In my last blog post, I talked about how challenges help to motivate swimmers. The reason that they are so useful is that they can be inclusive. If you challenge everyone to Swim the Channel over a couple of months, you’ll get one or two who’ll race ahead and try and be the first to finish… but for most it’s about a sense of personal achievement. Not everyone enters the London Marathon with the aim of winning, for some just finishing is a challenge in itself.
For others though, it’s a chance to compare and compete, a chance to get under 3 hours, or to get into the top 20%. They want to measure themselves against the general population.
And if people have that competitive streak, then you should harness it and use it to your advantage. Everyone who has seen “Top Gear” will know that one of the show highlights is when the “Star in the Reasonably Priced Car” finds out where they have finished on the leaderboard.
By giving members the opportunity to climb the leaderboard at your club, you give them something to aim for. Whether it’s a running challenge, a 2,000 metre row, or a swim challenge, people will immediately measure themselves up against the competition and try and set themselves a target.
That’s why SWIMTAG has a built in competition feature which is fully controlled by the Pool Operator. Pool Managers can set up a new 1km Competition or a short sprint… Get the staff involved and call it “Beat the Lifeguards”. And because SWIMTAG has pools all across the UK and beyond, (we now have sites in Spain, Australia, Denmark, Sweden and Norway) our users can also take part in global competitions and see how they measure up against swimmers from Sydney to Stavanger!
When people set themselves a goal of finishing in a certain position, not only do they end up achieving it more often than not, they also find themselves getting, fitter, slimmer, stronger and happier in the process… Exactly the kind of member that Sticks Around!
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