Courtesy: Swim Warrior
SwimWarrior is not a SwimSwam Partner, but Thomas Meeks, the swim coach and entrepreneur behind this app, developed the tech with one goal — SWIMMER RETENTION. Club teams bleed swimmers 35% year after year. Keeping swimmers engaged can be a hurdle. Gamification could be one way . If you have ideas to maintain retention, share them in the comments. And if you want to try SwimWarrior, it free. We’ll follow up with Thomas as more data comes in.
SwimWarrior, the leader in gamifying the sport of swimming, is excited to announce that it is offering its engagement platform free of charge to swim teams nationwide. This initiative is designed to address the growing problem of athlete dropout, which has been a significant challenge for the swimming community in recent years.
“Dropout is one of the biggest problems facing our sport, with thousands of athletes leaving competitive swimming each year,” said Thomas Meek, Founder & CEO of SwimWarrior. “The dropout rate has reached 35%, surpassing the rate at which new swimmers enter the sport. At this point, our overall membership base is diminishing.”
Swim teams at all levels – from recreational to competitive – have long struggled with keeping athletes motivated, engaged, and active throughout their swimming careers. Whether due to burnout, lack of progress, or competition from other sports and activities, many young athletes leave the sport before reaching their full potential.
The SwimWarrior platform provides a fun and interactive solution to this problem, using game mechanics to drive athlete engagement, reward progress, and build a sense of accomplishment, regardless of age or skill level.
“Our platform is designed to keep athletes motivated by making swimming more fun, engaging and accessible for athletes,” Meek said. “We’re excited to make this tool available to swim teams at no cost to ensure every team has the chance to help athletes stay in the water.”
The platform offers several features to enhance the competitive swimming experience:
Ranking System:
Swimmers can easily track their times from both practice and meets, compare results with teammates and set personal goals through the SwimWarrior scoring and ranking system.
The proprietary system rates swimmers’ performance in 26 events for SCY, SCM, & LCM including sprint events like the 25’s, 50s and 75s of stroke. Three categories of rank are included to paint a complete picture of a swimmer’s ability in the sport: event, stroke and overall.
Stopwatch:
The stopwatch allows coaches to easily collect times data from practice. Coaches can select any number of events they want to time, the swimmers who will be competing, and the number of lanes per heat, and then the app generates the heats based on the swimmers’ top times.
Coaches tap the screen to start the race and tap the screen every time a swimmer finishes. Times are then assigned in any order. It’s the quickest and easiest way to store times from practice that everyone (coaches, parents & swimmers) can access & track.
Access for Everyone
The SwimWarrior platform is built for everyone; coaches, swimmers and parents. Everyone is able to view their team’s progress through training group leaderboards and swimmer profiles. Coaches are the only users able to add times.
A Commitment to the Swimming Community
This free offering is part of SwimWarrior’s broader commitment to addressing the dropout crisis. With the rise of technology-driven sports platforms, the company is focused on helping the swimming community tap into tools that drive motivation and long-term engagement.
“We’ve seen how effective our platform has been, and we’re excited to expand access to as many teams as possible,” said Thomas Meek. “Our mission is simple: keep more kids in the pool, foster their love for swimming, and ensure that they don’t walk away from the sport.”
How Teams Can Get Started
Swim teams interested in using the platform can sign up for free at www.swimwarrior.com. The platform is available to any team, regardless of size or competitive level. Once registered, teams can immediately start utilizing the system to enhance swimmer engagement and battle dropout.
