Challenging for Success

Another guest article from Colin Scott, who is the Business Development Manager of 222 Sports Ltd. the developers of SWIMTAG. Prior to joining the SWIMTAG team in 2014, he worked as Sales and Marketing Manager at Westwoods Health Club, an exclusive private club which is part of Fettes College in Edinburgh. Westwoods were the first SWIMTAG operator in Scotland.

As we know, different people are motivated by different things. Everyone coming to your centre will have a different reason for joining, whether it’s to stay healthy, shift a few pounds or train for a specific challenge, it’s your job to keep them motivated, because the more they visit, the longer they stay!

Not everyone will enter a marathon, Tough Mudder, or the Great British Swim series, but there is still lots you can do to keep them interested after the initial enthusiasm has worn off!

For swimmers, the English Channel is the ultimate target and for a long time, centres have encouraged members to virtually Swim the Channel in the comfort of their own pool. All you have to do is swim 1408 lengths without losing count!

There are shorter challenges available. The Gibraltar Strait is a mere 656 lengths or you could “Escape from Alcatraz” by swimming just 145 lengths.

Of course, this is entirely possible to do without relying on technology, but we've found that if you take all of the responsibility for tracking the lengths away from the members and staff, it means that people will be much more inclined to give it a go!

That’s why we've built the challenge feature into SWIMTAG. It means that members can choose from all of the challenges mentioned above, or others including Loch Ness, Lake Windermere, round the Isle of Wight or even the Irish Sea! Members can take part in an individual challenge but we can also challenge every member at a given centre to a “club challenge” and it can be anywhere you like! Swim a local coastline or body of water near you… You can even make it more attractive by raising money for your local charity… Just send out links to their Just Giving Page and members can raise funds without any need for cash to be collected at reception.

We have countless examples of clubs who have done this including Westwoods Health Club, who swam across the Forth Estuary raising over £6,000 for their local Maggie’s Cancer Centre. You can “Swim the Amazon” like Places for People users did for HEART UK, raising over £8,000 or simply choose from one of the challenges that already exists on SWIMTAG.

Running challenges and raising cash for charity not only motivates the people who complete the challenge, it also gives other members a sense of pride in their club and the fantastic PR you’ll generate helps to attract new members as well.

It really is a win-win situation for all!