“Successful” defined as active participation. As many have noted on this forum, many posters here are from the Cincinnati area and this is actually a pretty nice area to live in as far as triathlons are concerned. We have a lot of races during the season that are within 2hrs driving (HFP/Wheelie Fun series) and now have IMKY within 1.5 hours. Seems like a lot of people in the area are either experienced triathletes or interested in getting into tris. I just can’t figure out why a tri club hasn’t really taken off here?
CincyExpress has been around for a couple of years and we probably have 50 “members” at this point. Our club president is largely responsible for getting this club started, but we lost some steam this summer.
So my question is what are the key ingredients for a team/club that is both competitive and welcoming of newer triathletes? How do you retain/attract the best athletes in the area while including people who are new to tris?
You may want to check out websites of some successful tri clubs. You can get a good idea of what they offer- group work outs, sponsor deals, social events, etc. Try Golden Gate (www.ggtc.org), SF Tri Club, Chicago Tri, LA Tri, etc.
I have no idea as I’ve not been able to figure that out…but that never keeps me from spewing my ideas.
Frankly I’m begining to believe number one issue is “critical mass” membership. If you can’t get a certain number of continually active individuals you’re dead. I think this depends alot on the size and activity level in your area. If you already have 50 “Active” members then you’re probably past that point. If you just have 50 people with 4-5 “active” members you’re in trouble.
Secondly I’d say “Social events”. Alot of people do this for fun and fun only. Most or many “Triathletes” aren’t hanging around on ST all day and plan on doing 3 a day workouts. Gatherings, going out to eat after a workout etc etc are good drawing points.
Thirdly regularly scheduled workouts. WE ahve a pretty willy nilly club here, if you can even call it that, but have bike ride that seems to draw alot of people. Again this goes back to the prior one, and I believe it’s partially popular because the whoel group goes out after the ride.
Fourthly clinics ESPECIALLY swimming. Many triathletes are looking for guidance with swimming. The best response we’ve had for clinics is usually swimming related. Others are “bike maintence” where we do hands on tire changing, putting the chain back on, basic stuff. Nutrition was another good.
Lastly soem form or abilility to communicate. A web site forum works well for this. Helps small groups get together and do workouts. Stuff like "Hey I’m looking for someone to do a “X’ mile run at “Y” pace this weekend”.
Some people have mentioned “Swag” in previous answers to this question. I’m not sure why this woudl be a big draw and I’m not real sure if it’s a good idea. Instead of people thinking “Hey how can I help” it makes them think “Hey what can I get out of this”.
Wow - I just typed a long response and for some reason encountered a proxy server error
Anyway - modeling a club on other clubs is a great suggestion.
I know our Club (Cleveland Triathlon Club) gets a lot of exposure on ST and we have a lot of things in common with Cinci - even if just our geographic proximity
I am not saying our club is the best in the country - although I will say we do a pretty good job
A few items which have contributed to the success of the club over the past few years include: Low member dues A clear mission statement - what do we represent and what do we set out to do. Cooperation of key LOCAL sponsors A welcoming environment for all, regardless of age, sex, race, ability, experience, goals A willingness to shape and craft the club, based on the feedback and needs of our members and accept any and all feedback provided to us A strong internet presence - club website and forum - this is HUGE in terms of members maintaining contact Organized training sessions in various parts of town - we have up to 15 sessions a week during the season A social base with the opportunity for members to get together socially for drinks etc and forget about tris for a while OPEN WATER SWIMMING - my god - this has been such a HUGE draw and we invested in sailing marker bouys which allows us to set courses. Winter indoor tris, spring and fall duathlons A core group of members willing to establish, administer and maintain the club
We are a member owned club - we are not for profit - the real strength of our club is each and every individual member - although we steer the ship so to speak - without the members, we are nothing
Happy to chat in person or via email with you - you can PM me for any contact details
I think the number one issue for tri clubs comes in the leadership. You need motivated leadership that is willing to put the best interests of the club in front of their own interests.
What does that mean? Workouts are the central function of a great club, otherwise it may as well be a sewing circle. Workouts need to attract and serve the most club members possible, even if it means a bit of inconvenience for those running the club and/or workout. So avoid having all the workouts leave from your front door 20 miles away through bad traffic and put them somewhere that more people can get to.
Do you not really like to do track workouts or some other specific workout? Tough, either find someone else to lead them or suck it up. DO NOT schedule a conflicting workout that you like alongside an existing workout that you don’t like just so you have some company in the pool.
It is great to be welcoming to new members and newer triathletes but don’t do it at the expense of existing athletes. That is where the critical mass mentioned above comes in. You need to be able to break the club into comparable groups on things like rides.
And finally, switch up the routes and workouts. The 87th time you ride the same loop in a sumer it loses some of its luster.
our club has multi ability - multi distance options in all workouts and we also have a policy of noone gets left behind - we always have an experienced rider on the tail end of any bike workouts, or a strong swimmer who waits for the stragglers.
We also have clearly defined sub-groups within the club - specifically a newbies group - and a long course group.
your comments are all 100% on the mark and are great feedback
We have toyed with the idea of a club versus a team. What eventually happened last year is everyone who joined (15 of us) were all pretty serious seasoned triathletes. Everyone happened to qualify for nationals. What I didnt want was an “elite team” and we have always said if a person are serious about tris and they are a back of packer then they are more than welcome. We make team members compete in a minimum of three tris a season. I think a club has people that may even take a year off. We dont allow that. This doesnt answer your question though. To answer it I think what makes it successful is you must have a core group of 4 to 5 people who create and maintain the energy behind the group. If not the team falters.
In addition to all those things mentioned, an active beginners program is necessary to continually bring new members to the club. I am one of three beginner coaches and we offer many workouts structured for the new triathlete including weekly open water swims, bike rides, beginner races, loaner wetsuits and monthly beginner meetings. With a membership in excess of 1400 we do have a large group to pull volunteers from.
Check out our website at http://www.triclubsandiego.org/