Ah! Beautiful Phoenix, Arizona. This is the view off of my balcony. The palm trees swaying in the slight breeze, an average temperature of 80 degrees F, the mountains in the background, and the ... parking lot. Well, if you ignored the cars, it was nice. The rooms on the other side of the hotel faced the pool and the golf course. But... I wasn't there for the hotel room; so on to the good stuff:
This was your typical conference in a hotel: speakers, round table discussions, vendors, networking, and partying in the evenings. But it was a milestone for the USSSA because they had their largest ever attendance of (about)275 conference go-ers. It was exciting to see a lot of familiar faces and to meet some new people. I also got lots of great ideas for the swim school. I can't spill all of my trade secrets :-) but I can share the event topics that I most enjoyed. On Wednesday morning I was invited to the New Member Breakfast (yea!) where I met other owners who just joined the conference. Many of them have been in opperation for a while, but are just joining. Actually, I didn't meet anyone else who was just in the start-up phase. The next thing on the agedna that is of note was the owners forum that afternoon. The topic of discussion was ethics and morals and the struggles of swim school owners in those regards. It was quite interesting, but I probably shouldn't share. :-) Other interesting topics throughout the convention included the panel talk on leased facilities, The Austrailian Swimland swimschool business model, the Swimkids USA speach by Lana Whitehead and Bryan Crane on movement and brain development (I will post a separate blog on that later, it's very interesting), Olympic Gold Medalist Debbie Meyer's talk on strokes and techniques, and my personal favorite, the Round Table discussions on Home Swim Schools.On Saturday morning, everyone who signed up for the swimschool tour dragged ourselves down to the busses (the awards banquet had been the night before and celebration went into the wee hours.) There were four stops on the tour: Swimkids USA, Aquatots, Gold Medal Swim School, and Hubbard Family Swim School.
Swimkids is Lana Whitehead's school. With modest signage in the front, one might wonder how much exposure the school gets. However, their position as a leader in motor development secures a top spot in the swim industry for this professional program. They have a definite emphasis on brain development in their curriculum as evidenced by the dance and gymnastics programs included in their school to complement their swimming lessons. The literature available at this school explains the correlation between movement and academic achievement as well as outlining the ways that swimming enhances cognitive, emotional, and 
motor development is toddlers. A playground area in the middle of the facility further enforces their devotion to keeping kids in motion. Another theme that is carried throughout the facility is the dedication to Blake's Miracle (http://www.blakesmiracle.org/) a foundation established in the name of Blake Whitehead to benefit children suffering from terminal diseases through the research and use of alternative pain therapy.
Other notable features of the facility are the gym, the podium for students who progress to the next level (there is a medal ceremony for these students), and the retail center.
One last shot of the facility on the way out:
Next we have Aqua-Tots, a mighty swim school franchise. Many of these franchises include a scuba shop in conjuction with the swim school. Scuba divers also use the pool while swim lessons take place. Aqua-Tots, located in the corner unit of a strip center, is very open and bright.
They have one teaching pool divided into stations for each swim or scuba class.
The parent viewing area looks quite cozy with oversized arm chairs and cafe tables. This is an idea I will definitely use when I open my own facility. Another idea I would like to implement is a kids play area. In my new home, I will have space for this in our upstairs waiting room.
The scuba retail portion of the facility was rather large but it was partitioned off from the swim lesson side by a large fish tank.
Although this swim school felt very kid-friendly, I had this strange feeling like I was in a McDonalds. I think I prefer the idea of personalized swim schools that haven't outgrown their britches. For some reason I have attached a stigma to the concept of a franchise. I do realize that there is more money in it for the business owner, but something gets lost in translation to the client. 
Gold Medal Swim School was my favorite on the tour. It was founded in 1995 by Michael Troy, a
double Olympic gold medalist and a former Navy Seal. He later teamed up with Mike Walker, a two time Olympic swim coach, in 2006 to open Gold Medal Swim School in its new location. When you walk into the facility you can see Michael Troy's Gold medals displayed on the wall (VERY cool!) The viewing room is set up for parents to be able to watch lessons while behind a glass wall (typical of most swim schools.) But the cool extra feature that they added is a couple of closed circuit TVs that 
have information for the week displayed. Anyone who has ever worked in a children's facility knows that there is information that 
needs to go out to parents(tuition is due next week, closed for holidays, new programs being added, etc) but people have a bad habit of not looking at signs.
Because our society has been programmed to watch tv, this may just be a better (and neater) way to grab people's attention. Also, I am not sure if GMSS does this, but I would flash student's pictures on the TVs as well giving the parents even more incentive to watch the TVs.
The structures in the facility (changing room stalls, benches, cubbies, etc.) were made out of 
styrofoam(!) and then coated with a special substance to make them look like stone. Styrofoam, it seems, has a unique ability to avoid molding, mildewing, and smelling, which makes it a better building material than wood or sheetrock. The coating that was used makes the structures incredibly sturdy and VERY heavy. And on top of all that, I 
really liked the way they looked. This will serve as my note to self to check with GMSS on their building supplies. They also used colorful shells placed into the styrofoam to create a textured, more inviting look. Even as I look at the pictures I can't believe that's styrofoam!
Inside the pool room, Gold Medal had installed sound baffles cut in the shape of dolphins to keep the noise level down. They purchased these from a music recording supplier and had the shapes cut before shipping. It makes for an asthetic look while serving a purpose. The pool is a 
standard competition length, 5 lane pool, which in my opinion is a great size for a swim school facility. Anything smaller restricts growth for students capabilities as well as for the facility as a whole. I am also including a picture of the showers. They have an entire wall of showers along one side of 
the pool deck. I especially loved the color combination of the tiles. (The yellow in the pictures is really more of a lime green - I don't know why it's showing up that way.) My last photo from this location is of the platforms they used. I used 
platforms at two of my former swim schools and loved them. I am hoping that I can build or find someone to build one or two of these for me.
The last stop on our tour was at the future site of Hubbard Family Swim School. It is currently under construction in a family oriented center. Hubbard's is at the end of a long walk of shops that leads into the movie theatre. It looks like it may be a great location. Other than the outside area pictures, the rest of the 
facility is pretty much just a hole in the ground right now.
The USSSA Conference was a lot of fun, very informative, and a great way for me to meet other professionals in the same industry. I had a great time and can't wait to return!
No comments:
Post a Comment