How College Swimmers Can Capitalize on Swim Clinics
Professional swimmers often utilize swim clinics and camps as a steady income source to support their training and give back to the swimming community. Whether it’s a private team clinic, instructing at a swim camp, or a simple speaking appearance, swimmers can often use their notoriety within their sport to help give back to the younger generation of swimmers in a way that also helps support their training costs.
For years, swimmers have had to wait until they exhausted their NCAA eligibility to start collecting money for these opportunities due to NCAA rules. However, once laws that permit college athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness rights kick in, that will all change.
Although lucrative endorsement deals may not be available to all college swimmers, they will all have the ability to make money teaching at swim clinics. Many club coaches are constantly looking for ways to get their age group and high school swimmers new coaching perspectives. A great way to do that is by bringing in a swimmer that has been through everything their club swimmers are going through. It is almost always a rewarding experience for everyone involved.
These opportunities won’t be exclusively for DI standouts either. Every college swimmer has an audience that looks up to them in their hometown and college town. Those two markets alone open up a lot of potential club teams that could be interested in paying a college swimmer to come in for a clinic or speaking appearance.
If you’re an eligible college swimmer interested in making clinics/speaking a summer job, passion project, or simply a way to pay for the next tech suit you’ve been saving up for, here are some tips on how to provide value to clubs:
Define your strengths - If you are a very good sprinter, become an expert at tips and training techniques on how to improve a 50 or 100 freestyle time. Don’t waste time trying to learn and teach racing tactics for the mile. Coaches look for quality experiences and they will appreciate your expertise.
Find a speaking topic or two outside of the sport – We have never put as much of an emphasis on sport-life balance as we have in today’s society. Coaches are not only looking for swimmers who can teach swimming techniques, but they also want swimmers who can speak on real-life topics. Whether it is mental health, nutrition, confidence, leadership, the recruiting process, or anything else… find something outside of the pool that you can connect with club swimmers on.
Be approachable and have fun – The best swim clinics are ones where everyone involved has fun. The more approachable you are to younger athletes, the more they will take away from the experience, and the more likely a coach will want to work with you again.
With changes in the college athletic landscape and live events returning post covid, this will be a unique opportunity that could prove valuable for many college swimmers.
