Thanks to everyone involved in the Ft. Lauderdale Nationals. I had a great time and met some exceptional people. I especially want to thank Doug Malcolm for the competition in the adjacent lane. It looks like (from USMS data) you have not competed for quite a while and had a great meet! I had not competed for over 20 years when I entered the 2001 Nat's at Santa Clara and have done pretty well for the past few years. Doug exemplifies what our sport should be all about; a true competitor who brings out the best in someone like me who may not have accomplished the standards acheived in Ft. Lauderdale without someone like him next to me. I never got a chance to thank you so I am doing so now. Keep up the good work!
I would also like to congradulate John Blank for being the first male competitor over 45 to break one minute in the 100 yard breaststroke; a great accomplishment! I have never broken a minute in that event and am full of envy.
Lee Rider
This may violate the physical laws of the universe, but I find myself agreeing with both the Good Smith and the Evil Smith! I like what Evil/Tall/Paul Smith says about the size of your club as well as the number of swimmers you bring to a meet being entirely in your own hands. And if California wants to combine into one gigantic team, then that's their privilege and entirely within the rules. And Good/John Smith was downright profound with "Really ... people ... it's just Masters Swimming"!
This discussion got started because of the perception that all clubs competing in the same division for the top 10 places was not fair to the smaller clubs, and that the old way, top three in small, medium, and large divisions, was more fair. I personally prefer the old way too, but can live with the new top 10 way. What I really wouldn't like to see is a division between so-called superteams and club teams.
My club, Swim Kentucky, is sometimes cited as an example of a superteam. We're flattered to be in the company of New England, Colorado, and Illinois Masters! But really folks, unless Nationals is held within driving distance for us, there's not much chance we're going to get a lot of our swimmers there and steamroll everyone else. We like to win as much as anyone else does, but that was not the reason we formed SKY. The reason we did it was for cameraderie. We realized that when the people from Kentucky went to Nationals, we all hung out together, roomed together, went out to dinner together, and cheered for each other, regardless of which club we belonged to. We enjoyed each other's company, and we wanted to be teammates. Combining the local teams into one statewide club was sort of like being tired of just living together, and deciding to get married!
It was more about acknowledging that we were already de facto teammates, but our points were being split up among smaller clubs, and we did not get to swim relays together. SKY does give us much more of an opportunity to participate in relays, with participate being the operative word. It's not like the relay I was on with two 48-year-old women, one 55-year-old, and one 74-year-old had a chance of placing! We knew we were seeded last, but we had fun swimming together, and held our heads high!
Since we formed SKY, the numbers we've sent to Nationals has ranged from 67 (at Indy) to 1 (at Rutgers). We had 21 in Ft. Lauderdale, more than I expected. Most came because they wanted to go to Florida, or they had family there. Others (like me) often go to Nationals, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're likely to score a lot of points. I haven't scored a point for SKY since its inception (not for lack of trying)!
I would be very unhappy to have my club pushed off into a separate division, and stimatized as not being a "real club" just because some of my teammates live 70 miles away. Heck, I commute 36 miles round trip every day, so distances don't mean that much to me. I've heard people say you should have to live within a certain radius to belong to a club. Well, I live in a rural county and work in the next county. There isn't a pool in the county I live in that I can work out in. I actually spend more of my waking hours in the county I work in, and someone's going to tell me I can't belong to the team that practices on the campus where I work? Talk about unfair!
This may violate the physical laws of the universe, but I find myself agreeing with both the Good Smith and the Evil Smith! I like what Evil/Tall/Paul Smith says about the size of your club as well as the number of swimmers you bring to a meet being entirely in your own hands. And if California wants to combine into one gigantic team, then that's their privilege and entirely within the rules. And Good/John Smith was downright profound with "Really ... people ... it's just Masters Swimming"!
This discussion got started because of the perception that all clubs competing in the same division for the top 10 places was not fair to the smaller clubs, and that the old way, top three in small, medium, and large divisions, was more fair. I personally prefer the old way too, but can live with the new top 10 way. What I really wouldn't like to see is a division between so-called superteams and club teams.
My club, Swim Kentucky, is sometimes cited as an example of a superteam. We're flattered to be in the company of New England, Colorado, and Illinois Masters! But really folks, unless Nationals is held within driving distance for us, there's not much chance we're going to get a lot of our swimmers there and steamroll everyone else. We like to win as much as anyone else does, but that was not the reason we formed SKY. The reason we did it was for cameraderie. We realized that when the people from Kentucky went to Nationals, we all hung out together, roomed together, went out to dinner together, and cheered for each other, regardless of which club we belonged to. We enjoyed each other's company, and we wanted to be teammates. Combining the local teams into one statewide club was sort of like being tired of just living together, and deciding to get married!
It was more about acknowledging that we were already de facto teammates, but our points were being split up among smaller clubs, and we did not get to swim relays together. SKY does give us much more of an opportunity to participate in relays, with participate being the operative word. It's not like the relay I was on with two 48-year-old women, one 55-year-old, and one 74-year-old had a chance of placing! We knew we were seeded last, but we had fun swimming together, and held our heads high!
Since we formed SKY, the numbers we've sent to Nationals has ranged from 67 (at Indy) to 1 (at Rutgers). We had 21 in Ft. Lauderdale, more than I expected. Most came because they wanted to go to Florida, or they had family there. Others (like me) often go to Nationals, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're likely to score a lot of points. I haven't scored a point for SKY since its inception (not for lack of trying)!
I would be very unhappy to have my club pushed off into a separate division, and stimatized as not being a "real club" just because some of my teammates live 70 miles away. Heck, I commute 36 miles round trip every day, so distances don't mean that much to me. I've heard people say you should have to live within a certain radius to belong to a club. Well, I live in a rural county and work in the next county. There isn't a pool in the county I live in that I can work out in. I actually spend more of my waking hours in the county I work in, and someone's going to tell me I can't belong to the team that practices on the campus where I work? Talk about unfair!
