Mark Seguin: Hello, boys and girls, men and women, swimmers, divers of all ages. Mark Seguin Minnesota Swim and Vibe here kicking off episode number two of our podcast series, The Long Course, where we examine the current state of swimming and the health of it. back to episode one, we talked about how swimming for me has felt like the same pool and a completely different sport. The premise is that the value proposition of swimming has changed. Over the past 20 or so years, to where we're now asking athletes and families and coaches to invest more time, to invest more money, to invest more emotional energy, more mental energy, more physical energy into a sport where they're getting less out of it, at least for a lot of people in the sport. And we're seeing that through declining participation numbers, which is very quantifiable, both in high school and in club, ⁓ as well as something more subjective. If I was able to do a satisfaction survey. among athletes and parents and coaches, I think that would be down from where it was. I don't have the ability to do that, but if I did, I think we're gonna see a lot of people still in the sport, ⁓ less satisfied, therefore probably subject to about leaving and trying something else, which is not good for the sport overall. So that was episode one, episode two, here we're gonna talk about who's to blame. And I kind of teed that up as a cliffhanger at the end of last one. If you only watched the promo from episode one and didn't actually watch the episode, you probably think I'm gonna say it's the parents are to blame and it's not. Okay, so when we talk about who's to blame, I'm going to be looking through a couple different ⁓ groups of actors, if you will. The parents, coaches, programs, athletes, ⁓ and just a disclaimer up front that whenever you talk about a large group of people, there is going to be a small, very small subset of bad people in that group. I love swim parents, they're bad swim parents out there. I love coaches, they're bad coaches out there. I love the kids, there's some bad kids out there. I love swim programs, there's bad programs out there, but they're the exception and they're not the rule. And that's just a disclaimer as I get into it. So let's talk a little bit about how I mentally ⁓ thought through this process. I took a look and really took an inventory of the sport when I was participating in it and the sport as I participate in it now, as a coach, as a parent, ⁓ as a fan. ⁓ what's the same and what's different and and a lot of things at the root of it all are the same parents they still drive a lot they still love their kids they want to see their kids succeed they still sit in the stands and watch intently it used to be with a stopwatch and a clipboard now it's a cell phone but it's still the same thing I don't think that's changed they just want what's best for the kids Coaching. I don't think coaching's changed. I still think coaches truly, genuinely, wholeheartedly care about the success of their athletes, and they really enjoy teaching the sport to kids. I think that's the same. I don't think that's changed. Programs want to attract kids into their programs so they can be ⁓ sustainable and thrive. I don't think that's changed. But one thing That I have noticed that changed when I sat down and thought through this is really around technology. And before I get into this, I'm certainly not anti-technology. I use social media quite a bit. Minnesota Swim Vibe is basically a technology platform. But the technology has changed. And when I thought about it, I broke it into two groups. There's kind of what I call the on-deck technology. That's the technology that athletes and coaches have available to them enhance their Participation in the sport, So tech suits is one that comes to mind. Like we didn't have tech suits. Tech suits are awesome. There's a cost with it, but the result might be worth the cost. Most cases, not all cases. But that's a piece of technology that's been very beneficial to helping the sport get faster. And that's good. ⁓ video analysis, stroke analysis, good things. They help swimmers not only get faster, but they've helped a lot with injury prevention, which for those of us back from my day that can't lift their arms over their head easily, we get. technology has helped us train better. It's helped with nutrition. It's helped us train safer. It's helped us with recovery. We've used technology to learn more about how to be smarter and train better for our athletes. And all those things are really, really good things. Then the second group of technology is what I call off-deck technology. And that's ⁓ the technology that is available for us to share and promote the sport. ⁓ Everyone's heard of Meet Mobile, things like that. ⁓ swim swam. I'll throw that out there. That's another piece of technology that really shares what's going on in the sport to a broad audience. And then I think we'll loop all that around with social media as a way to take what is out there and propagate it and share to others that care the sport or that are interested in the community. And this is the one place where I think. we start to see it acting as a catalyst for the drift from where swimming was as a sport and that value proposition to where swimming is and what the value proposition is today. And I'm gonna explain a little bit about that. Okay, so prior to all this wonderful technology to share what's going on in this sport. People had to be around it. You had to be on deck, you had to be around deck, you had to be at meets, you had to be around practices, or you'd hear it through coaches and you'd hear it through athletes. That's the only way. And you kind of got both pieces of the of the story. You you got the experiential piece of swimming, the growth, the development, the challenging, the accountability, ⁓ the learning how to communicate, all the stuff that Youth Sports is about, you would get. And then you'd also get the results stuff too. It wasn't easily available to see who was. swimming what when where how why really had to be at it now with all this technology one of these two buckets is easy to share easily available and that's the results the rankings the times the drops the other parts not so easily shared Right? So there isn't an application out there or a system out there that easily quantifies and makes available someone's personal growth in the sport. There is a lot of technology that shares how fast somebody went on any given day. And it creates this always-on leaderboard that has become the default measurement of success. So what happens when you have this catalyst ⁓ of ⁓ one of the sport, the result base, ⁓ and other part gets left behind? That becomes ⁓ what constantly see. We see it as athletes, we see it as parents, we see it ⁓ as coaches, ⁓ we it as programs. And slowly over time we start to think that this is really the only true measurement of success. And that's kind of become the problem. It's not intentional, but it's the catalyst that has created this current that has taken us away from what the core value proposition of swimming was into where it is today, where it becomes a negative value proposition for so many athletes, right? Because they're going to put in the more time. the more money, invest more of themselves into it, and if they're not getting the quantifiable results that everyone sees, then they're not feeling like they're getting the value out of the sport. That's a bad equation. So we have two things. We have the what's available from a technology standpoint as the catalyst. And we have that making results so visible all the time and becoming just the dominant metric of the sport, creating a current pulling us away from what the true value proposition is of the sport. And that that's what I think a lot of it from. ⁓ unfortunately, nothing intentional, but that's really where the drift is. Let's talk about how that catalyst impacts certain user groups in the sport of swimming. ⁓ we'll start off with parents. Parents just want to see their kids be successful, right? That's all they want. They want them to be safe and they want them to be successful. Well, when we have this always-on leaderboard that just constantly shows results. ⁓ It's easy for parents to think that that is the true measure of success. It's the quantifiable one. Right? So we get wrapped up in that. And when kids aren't getting results, as any rational parent will do, they want to step in and help. The cost of that is it leads them to tend to become a little too over-engaged and a little too hyper-focused on results. And in swimming, results come. But the slow burn of the process. And and the personal growth is really what's always happening, but we don't show that. We don't measure it. It's not available. We just see that the results aren't there at the time or someone else is faster. And we want to chase that because we see that as a true measure of success in the sport. Probably true for all youth sports. doing the rational thing. Right? Loving their kids and wanting to see them to see them succeed You throw them into the with this catalyst, and the current drifts them into being over-engaged sometimes. And when that's really not their intention, but they're just doing what parents do. Coaches. There's technology, and technology ⁓ is a way to promote their programs and their success in ways that never existed before. Why wouldn't they want to take advantage of that? Right? They want they have this tool to show the success of their program to potential athletes and families. Great. But when it's the only mechanism and it only shows the results. That's all they're focused on. That's all that gets out there. They're not the pieces ⁓ personal development don't make it out there. Right? So everyone is kind of operating on that same system of being results focused. Programs are the same way. They want to attract kids and and make sure that they have. The revenue to keep running their program. So it's available for kids. Again, they have a tool, but it only promotes results. It does not promote what youth sports is all about, or specifically what swimming is all about. That doesn't work in the catalyst. The catalyst doesn't work there, right? ⁓ let's take athletes. ⁓ and this will take me back to a conversation I had with the great Mr. John Barnes one time. ⁓ where my mouth got ahead of my brain, and I I threw out a statement, the kids have changed. And John patiently talked to me about kids haven't changed, right? All they want is a place to go have fun, be active, grow, feel safe, and be with their friends and belong to something. That's what kids ⁓ haven't changed. That's different. Now than it was back when I swam, and probably back when those swam before it. That's all athletes, kids really want. But this catalyst, this technology, has kind of made it feel like to belong, you have to have certain results. To belong, you have to have certain cuts. To be accepted, you have to have ⁓ certain times. ⁓ not intentional, but it's there. Because that's the one piece of the sport that is easily visible, easily shareable, and always on for athletes, for coaches, for people that run programs, and for parents. And that's my hypothesis. No one's acting with malicious intent. It's just we've been put into a system where everything is focused on the visible results and that other stuff got left behind. That has drifted the sport away from what once was a high value proposition to a negative proposition for a lot of people. Not everybody. If you have the times and you have the results, that's actually a better system for you. But that's only three, four, five percent of the kids in the whole sport. Everyone else is getting a bit left behind. ⁓ And think that's why we're seeing participation go down, we're seeing satisfaction go down. So that's episode two. ⁓ think about it. When we get to episode three, we're going to talk about who's responsible for fixing it. Or is it even fixable? Or do we just have to deal with it? Some pretty important questions. So that'll be episode three. Thank you for listening. Bye bye. Take care.