Industry news

Are swim development initiatives providing a lifeline for the industry?

Swimming means different things to different people: for the priviliged it means lazing around pools and on beaches; for the competitive minded it means hard training and galas; but for a large portion of the SA population it means the difference between drowning and staying alive.

Learn to Swim is an initiative of Swim SA that teaches this latter group of people to be "water safe". Water safety education, water orientation and swimming as a vital life skill are all key factors in this increasingly successful campaign to teach a large portion of our population to swim for survival.

The aim of the Learn To Swim (LTS) campaign is to make "every child a swimmer by 2014". According to Godfrey Monei, co-ordinator for marketing and communications at Swim SA, swimming lessons should be the norm in SA schools by 2014.

Apart from the survival factor, LTS has the objective of encouraging all children to participate in sporting activities – even if it is only to enjoy playing in water - thus drawing them away from the ills of crime and creating a healthy youth and community, says Monei.

The LTS programme also provides the starting point for the development of clubs in areas that do not have a formal swimming infrastructure. "The LTS programme assists clubs to get started," explains Monei. "This includes capacity development and administrative infrastructure planning and implementation. These clubs provide an opportunity for the community to participate in aquatics at a recreational level, and eventually at a performance level."

To achieve these LTS goals, resources that are required to support the programmes include:

» Training of instructors, especially in rural areas.
» Provision of safe aquatic environments where children can learn to swim, especially in rural areas. This includes swimming pools, portapools, etc.
» Provision of equipment to support programmes

Since the LTS campaign was launched in 2001, about 300 000 people have taken part, mainly adults (trained instructors) and school children.

Swimming in all schools

Swimming South Africa launched their portapool-project in October last year as part of the ‘Rural Splash’-leg of the LTS programme. "The progress of the children has been phenomenal, " says Monei. "With the objective of ‘Every Child A Swimmer by 2014’ this enables more children to swim at schools."

It is also becoming easier every year to convince local and provincial authorities to buy into the LTS programme as they are seeing the benefits for themselves, Monei points out.

"The demand for LTS instructor training grows every year with almost 1 000 people seeking this skill annually," states Monei. "Every time Swim SA runs a project, new demand for the product is evident."

The demand is so high that they do not have enough resources to satisfy all the requests.

While teaching water safety is a far cry from developing competitive swimmers, LTS has exposed more of the market to the benefits of swimming, not only as a recreational activity, but also for safety purposes, says Chantal Swemmer, marketing co-ordinator for Cressi-Swim.

"If we look at the number of people entering the swimming market over the past couple of years, we clearly have a hugely developing market," she says.

"The main focus of the LTS initiative is teaching swimming to the previously disadvantaged, and through this process regulating water safety not only in swimming pools but also dams and oceans. Not only has the indoor swimming market grown, but the number of participants in the open swimming market, such as the Midmar Mile, has risen dramatically."

Midmar numbers growing

In 2002 the Midmar Mile had 13 218 entries, which grew to 16 050 in 2003, and the record breaking 23 000 entries in 2007 – with a third of them children under 12 and two-thirds between 12-30 years old.

"LTS has set the bench mark in swimming initiatives, with the primary target being children, but the adult market is also growing at a dramatic rate," continues Swemmer.

"There are definitely more consumers reaching the market through the efforts of Swim SA and their national LTS programme," says Paul Barrett-Smith, president of Speedo SA. "The real crunch comes through the availability of pools and facilities that will allow these new consumers to stay in the sport. Perhaps the biggest push swimming has seen in this country is the easier accessibility to Virgin Active pools through the Discovery Medical Aid programme."

This, however, does not necessarily mean more sales of swimming accessories and teaching aids as Swim SA normally subsidises equipment to disadvantaged communities. But, if the growing participation base leads to more clubs, more schools offering swimming as sport and more competitive swimmers entering the market, this will have a positive spin-off.

As swimming equipment is very affordable and available for all levels of the market, from entry level right up until master swimming, it is within the reach of developing markets, says Swemmer.

According to Barrett-Smith swimming is one of the cheapest sports to participate in. "You need your racing costume (boys R120, girls R200), goggles (R70) and possibly a swim cap (R20)."

Where clubs operate in areas that struggle economically, Swim SA tries to assist with equipment, mainly with funds obtained from Sport & Recreation SA.

"With programme such as these and various other exposure to the market, such as the outstanding performances of our professional swimmers such as Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman and Natalie Du Toit, the market will continue to receive an influx in consumers," states Swemmer.

Apart from the water safety programme, Swim SA also has programmes in place to grow and improve competitive swimming in communities who do not normally swim, or have access to coaching. This includes a fast track team.

"The swimmers to join the fast track team are identified at our national competitions that are part of our national strategy," says Monei.

"During the 2006-7 season approximately 30 swimmers were on the elite level fast track programme. Many of these swimmers have gone on to various junior and senior international competitions and will continue to improve if they are provided with the appropriate opportunities."

Thabang Moeketsane from Soweto has been one of Swim SA’s biggest success stories. He was discovered through the LTS programme and placed on the fast-track programme at the high performance centre in Pretoria. With the right interventions and financial support from sponsors like Gauteng Sports Academy, SASCOC and Telkom, Thabang has become one of the leading swimmers in the country and Swim SA believes that he has the potential to qualify for the Olympic Games.

Monei emphasises that swimming is a long term development sport. "What this essentially means is that swimmers really only start realizing their full potential once they reach maturity. However, it is imperative that in order for swimmers to achieve their full potential, they are given the proper grounding in their formative years and not deprived of basic facilities where they can train."

Many of the basic facilities are lacking in the poorer communities and in the townships. "We are committed to transforming our sport and believe that there many other young swimmers like Thabang in the townships who if given the opportunity can go on to make our country proud," proclaims Monei.

One thing is certain: the various initiatives such as "Learn to Swim" and transformation in swimming will continue to make waves in the market and in the water. Now that is something to splash about!

A current LTS initiative involves an SMS-campaign. The public can donate towards the Learn to Swim programme by sms-ing the word "swim" to 38585. SMS’s are charged at R10 and no free SMS’s may unfortunately be used. VAS rates apply.