2003 NE SCY Championships

Phil: This is a great question. I've often wondered why we don't see more relays at other regional championship meets. The Past Until we introduced the "NEM Workout Group" competition concept we pretty much limited relays to the "elite" type that you refer to below. Otherwise most of our swimmers had little motivation to swim relays. The Present Let's forget about the "elite" relays. Looking at the "big picture" they really are not material (at least to my way of thinking). What we've done is created a intra-NEM competition (think of it as PMS LMSC competition) where we have motivated people to swim for their "local workout group: (think swim clubs that are within the PMS LMSC) in order to place as high as possible in the team competition. Result People will swim lots of relay in order to help their local groups win the team competition IF the LMSC leadership makes it a meaningful event. Despite my propaganda to the contrary, New Englanders are not more competitive than other masters--we've just provided a vehicle to revive the all important element of team competition. Fielding 300 relays changes the whole atmosphere of the regional championship meet. It is unlike anything I've experienced on the national level. It is much more like a high school/college meet or March madness basketball game. Relays are truly inclusive--they attract the elite and non-elite alike. They also score double points and just about every relay will score in our meet (especially now that we score 16 deep to ensure maximum participation). Detail Answers Swimmers may not swim Men's 400 free and Mixed 400 free. In the past, we did seed these as separate events so it's possible that a few die hards managed to circumvent this rule. We will now seed the 400 free as one event (mainly in the interest of time) and that will eliminate any transgressions. No limit (except the one noted above) on the number of relays that you can swim. We do not offer more than two relays a day and schedule one at the beginning of the session and the other at the end of the session. It's rare to find "elite" NEM relays at our championship meets (I define elite as drawing participants from NEM regardless of workout group competition). The workout group competition works against such relays (they do not count and the local groups suffer if "elite" swimmers join up with fellow NEMs). Most NEM "elite" relays are fielded at non-championship meets. On the other hand, some NEM workout groups (notably Cambridge Masters ) are able to break national records fielding relays from the 120 swimmers who workout at Harvard. Some of the "smaller" workout groups have banded together to swim as recognized NEM workout group. For example, the Salem Y and Beverly Y compete as the Y of the North Shore (they also compete in Y and USA meets as a combined team); another group of triathletes that work out in 2-3 pools formed a NEM workout group. We have not promulgated any rules that prohibit such "mergers" or that dissuade a coach from combining several pools into one group. Age Group Problems As you can imagine, it's much easier (and more fun) to field meter relays because of sum of the ages rule. I wish we would change the rule for yards to sum of the ages. It's in the best interest of masters. Awards We have very attractive banners that can be hung from local pools for the NEM workout groups that finish in the top ten for SCY and SCM. We have reinstituted an awards banquet to recognize the accomplishments of such teams. (We also give individuals medals and trophies for individual high points). Applicability to PMS I'm dont know why you do not have more relays in your championship meets. You certainly have one of the best LMSC leaderships in USMS (We've stolen quite a few ideas from PMS over the years---emulating DAM effort in the OHS, copying Michael Moore's web page and email news list and trying to build a network of strong coached workouts groups based on what I consider to be the PMS model of strong local clubs). So I'm really puzzled. It could be they people do not see this as something strategic. Here in New England it was critical to our success in growing our Club and LMSC. Obviously, PMS has found other ways to do this given your success in reaching the 10,000 mark--though at our current growth rate our people at MIT predict we'll pass you in membership before the 2012 Olympics.

Phil: This is a great question. I've often wondered why we don't see more relays at other regional championship meets. The Past Until we introduced the "NEM Workout Group" competition concept we pretty much limited relays to the "elite" type that you refer to below. Otherwise most of our swimmers had little motivation to swim relays. The Present Let's forget about the "elite" relays. Looking at the "big picture" they really are not material (at least to my way of thinking). What we've done is created a intra-NEM competition (think of it as PMS LMSC competition) where we have motivated people to swim for their "local workout group: (think swim clubs that are within the PMS LMSC) in order to place as high as possible in the team competition. Result People will swim lots of relay in order to help their local groups win the team competition IF the LMSC leadership makes it a meaningful event. Despite my propaganda to the contrary, New Englanders are not more competitive than other masters--we've just provided a vehicle to revive the all important element of team competition. Fielding 300 relays changes the whole atmosphere of the regional championship meet. It is unlike anything I've experienced on the national level. It is much more like a high school/college meet or March madness basketball game. Relays are truly inclusive--they attract the elite and non-elite alike. They also score double points and just about every relay will score in our meet (especially now that we score 16 deep to ensure maximum participation). Detail Answers Swimmers may not swim Men's 400 free and Mixed 400 free. In the past, we did seed these as separate events so it's possible that a few die hards managed to circumvent this rule. We will now seed the 400 free as one event (mainly in the interest of time) and that will eliminate any transgressions. No limit (except the one noted above) on the number of relays that you can swim. We do not offer more than two relays a day and schedule one at the beginning of the session and the other at the end of the session. It's rare to find "elite" NEM relays at our championship meets (I define elite as drawing participants from NEM regardless of workout group competition). The workout group competition works against such relays (they do not count and the local groups suffer if "elite" swimmers join up with fellow NEMs). Most NEM "elite" relays are fielded at non-championship meets. On the other hand, some NEM workout groups (notably Cambridge Masters ) are able to break national records fielding relays from the 120 swimmers who workout at Harvard. Some of the "smaller" workout groups have banded together to swim as recognized NEM workout group. For example, the Salem Y and Beverly Y compete as the Y of the North Shore (they also compete in Y and USA meets as a combined team); another group of triathletes that work out in 2-3 pools formed a NEM workout group. We have not promulgated any rules that prohibit such "mergers" or that dissuade a coach from combining several pools into one group. Age Group Problems As you can imagine, it's much easier (and more fun) to field meter relays because of sum of the ages rule. I wish we would change the rule for yards to sum of the ages. It's in the best interest of masters. Awards We have very attractive banners that can be hung from local pools for the NEM workout groups that finish in the top ten for SCY and SCM. We have reinstituted an awards banquet to recognize the accomplishments of such teams. (We also give individuals medals and trophies for individual high points). Applicability to PMS I'm dont know why you do not have more relays in your championship meets. You certainly have one of the best LMSC leaderships in USMS (We've stolen quite a few ideas from PMS over the years---emulating DAM effort in the OHS, copying Michael Moore's web page and email news list and trying to build a network of strong coached workouts groups based on what I consider to be the PMS model of strong local clubs). So I'm really puzzled. It could be they people do not see this as something strategic. Here in New England it was critical to our success in growing our Club and LMSC. Obviously, PMS has found other ways to do this given your success in reaching the 10,000 mark--though at our current growth rate our people at MIT predict we'll pass you in membership before the 2012 Olympics.