An investigation of swimming's development barriers and challenges in Iran

The purpose of this study Barriers and challenges to the development of swimming in Iran. The research population contained including 15 swimming academic elite athletes and 20 swimming coaches with at least level 2 coaching certificate and more than 3 years continuous experience in coaching. Measuring instrument was a questionnaire. Cronbach,s alpha coefficient was utilized to examine the internal reliability 0/89. data analyzed by descriptive statistics, one sample t-test and Friedman test in significance level of 0/05. The results of this analysis indicate that, lack of long-term planning (with average rating 10/30 for coaches and 10/83 for athletes) and lack of media support (with average rating 9/75 for coaches and 9/90 for athletes) are respectively the most important obstacles and challenges in swimming’s development. Overall, the findings showed to the role above factors in swimming development, recommend a basic approach to long-term planning creation, and shift mass media to support of this sport; because more of the other challenges considered are affected factors mentioned.