7 traits of successful clubs

In 1999 some of the top age group teams gathered for a coaching summit. At the start of the Summit, each coach had to get up and give a little talk about “What makes my team special.” In the process of telling what was special about each of our programs, we also discovered that everyone was saying the same things in different ways. We finally narrowed down seven traits that all of these really excellent age group programs possess.
The seven traits are listed below in no particular order. We will describe them to you over the next few issues. I can tell you from personal experience and from the hard road that coaches travel to learn about this sport that there may be more traits, but there are no clubs in the country that have less. As you do your yearly evaluations of club, staff and self you should know that if your team is falling short of its mission and goals then you are definitely missing one or more of these traits.
1. Consistent Coach leadership. I have often used the analogy of the limousine. The limousine is the club, the passengers are the board and membership, and the chauffeur is the coach. The goal is to get the limousine to a destination. The passengers set that destination and then acquire a chauffeur to get them there. The passengers then go about their own business of preparing for the next duties when the destination is reached. The chauffeur takes care of the immediate task at hand of getting the limo to its destination on time, safely, and without losing too many passengers. Conflict happens when the chauffeur starts getting side tracked because he doesn’t want to go to the destination he was hired to go to. Or when the passengers all start redefining the route to the destination even though the chauffeur knows the best way. Such it is with swim teams. The limo that gets to the most destinations is the one that has hired the correct chauffeur, doesn’t have to stop often to change drivers, and doesn’t mandate changes in routes very often.
2. Consistent Head Age Group Coaches. There’s not a lot of flip-flopping around. The direction of the age group program is being set consistently by one coach who passes well prepared swimmers on to a head coach who has a consistent direction for the Senior Program.
3. System Wide Goals. All the teams had system wide goals. Goals were not something just being set up for the senior kids. Goals went down as far as the novice kids. There were yearly, seasonal, monthly, even daily goals present in one form or another.
4. Common Teaching Language. There’s a common teaching language that is introduced to the swimmers in the novice group (the entry level group), and that language is then expanded on and enriched on all the way up to the National Program.
5. Supportive Parent and Administrative Layer. There is a supportive and administrative layer. This administrative layer, in successful clubs, is directed at the long term success of the program.
6. Stable Pool Situation. The teams all had a permanent home, either owned or leased. They all had some sort of back up pool plan as well.
7. Maintain a Standard of Excellence. Each one of these groups wants to be the best that they can be from novice to national. They are not interested in being one of the gang.