round

You've survived summer swimming and you think you are ready to continue your swim journey. First step- find a team. Ask swimmers or swim parents that are already involved in year round swimming what team they are on. Locate teams at USASwimming.org/find-a-team

• Experienced Coaching Staff- You are paying for more than workouts. You should expect feedback, technical knowhow as well as dryland training to help your swimmer improve.

• Culture- Do the swimmers and swim families support and encourage each other? Do they respect the coach? If the answer is no- you might want to keep looking for a team.

• Expectations- Big team or small team. Meets. Workouts. Improvement. Know what you want out of your swimming experience and communicate with your coach your expecations.

• Swim Clubs should vote yearly for board positions.

• For the health of your team Board positions should never be permanent but rolling over every two years OR SO.

• Board members should have swimmers on the team.

• Your team is a business. Encouraging people with business acumen into leadership will make your team stronger- such as lawyers or marketing executives. hAVING parents that were FORMER SWIMMERS CAN ALSO BE valuable.

It is important to remember that the board is the financial side of the swim club. They should not hire assistant coaches. They should not be on deck trying to coach. They should not intervene in the daily operation of the team. They do not- nor should they- run the team. That is why you have coaches.