The Aquahawks Swimming Club has completed a ground-breaking project to ensure the long term future of the club.

The Napier based swimming club had experienced a decline in junior members over the last five years, in line with a national trend which has seen a 38% decline of club swimmers in the last 12 months and a 46.5% decline over the last five years.

Aquahawks club chairperson Charlene Donald said the club initiated a new strategy aimed at increasing membership, retaining membership and to foster a thriving and inclusive club culture.

“Our swimmers have told us that they value the social connection with their swimming friends and want more fun and variety. We are working to deliver on that balanced with teaching correct swimming technique as well as catering for individual swimming aspirations.

“It was important for us to do something about the decline and the club was keen to use the Sport New Zealand Balance is Better philosophy and the Good Sports programme, both led locally by Sport Hawke’s Bay.

“We want to ensure we have a thriving club well into the future that meets its swimming community needs. We are working with Napier Aquatic Centre and local schools to deliver swim programs for tamariki,” Charlene said.

Balance is Better is an evidenced based philosophy to support quality sport experiences for young people with the aim of keeping youth involved in sport and realising their potential at the right time.

Sport Hawke’s Bay Sport Hawke’s Bay Sport Development Manager Derryn Finlayson said the best way to combat a decline in youth sport participation is “to listen to youth and get a better understanding of what they enjoy and don’t enjoy.”

“There’s a risk as administrators in sport that we do not hear or listen to the voice of the participant and instead just to talk to the adults and parents, at the end of the day the kids are the consumers or customers of sport, like any good business we need to provide what they like and is important to them. 

“This process can take adults out of their comfort zone and was a new concept for Napier Aquahawks, however the club has been brave in trusting in the process and embracing the learning journey that they are undertaking,” Derryn said.

The club approached Sport Hawke’s Bay for further support to engage with their youth and swimming community to undertake the consultation phase and seeking feedback. 

Sport Hawke’s Bay alongside the club co-designed two information gathering sessions in place of training sessions.  These were split into two groups, one for the swimmers and one for the adults. 

Some of the swimmers’ comments and feedback resulted in challenging conversations for the club, and have identified further work to be done moving forward. Swimming as a sport has a culture of high training load and a young performance pathway.  

The club are keen to align to the Balance is Better philosophy in providing more age appropriate opportunities and pathways that are inclusive of all levels, abilities and motivations for participation.

“The young members clearly said they wanted training to be more fun and to introduce more variety to training schedules, with less adult and parental influence.”

Key findings were that 68% of respondents said what they liked most about swimming was the social connection and friendships created from training and competing, followed by including fun activities as part of training at 21% while 16% liked the fitness gains and improving performance.

They were also asked what would make the sport more fun and 95% said greater variety in training and followed by fitness and competition was the least popular at 11%.

The least enjoyable was the training load which 33% said was too often and difficult, followed by early morning training at 21% while 19% referenced negative adult behaviour, expectations or pressure.

“Ultimately the kids said they wanted to have a say and to be included in their own sporting journey, and they want more than just swimming up and down a lane.

“Traditionally, swimming is a tough sport with a lot of training. The challenge now is for the club to step it up, be bold and courageous with their decision making and implementation plan to achieve their newly developed strategic goals.”

Derryn says one of the immediate changes the club has made is to empower the junior members to create the theme for the end of year Christmas event and future club nights.  This will reflect their desire for more social connection and fun.

One of the findings and suggestions from Sport Hawke’s Bay made based on the feedback, was that it doesn’t have to be fun or competition, there is room for both.  

Some of the children suggested making use of the basketball court located at Napier Aquatic centre, to be used in their down-time such as in between races at club nights, or before and after training sessions.

Some of the bigger challenges will be working with coaching staff to create alignment with the Balance is Better and Good Sports philosophies, to be incorporated into the training programmes and development of more inclusive pathways.

Swimming New Zealand has also made a national commitment to Balance is Better, developing their participation strategy with a vision of “more people swimming more often” and much of this is based on growing and improving the participation experience at grassroots and at club level.

Sport Hawke’s Bay praise the leadership and initiative shown by Napier Aquahawks and admire their commitment to placing the athletes well-being at the centre of their decision making.  

Article added: Thursday 24 November 2022