Volunteer burnout in swimming clubs

Swimming clubs rarely decline because people stop caring. They decline because the work outgrows the number of people willing to carry it, and then the people carrying it leave. Burnout in a club is usually a design problem, not a commitment problem: too much knowledge held by too few people, work done twice because systems do not talk to each other, and roles that look so big that nobody wants to step into them.

I have watched this happen from the poolside at club after club, over more than ten years of coaching. These are the patterns, and what helps.

Why it happens

Knowledge sits with a few people: the treasurer's spreadsheet, the membership secretary's inbox, the head coach's notebook. When everything depends on three people, those three people cannot step back.

The work is invisible. Chasing fees, matching payments, rebuilding gala entries, checking DBS dates: nobody sees it until it stops being done.

Tools create work. Information is typed into one system, copied into a spreadsheet, then pasted into a message. Each handoff is a chance for a mistake and another hour gone.

Roles grow without limits. A job that started as minutes and correspondence absorbs whatever else needs doing.

Handovers fail. A new volunteer inherits a file they did not build and rules nobody wrote down. Many give up before the end of their first season.

Coaches carry it too. Paperwork, registers, cover and messages crowd out coaching, and coaches can feel they are carrying the club alone.

What helps

Write roles down

A one-page description of each role, with what it involves week to week and at key points in the year. A role people can see the edges of is a role people will take on.

Split the big roles

Membership, gala entries and fees are three jobs, not one. Smaller roles are easier to fill and easier to hand over.

Set a fixed period in each role

Agree that roles are held for a set period, such as two or three years, with a handover built in. People commit more readily to something with an end.

Pair new volunteers with experienced ones

A new treasurer who shadows the current one for a few months is far more likely to stay.

Remove duplicate work

Every piece of information should be entered once. If the same data is being typed into two places, one of them should go.

Keep the club's knowledge in the club

Records, decisions and reasoning belong in shared systems, not personal laptops and inboxes. That is what makes handovers possible.

Protect coaches' time

The more admin is taken off coaches, the more time goes on coaching, which is why most coaches got involved in the first place. Swim England's Flourishing in Coaching framework is a useful reference on how clubs can support and recognise their coaches.

Say thank you, specifically

Not a general thank-you at the AGM, but a specific one for a specific piece of work, close to when it happened.

Where software fits

Software cannot make a volunteer care more. What it can do is shrink the job: one system instead of several, information entered once, records that survive a change of volunteer, and a role that a newcomer can pick up in a week.

That is the reason Olympus Swim exists. It brings membership, registers, messaging, session planning, galas, compliance and finance into one place, with access set by role, so the club's knowledge stays in the club and the coaching side gets the same support as the committee side. Read about what club software should cover and why Olympus Swim exists.

Common questions

Why do swimming club volunteers burn out? Usually because too much work and knowledge sit with too few people, systems create duplicate work, and roles have no clear limits or handover.

How can a club recruit more volunteers? Make roles smaller and clearly described, set a fixed period in role, pair newcomers with experienced volunteers, and reduce the admin each role involves.

How do we stop losing knowledge when a volunteer leaves? Keep records, decisions and reasoning in shared club systems rather than personal files, and build a handover into every role.

Written by Joel Knight, swimming coach and founder of Olympus Swim (about).

Checked 26 October 2026