By Paul Peavy
Since our July issue cover story features swimming I thought I’d talk about swimming from my personal perspective of a dedicated teenaged swimmer whose friends are all dedicated teenaged swimmers, thus making many of my friends parents of dedicated teenaged swimmers.
The first bonus for hotel housekeepers is they are pretty clean compared to other athletes. No red clay like softball and baseball players. No mud like football and Ultimate Frisbee players. Not even sweat like basketball players. Nope, they spend their competition in a clean, chlorinated pool and even then they try to shower that chlorine off before they come back to the hotel.
The second thing for restaurants, convenience stores, hotel vending machines is that swimmers eat like elephants in lambs’ bodies. Female swimmers are not shy about matching their male counterparts at a buffet. They all know they need to refuel their bodies from to race their best.
Swimmers go to bed early and nap in the afternoon between sessions. If you have kids running the halls of your hotels late at night it’s a pretty good bet it’s not a swimmer. Swimmers are used to going to bed early because they are used to get up before 5 a.m., to practice. Afternoon rowdiness? Nope. Most swimmers rest between morning and evening sessions so they can perform their best during the night time finals sessions.
When swimmers want to nap between sessions they often kick their parents out of the hotel room. So where do parents go in the afternoon? A coffee shop, a specialty store, a mall, a restaurant, a movie—or all of the above.
Loyalty. If you have treated a swim team well once you will have the opportunity to treat them well again and again. It is just easier to call the same people back and re-book again because you have been treated well
Swimmers are very good customers for your local businesses from their cleanliness and quietness to their ravenous appetites to their ability to send their parents off on a spending spree in the afternoon.
If you have a chance to host a swim team or a swim event it is a great way for your local community to profit swimmingly!
Paul Peavy, a swim dad, marathon runner and IRONMAN, is a Licensed Psychotherapist who has found a unique and energetic way to help people. As a former stand-up comic he knows one way to get people unstuck is to get them to lighten up, laugh, and live! In over ten years of dedication to getting people moving toward rediscovering the joy in life here are some of the highlights of America’s favorite Stand-up Therapist!
