This one is going to come off a little critical, but I’m ok with that.
Let me start out with a simple hierarchy that was drilled into my brain as a young swimmer. There is the sport, the team, and the individual. Without the sport, there are no teams, and without teams, there are no individuals. Make sense?
So, as an individual participant in this wonderful sport (coach, athlete, fan, administrator), we have obligations. We have obligations to our team, and we have obligations to the sport.
Here’s where I think we have an opportunity. I think as individuals, we do a good job of fulfilling obligations to our teams and programs. We understand that their health and ability to function at a high level is dependent on the members of that team all sacrificing a little of what could be dedicated to oneself (time, focus, finances, energy) towards the team to make it successful. We understand that without a healthy team, we cannot create opportunities for “success” for individuals.
Where we seem to struggle is taking that up a level. We don’t seem to recognize the health and ability to function at a high level of the sport is dependent on the teams in that sport all sacrificing a little of what could be dedicated to the individual team (time, focus, finances, energy) towards the team to make it successful. See what I did there?
That’s a problem. An unhealthy sport will start impacting teams -the smaller ones first. The ones that don’t have the mass and resources to survive, pushing individuals on those teams elsewhere or out of the sport. Then it will work its way up the food chain until swimming becomes two versions of the sport. One that scrapes by for the majority and one that is for the few that can obtain the resources to attract and retain kids and families that can afford the money and time to participate in it.
Sounds over the top, right? It’s not. The high-level solution is easy. We need to get teams to see that contributing some attention and sacrificing a little time and energy to what is good for the sport is as important, if not more important, than what is right in front of them.
The difficult part is defining exactly what that looks like for teams Minnesota Swim and Vibe will continue to bring the conversation to the forefront and hopefully drive some change, whatever that ends up looking like. It’s a swimming issue that is a lot like swimming: progress takes a ton of work. Sometimes you fail, and results don’t come right away; but in the end, it’s worth it.