Competitive swimming is extremely expensive.
In Connecticut at the 13&over level, it costs well over $12,000 a year per swimmer.
Here is the cost for Gretchen to compete just for the short course season (September to early April):
- program fee: $2400
- team dues: $425
- Y membership: $744
- required equipment: $97.50
- required team suit: $66.25
- meet fees (1 local meet/month, 6 events/meet, $15/event) $540
- tech suit: $400
- December travel meet to Boston (3 nights hotel, food, gas, tolls) $800.00
- Y Nationals travel meet in North Carolina: (6 nights hotel, airfare, rental car, tolls, food, meet fees, spectator pass) $1700
TOTAL: $7,172.75
Over $1000/month for one swimmer.
In addition to this tremendous financial cost, there is the added investment of time.
Parents spend multiple hours every week driving their kids to and from practice, watching their kids swim at meets and fulfilling obligatory job assignments at swim meets.
Swimmers at this level dedicate 20 hours/week to train. They wake up in the 4’s to be at 5 a.m. practice multiple times/week. They practice every day after school and on Saturday mornings.
They are disciplined with sleep.
They sacrifice time with non-swimming friends, family vacations, proms, family weddings, vacations, and more.
During the school week they spend more time with their swim coaches than they do with their parents and siblings.
They have big goals that they think about constantly. They eat, sleep, and dream swimming.
Nothing is more important to them than their swimming experience and performance.
Swimmers and swim parents make massive investments of time, energy and money into their club teams, and they should expect a return on their investment.
Swim clubs have an obligation to the swim families that keep these clubs running.
Competitive swimming isn’t just an extracurricular—it’s a second mortgage and a second job rolled into one. Families hand over thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours each year because they believe in the value of the sport, the discipline it builds, and the doors it can open.
With that kind of sacrifice, parents have every right to expect more than just a schedule of practices and meets. They should be looking for clubs that provide excellent technical coaching, clear communication, a healthy culture, and a plan for long-term development—not just short-term speed.
And swim clubs have a responsibility to deliver exactly that.
What does this look like?
- Engaged, energetic and enthusiastic coaches
- Daily technical feedback at practice and detailed feedback after every swim at swim meets
- A No Cell Phone on Deck policy for all coaches at all practices and meets
- Mentorship and Continuing Education for all coaches
When swimmers are grinding through 8 or more practices per week and parents are writing checks that rival a year of in-state college tuition, clubs must deliver.
They owe families a program worthy of the investment.
If the price tag is elite, the program better be, too.
Leave a Reply