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If you’re a club coach, you already know: running a swim team isn’t just about writing great workouts. It’s insurance. It’s paperwork. It’s sanctioning. It’s a labyrinth of compliance and administrative weight that eats time you’d rather spend on deck.
For decades, USA Swimming has been the dominant governing body in American swimming. However, when it comes to ease of use, flexibility, and business practicality, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is starting to look like the simpler and easier choice for many club teams.
Here’s why more coaches are looking at AAU not just as a side option, but as a real solution to the everyday headaches of team management.
1. Fewer Hoops, More Coaching
Let’s start with the obvious: AAU is easier to manage.
With USA Swimming, you’re navigating:
- Mandatory training hoops
- Account creation and linking
- Expensive membership tiers
- Complicated meet sanctioning processes
- Limited scheduling flexibility with the LSC
AAU? You register your team, get general liability insurance that covers your facility, coaches, swimmers, and officials, and you’re good to go.
Want to host a meet? AAU can approve it in 24 hours. No red tape. No layers of approval. You can build a meet calendar that works for your team, not the LSC’s master schedule.
2. Lower Costs = Happier Families
AAU annual registration is just $20 per swimmer.
Compare that to the $80+ USA Swimming fee for athletes who may not ever attend a sanctioned meet. For kids swimming twice a week to stay fit or prep for high school, that’s a steep price tag for zero benefit.
With AAU, you can offer:
- A cheaper pathway for developmental swimmers
- A flexible competition option for families who don’t want to travel
- A safety-net for beginners without asking them to commit to a national system
And from a business standpoint? It frees up thousands in unused registration fees—money that can be reinvested into coaches, equipment, scholarships, and facility upgrades.
3. You Keep More of Your Meet Revenue
Hosting a meet through USA Swimming means giving up a chunk of the revenue to the LSC. And often, that comes with extra hurdles: mandated officials, complex timing system requirements, and tightly controlled formats.
AAU lets you run your meet your way and keep your meet profits.
Want to host a 2-hour novice meet with music, fun heats, and prizes? Do it. Want to run a weekly Friday night time trial series? Nothing’s stopping you.
The result? More meets that meet your needs and your families’ needs.
4. It’s Not All or Nothing
Here’s a common misconception: joining AAU means leaving USA Swimming. That’s simply not true.
Many successful clubs today are dual registered. Their top swimmers stay on the USA Swimming track, aiming for Sectionals, Futures, and beyond. Meanwhile, their newer swimmers start in AAU, gaining confidence and learning race skills without being thrown into the deep end of high-stakes competition.
Think of AAU as a “feeder system,” one that allows you to:
- Build long-term athlete pipelines
- Keep swimmers in the sport longer
- Save money while offering more opportunities
5. It Puts Coaches Back in Control
Running a club sometimes feels like asking for permission at every step.
AAU is different. It’s coach-led, team-driven, and community-focused. You set the tone. You run the calendar. You make the decisions that work for your staff, your swimmers, and your business.
That kind of autonomy can be a game-changer.
AAU is not trying to replace the Olympic pathway USA Swimming provides. But for the day-to-day operational reality of running a club, AAU may just be the simpler, more sustainable model.
If you’re a head coach juggling five roles, if you’re burned out on paperwork, if you want to keep costs down without sacrificing quality, it might be time to explore what AAU can offer.
The best programs aren’t just the fastest, they’re the smartest, and the most adaptable. And AAU is an option to consider.
The 5-point list of benefits laid out here is equally achievable by using Flex Memberships and running the new Block Party Meets. There are clubs and coaches within USA Swimming working to offer better alternatives, such as these, and clubs might as well consider the tools already at their disposal within USA Swimming rather than jumping to AAU.
USA Swimming has plenty to work on and clean up, but the pain points described in this article are already solved for, so perhaps channeling some energy toward other areas would be a more fruitful endeavor for all interested parties.
Yikes, not having any mandatory training is a huge red flag.
As I wrote in the comments for the other article, the cost savings are negligible in the context of club fees.
Then think about this — there are many beginners who start, and in a few months time learn they have a talent or knack for the sport. So the parent pays $20 because he’s a beginner, then when he’s fast enough to compete in the LSC championship within a year, they’re paying the extra $80 for USA Swimming fees. Suddenly they’ve paid $20 more than necessary and there goes the cost savings. Don’t tell me it’s a rare scenario. Every good sized club has 2-3 such cases a year, at least.
In the end, parents don’t mind paying the… Read more »
These successful swim teams: SwimMAC Carolina, Lakeside Swim Team, and NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, Inc. Swim Atlanta are AAU swim teams according to information I have sourced. If USA Swimming isn’t doing a great job, which seems to be the opinion of many who contribute to SwimSwam believe, there you go. Competition is good for everyone!
Did you get your info from ChatGPT or something?
Hulk, I re-checked my search and learned the information I posted was incorrect as you likely were/are aware. And yes, it was ChatGPT. I hate that I posted this BS and must be more diligent in future. My apologies.
You wanna share that sourced info with the class?
This podcast might be helpful — AAU RISING. Chris Davis / Swim Atlanta has been working with clubs throughout the southeast, providing guidance on how and why he includes AAU at his club.
https://swimswam.com/aau-rising-swimatlanta-ceo-and-coach-chris-davis-explains-why-usa-swimming-is-losing-the-base/
HA!
Swim-swam really pushing aau,. The less mandatory training hoops for coaches is where basketball is fundamentally failing. Good reason though🙄🙄🙄. Advocating for untrained officials seems weird too. Also, where is the proof this will be any less expensive anywhere? Whoever wrote this never cut a check for a pool rental, or had a decent timing system at a meet.
This is why it’s so odd to me that they keep citing cost. Sure, at scale, if you have a program like Swim Atlanta with 1,000 kids who are never going to participate in USA Swimming, then the savings are significant.
What about for a team under 100 swimmers? My single biggest overhead which gets passed on to my families is, like you said, pool rental. By FAR. Saving $30-40 bucks on the annual registration fee is a drop in the bucket compared to pool rental, meet fees, performance suits, travel trips, etc.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a parent grumble about the cost of the USA Swimming membership, including the parents of my pre-competitive kids. I just… Read more »
For most clubs, it’s the “less hoops for coaches, clubs, meets” that is real the draw. The athlete families saving $60 per year for their kid is not the biggest driver – it’s eliminating the endless trainings, forms, hoops and frankly, the stuff that doesn’t help the coaches, clubs and swimmers.
Yes, insuring the activity is absolutely a must. But beyond that, USA Swimming has a ton of agendas, projects, and nonsense embedded in their certification requirements (for both coaches and officials) and meet sanctions. It has reached the level of the ridiculous. The Block Party meets are certainly a great start, but AAU will keep winning over more clubs and members.
But don’t coaches and teams still have to jump through all the hoops anyway sine they coach USA swim kids too
On the officials front – Why do beginner/developmental swimmers need better officiating? Summer leagues across the country run tons of fun meets with untrained “officials”. Beginner/developmental soccer, baseball and basketball games are officiated by teenage kids all the time.
Swimming loses out by making their developmental kids follow the same set of rules and criteria as the pro and highest levels swimmers. Same set of rules and same size pool etc. Example.. 8 year old boy new to the sport keeps getting disqualified because he cannot do the breast kick exactly correct or cannot do the fly pull the right way. Parent gets frustrated and ask why? Soon this leads to asking why do I spend all this money… Read more »
I agree with you about the sport being strict/frustrating but I’ve never found a perfect solution on this front. Every time I coached in a summer league that didn’t DQ, there was at least one coach who took advantage of the spirit of the rule and basically had their kids cheating.
I still remember as a little kid playing soccer, when they decided not to do offsides. A bunch of the coaches just had their forwards play offside the entire time…and this was rec league soccer with reversible jerseys.
At the USA Swimming level, I just don’t see a scenario where a handful of shortsighted coaches don’t ruin it for everyone.
They say they’re not owned by any governing body, and I trust that to be true. But are they taking ad money/promotional fees from the AAU here? Or do they just hate USA Swimming so much that they’re pushing this just to be a thorn in their side?
We have never taken a dollar from USA Swimming or AAU that I know of. If we have, it was negligible (like someone bought a mag subscription or something).
Mel just thinks it’s important for people to be aware that there is another alternative. NGBs are congressionally-approved monopolies, and they behave as such.
Correct. We are not taking money from AAU to provide educational information. “11 years” ago, we received ad revenue from the USAs “Foundation” for a lean to swim initiative (& that was very low cost, enough money to paid for our time/admin.)
…see my comment, reason “no AAU payment,” and we do not hate USAs. I was a national team member for nearly 12 years (and now a proud alum). However, we are aware USAs has not supported the base (clubs) at a level they could, that APA (direct support to National Team members) has been flat since 2010, and that National Team coaches were only just paid for the first time this past summer (first time in 45 years) while C-suite compensation has climbed higher year over year. AAU isn’t perfect, but it is an org focused on coaches/clubs and an option for club teams and coaches to review.
I’ll recycle my comments for a recycled article.
1- Flex Memberships exist. Ideally, USA Swimming will extend them to 13-14s as well, but for 12-Us, they are there.
2- Block Parties exist. I sanction them during warmup for our non-travel development groups. I sanction them on a whim to do suited up time trials with my senior group. My coaches and I run them, or we let our awesome officials come in and get their hours in. Whatever works. Sometimes our younger travel kids participate in the local meets if they’re missing a day of an upcoming travel meet.
3- That’s what’s happening with Flex and the Block Parties. But they can also participate in our hosted USA… Read more »
unfortunately, the closest AAU affiliated club is 200 miles away.
I believe that is why the article is titled “WHY AAU MIGHT BE THE EASIER MOVE FOR YOUR SWIM CLUB”
I was an AAU swimming decades ago — and we had a great time. Went to UIL state meets and had a ball. Never paid more than a few bucks for tournaments and did so for 13 years (ages 8 – 20). Perhaps indeed the model can succeed for overworked coaches by feeding into USA Swimming; give the corporate types in American swimming a bit of a kick in the pants; and MAKE SWIMMING USA get ready for LA28!
It sounds like USA swimming has become a complex expensive and unresponsive bureaucracy. This would seem to be an opportunity for the new CEO.
For sure.
But the issues are insurance, lawsuits, historical / scandal legacy and house counsel advice. USA Swimming is difficult to insure and moreover, past CEO’s have been unwilling to tell house counsel “nope, we’re not doing that, find another way” or – “look for another underwriter”. The CEO’s have simply caved. Not sure these issues will go away any time soon.
If the new CEO is smart, his first order of business will be to fire his general counsel and associate counsel.
I can give him the cause if he needs it.