Partnership unveils plans to get more people taking the plunge
A new aquatics partnership has unveiled plans to get more people across the country taking the plunge.
Swim England and Everyone Active recently announced their mission to ‘create a nation of swimmers’ through a new three-year collaboration. Now, the two organisations have unveiled their year-one ambition to help towards this mission – achieving 10 million swims at Everyone Active pools by the end of 2019.
This ambitious goal will be achieved by focusing on the ‘occasional swimmer’ and the benefits that swimming regularly could bring to them. Understanding the reasons why individuals currently swim and what is stopping them from doing so more often will help the two organisations to secure the continued participation of swimmers, as well as attracting new audiences into the pool.
Swim England and Everyone Active will work together to carry out the research, utilising insight from Everyone Active’s 120 pools and the local communities in which it operates. They will also work together to identify and challenge the common misconceptions around swimming, which they believe can act as a barrier to participation.
“It’s well documented that swimming is a fantastic way for people of all ages and abilities to keep active. However, there is still a reluctance from many people to get into the pool. This may be because they aren’t fully aware of the many health and social benefits swimming offers, or perhaps there is a misunderstanding about the skills you need to enjoy the water. Through our partnership with Swim England, we are aiming to tackle this and revive the nation’s love of swimming. Public swimming activities are fundamental to us successfully achieving this. While swim lessons, clubs and aqua classes play a vital role in helping swimmers to progress and maintain their engagement, activities such as family swimming and other non-competitive sessions are essential in securing people’s early enjoyment of the water and integrating swimming into their lives and exercise habits. This is why we’ve chosen to start our partnership with Swim England by focusing on this area, and I’m confident that through this we will reach our target of 10 million swims.”
“Swimming offers something for everyone, and over the past few years there has been an increase in the variety of activities available in the pool. However, we are still seeing areas of the country where swimming is not regularly enjoyed. We want everyone to think of swimming as a fun, healthy activity to enjoy with friends and family. By working with Everyone Active we will be able to engage directly with local swimmers and encourage people to enjoy the water more regularly.”
Swim England and Everyone Active’s #10MillionSwims campaign aims to encourage people to swim more regularly during 2019 and is the first campaign of the partnership.
Over the next three years, the partnership will focus on a trio of key subjects, public swimming being the first, in order to make improvements across all areas of aquatic activity.