Participating on a swim team is a valuable pastime that can foster teamwork, goal-setting skills, and resilience among swimmers. That said, it takes a lot of effort by multiple people to coordinate a successful swim season. A team might consist of swimmers with different swimming stroke abilities and endurance levels, meaning there are different meets, practice times, and communications needed for all the different groups.
Coordinating participation in practices and meets without the help of swim team software can be time-consuming and lead to errors, causing confusion and frustration among everyone involved. Software that helps coaches organize swim meets, plan the events surrounding the meets, and communicate with team members can eliminate worry and frustration while simplifying the entire process.
Simple swim software benefits everyone involved, including administrative personnel, coaches, parents, and participants. Let’s look at how the right swim team software helps swimmers, parents, and even the community join together to foster youth development through more efficient organization.
The Importance of Swim Team Software
So many facets have to be addressed when organizing swim teams and the events that make up a season. From initial registrations to celebratory events and everything in between, using manual methods to organize swim teams can be daunting. However, team software can help organize swim meets cost-effectively, efficiently, and accurately with fewer people involved. Automated tasks leave little room for errors or misunderstandings.
Indeed, today’s cloud-based software offers better access for all participants. Gone are the unreliable spreadsheets and paper notices that can be lost or phone calls that can be missed. Instead, the right software offers modern, clear communication channels that help eliminate confusion and misinformation.
Related: Mobile App Madness- SwimTopia’s Live Event/Heat Indicator
Your swim team must focus on training to compete while not spending excessive time stymied by administrative processes. Coaches, parents, and team participants should have access to direct communication methods in which everyone knows expectations. But what are the features that facilitate efficient swim team management? What must your swim team software be able to do? Consider the following key features.
An Easy-to-Use Online Calendar
Of course, a calendar is important when displaying the dates and times of swim meets and social or fundraising events, but it can do so much more. Team members should be able to sign up for various meets and events through the calendar.
At a glance, members should be able to see if an event is open for signup and click on it to declare their intention to attend. Parents should be able to sign up for volunteer opportunities or jobs in the same way. The calendar should also help organize all the event information and documentation, such as heat sheets and results, in one place.
Online Registration and Payment Processing
Registering for a team with team management software should not be a hassle. Form fields should be customizable depending on the data you need from individual members, and individuals should be able to fill in forms and submit them immediately—without having to print them and submit them in person. If membership, registration, or other fees are required, those should be able to be paid easily and securely online.
Team Roster and Account Management
If you’ve been using spreadsheets to manage your team roster, you might find they aren’t particularly user-friendly, and mistakes are easily made. And while being able to download information in various formats can come in handy, using spreadsheets to actually manage your roster is limiting. It doesn’t offer the capabilities today’s swim teams need. Using a dedicated swim team platform to maintain your team roster can change that.
With the right management software for swim teams, you can create a comprehensive team roster from your team’s data, making it easy to organize athletes and coordinate roles for administrative or volunteer purposes. Some examples of information that may be helpful when managing the team roster could include:
- Family details
- Season-by-season memberships
- Age groups
- Athlete types
Knowing at a glance which members are active or inactive, which members have responded (or not) to your communication, or being able to sort by other key factors can help separate groups appropriately for better communication and streamlined processes.
Parent Portal
Parents are an important part of supporting the positive development of swimmers during the swim season. Along with general swim team information, the right swim team software should also provide parents with access to a personalized portal that keeps them informed.
Parents should be able to register with the swim team and have up-to-date access to all necessary details of their swimmer and the swim season. This helps parents stay invested, providing information on their child’s participation and progress throughout the season. They can also keep track of their volunteer commitments and receive reminders of any event positions they signed up for.
Real-time Communication Capabilities
Nonexistent or inefficient communication can be the biggest complaint that parents and swimmers have when participating on a swim team. From where meets are located to which suit to wear and much more, information must be communicated clearly to all relevant parties. Cloud-based team software can offer this, allowing coaches to manage all communication expectations effectively and quickly update all team families at once.
Entries and Event RSVPs
As mentioned above, swim team software calendars should allow parents and swimmers to announce their intentions to attend an event, sign up for swim meets, or sign up for a volunteer role. However, team management software should also be able to collect more information, such as which events the swimmer selected in the meet, whether they’ll be available for relays, or if swimmers or parents will arrive late or leave early. Participants can benefit from the ability to submit notes, increasing the chance that participants and volunteers will fully inform the coach of their intentions and limitations.
Mobile App Access
It’s unrealistic to expect families today to crank up their desktop computers when searching for or providing information. Instead, swim team software should come with mobile capabilities that allow the team to view information quickly and easily on their mobile devices. If a parent can’t attend a swim meet because of work or other reasons, a mobile app can allow them to receive real-time updates on how a swim meet is progressing.
Emails and Alerts
Because swim team management software should allow for easy grouping of roles, emails and alerts can be sent to specific groups. Recipients won’t have to sift through insignificant emails to find ones that apply to what they need to know about.
Related: Notification Alerts Keep Your Team Up-To-Date
Alerts regarding cancellations, weather delays, or other last-minute information can be sent and received with the touch of a button. When you choose to send an alert rather than an email, this triggers a push notification in a mobile app. For those that don’t have a mobile app, emails will be sent instead. This feature makes sure that everyone is on the same page at the same time, all the time.
Fundraising Capabilities
Look for swim team software that offers fundraising through merchandise sales and sponsorship opportunities. This will provide a way to reach more people and raise more funds than through individually selling products in person. Selling merchandise online, like t-shirts and tanks, shorts and sweatpants, hats, swimsuits, or swim bags with your team name and logo makes it easy for more fans to display their team spirit and is a way to raise needed funds easily with no time limits.
Sponsorships are also a way that businesses can contribute to fundraising efforts. You can place sponsorship levels for companies to select in your merchandise store, and then they can pay their sponsorship tier amount directly online with a credit card.
Security
Participants will be asked to submit sensitive information like names, birthdays, email addresses, and payment information via online registration forms and password-protected pages. Swim team software must ensure that the sensitive data of parents and swimmers is protected with encryption protocols. While it might not be the first thing you think of when considering swim team software, look for and expect a high standard of security, including the secure storage, transmission, and processing of credit card information.
Efficient Swim League Management
In addition to managing your individual swim teams more effectively, the right swim team software allows for efficient league management and communication. With a comprehensive platform, all teams should be able to access a website that provides information regarding their league. Look for software that has all the features of swim team software but on a bigger scale to accommodate whole leagues as well as members of a single team.
Experience the Impact of Technology on Your Swim Team’s Organization
Technology has evolved to streamline any process imaginable, and organizing a swim team is no different. When the right swim team software is used, all the necessary processes for successful, effective swim team management are in one place. Documents, data, and information are all in one unified platform to view or process by the applicable groups that make up the swim team.
Parents don’t have to endlessly call coaches to ask questions or get clarification on events happening. Administration personnel are free of having to trade files with coaches to collate data. The ability to process online submissions and access information at any time of the day or night helps make organizing teams and swim meets more gratifying for everyone involved. If you’re considering a swim team platform to level up your swim team, check out SwimTopia’s demo webinar—then contact us to get started.
