Perhaps this is the day for crude humor, but I couldn’t pass this up.

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to have a human look over the titles of stories that get automatically shortened…This time it was the Everett Herald, our local newspaper website.

Well, Boris has continued his quest to destroy more technology, although this time the list doesn’t contain any high dollar items. This time he took his frustration out on two cables that we’d left dangling in reach after we’d locked him in the kitchen to go to my brother’s birthday party. One belonged to my friend Chris’s monitor, and the other was an ethernet cable. For some reason that I fail to comprehend, Boris found these items tasty. They have been added to the Boris List (link to the left).

I’ve just finished reading a story about a YMCA in Indiana. This YMCA has basically decided that in spite of a healthy amount of use on their racquetball courts they will remodel two of their three courts to make space for their fitness and aerobics classes. Their thinking is simple: We can get more people in the same amount of space at any given amount of time.

Here’s why this isn’t a good idea. The YMCA is typically more expensive than other clubs in the area. In my area I have the option of spending either $85/month for a “family” plan for me and my wife, or $54/month for me alone. If it wasn’t for the racquetball courts, I’d be going up the street to the 24 hour fitness and get access to almost everything else that the YMCA has that I use for $35/month. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m running a racquetball league at the Everett YMCA I’d be dropping my YMCA membership and signing up at LA Fitness for $35/month. The thing that differentiates the YMCA from these other two locations is that the Y is closer to my house and it has a larger variety of things to do there, including racquetball.

It’s tempting to think that by getting rid of racquetball courts and replacing it with open floor space you can pack the club out with ten times the participants in the same amount of space. What the Y loses when it does this are the things which set it apart from other facilities. If I can travel a little farther and pay $10-20/month less, I’m going to go where it’s cheaper.

There is another option: Do more to promote the differences between the Y and every other club on the planet. Find someone in your YMCA that is excited about playing racquetball and encourage them to start a league. Contact your state racquetball association and ask about hosting tournaments at your facility. Do the same thing with the basketball courts! Setup volleyball nets and use the backetball or racquetball courts for volleyball leagues one night a week. Do the same thing with indoor soccer and football! Make sure there is a youth division in all of these activities so that you can target another one of your strengths: Youth programs! Stop just looking at the people you get into your club like a herd of cattle that needs to be packed as tightly into the space as possible and come up with more creative ways to differentiate yourselves from your competition.

The YMCA has a unique opportunity to grow their membership by hosting sports programs. These programs provide a huge amount of incentive for people who are participants or observers to better their own fitness and skill levels in order to improve how they play. They provide a set of role models for the youth who are participating in the youth leagues. Giving the youth someone who is physically fit to emulate and who isn’t some football player they will never meet is a unique way to get them excited about fitness.

The bottom line is that simply going into the gym and using weight machines or participating in some variation of a dance aerobics class gets old. People need variety and competition, and the Y is uniquely positioned to provide those things. You’ve got the staff, the facility that often times has enormous amounts of space, and you’ve got the drive to get youth involved. So what’s holding you back?

I’m getting closer and closer to my fitness goals:
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