SwimSwam is independently owned and operated. We are not owned by a nonprofit, a governing body, or a retail company. We share governing body information for club swimming educational purposes.
Running a swim club today takes more than just writing great workouts. It’s a balancing act of logistics, insurance, competition planning, and customer service. If you’re a coach looking to take more control of your business, streamline your operations, and offer a low-cost, flexible pathway for your athletes, AAU Swimming is a smart option that’s gaining traction across the country.
Here’s a no-fluff, coach-to-coach guide on how to get started with AAU right now in seven steps.
Step 1: Register Your Club with AAU
Go to aausports.org and create a free account if you don’t already have one.
Then:
- Click “Join AAU” → “Register a Club”
- Choose your club level:
- CLUB A ($30-50/year): Basic club recognition
- CLUB B ($60-80/year): Adds general liability insurance for practices/events
- CLUB C ($150/year): Includes extended coverage for non-AAU members and facility insurance certificates (most teams choose this)
If you’re planning to run meets or use public facilities, go straight to Level 3. It covers all your bases.
Step 2: Register Your Coaches & Staff
Each coach, assistant, and on-deck staff must become an AAU Non-Athlete Member.
- Cost: Only $55 per coach (includes background check & insurance)
- Coaches complete AAU Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) training online (15–20 minutes)
📍 You can register them at the same time you register your club or do it individually.
Step 3: Register Your Swimmers
Send your families to register directly, or bulk-register your athletes:
- Go to: AAU Membership
- Select “Youth Athlete” → Choose Swimming
- Annual fee: $20 per swimmer
- You can register one at a time, or upload a spreadsheet for larger groups.
AAU Memberships are good for the full calendar year (September 1–August 31).
Step 4: Get Covered with AAU Insurance
Once registered, your club and all athletes/coaches are immediately covered by AAU’s comprehensive insurance, including:
- General liability (meets, practices, team travel)
- Excess medical
- Facility liability (with Level 3 registration)
Need a certificate of insurance (COI) for your pool or venue? You can request one in your coach portal—AAU will issue it within 24–48 hours.
Step 5: Host AAU Sanctioned Meets (Optional)
Want to host your own local meets for your novice or developmental swimmers?
- Go to your AAU dashboard
- Click “Sanction a Meet”
- Fill out the form online — approvals usually take less than 24 hours
- Use your own format, your own rules (as long as they’re safe & fair), and keep 100% of the revenue
*There’s no requirement to send a cut to an LSC. It is your event and your profits.
Step 6: Start Competing (or Not)
AAU gives you flexibility:
- You can compete only in AAU meets
- You can be dual registered with USA Swimming for your top-tier athletes
- You can use AAU for practice-only swimmers and save thousands
That’s the point. You control the path, not the other way around.
Step 7: Promote Your Program
Once you’re up and running:
- Update your website and social channels with your AAU Club Code
- Promote your lower registration cost and flexible meet options to families
- Offer AAU-only tiers for beginner or part-time swimmers
This lets you grow your club from the bottom up, keeping kids in the sport longer and creating a sustainable pipeline.
Burned Out From LSC Politics and USA Swimming Rising Costs?
If you’re burned out from LSC politics, insurance confusion, and rising costs, AAU Swimming gives you a practical, affordable way forward.
It doesn’t replace high-performance USA Swimming. It complements it. Whether you want to run a 10-kid program or a 300-athlete operation, AAU lets you do it on your terms.
And best of all? It puts you, the coach, back in charge.
One other thing – when I was running our program I had some concerns about AAU SafeSport policy – it struck me as incomplete. No organization is perfect, but I was surprised at what I felt was a lot of incomplete information and I had a lot of accountability questions.
Thank you, John, and our readers should beware of who you are: “John Bradley served on the USA Swimming Board of Directors, representing the Central Zone (coach), from 2015 to 2019. During his tenure, he was a member of the USA Swimming Safe Sport Working Group and the USA Swimming Nominating Committee. He was re-elected to the board in 2017.”
…apologies, meant “be aware of who you are” because you are a former USA Swimming board member and we do appreciate you commenting under your name.
That’s correct! One of the things that I appreciate about my time on the BOD was that I was actually running my AAU split team during that time. Learned a lot about many things – it was Randy Reese years ago who was really promoting AAU at the time when he was in Clearwater.
If you’d like to have a broader discussion about the pros and cons of this I’m glad to have it, but as I said before – your mileage may vary. For every new advantage there’s a new problem, but figuring out what’s right for your program is the key.
John, I think a podcast is the best platform to talk pros and cons. Thanks. I’ll email you.
Why on earth are you sticking up for SafeSport as of it’s a program that actually works?
I welcome the new overlords, they say they will be less overlordy, if their kingdom gets big, time will tell.
How much is USA Swim paying the new golf guy? I really prefer not to spend my money supporting another rich guy’s continued insanely rich lifestyle. The “let them eat cake” from old white rich men’s club is predictable.
I think the program has worked for many, but it will never be a perfect system. It should evolve and be refined. That would be progress.
It’s not quite this easy. As someone who has actually done this, there’s a lot more to it. For example – you cannot run AAU meets with athletes that are not AAU athletes. Additionally – AAU follows USA Swimming rules about officials and meet conduct. If you do not follow the USA Meet Officiating rules you are not in compliance.
The bigger issue is AAU governance. A team can buy multiple team memberships and control their region. A large team could conceivably purchase multiple team memberships and control an area, locking out others from determining rules for the region. This happens a lot in AAU Basketball.
I’d urge you to check this out – from the AAU website. There’s a… Read more »
they haven’t updated it since 2022?
I was surprised as well.
Thank you, John, and our readers should beware of who you are: “John Bradley served on the USA Swimming Board of Directors, representing the Central Zone (coach), from 2015 to 2019. During his tenure, he was a member of the USA Swimming Safe Sport Working Group and the USA Swimming Nominating Committee. He was re-elected to the board in 2017.”
Are these the only articles that don’t get bylines? Second in a row from AAU I’ve noticed
Steve. we/swimswam as a whole load thousands of releases for USA Swimming providing messaging at no cost. We will share AAU info/education over the fall registration season as a courtesy. AAU has gained a segment of the community, an important segment at the grassroots level (growth level). It will seem like a lot because it’s new—unlike USAs messaging which we all just accept w/o questioning. In comparison the AAU info is a drop in the bucket.
Oh no like it’s w/e, I just feel like usually there’s a little blurb at the beginning / end when it’s a “SwimSwam” only byline. Or a “Courtesy: So and So Athletics” when it’s from a school or something
this is amazing.