Had a great time at SCY Nat's!

I, too, was thinking that the team scores needed some sort of revision. Our team is very small, and we only brought 6 swimmers to the meet (SAWS). We still managed to score 165.5 points without even having relays. It was discouraging to know that our swimmers were placing so well and know that there was no conceivable way for us to compete against teams combined by state with 80+ swimmers. Because we knew placing top ten was impossible even if we had entered relays, we opted not to enter any relays so that we could be fresh for our individual swims. I also compete in Masters ski racing, and at our National championships, we score on a percentage. Having a larger team doesn't necessarily help unless all of your team is placing well in their respective age groups. I am certainly not one of the strongest racers, and I have never felt like my team discouraged me from participating so that I wouldn't bring down their percentage. Just some thoughts. This was my first meet in many years, and I absolutely loved getting back into it. I'd like to go again next year. Kristi

Just to add on to a few of Jim Matysek's comments as to why the championship committee recommended getting rid of the small, medium and large system. The divisions were arbitrary. A team with 17 swimmers would be small and a team with 18 would be medium. It didn't make much sense as to where we assigned the breakpoints. The large division could contain a team that had 250 swimmers and some that only had 80. At many meets, being in the large team guaranteed you a banner event if no one scored. As an example, in Tempe there were only 2 large teams. There have been examples where the 4th place small team outscores some of the medium teams that earned a banner. Overall, we felt that 1 - 10 would be a fairer scoring system. You however bring up an excellent point that what we have now encourages your team to merge with others to be big enough to compete against the combined teams. There will be a rule proposal next year that will separate out the independent teams into a category of their own while still having a category for the large combined teams. The championship committee would be open to new ideas on scoring. We are not close to agreeing on the above proposal yet. Mike...be careful what you say or you could be my target the next time I get to announce. And those distance events allow so much more to be said.

Who was the woman who swam the 200 back who, it appeared to me, had had a stroke and was essentially swimming with one arm? Talk about an awesome performance!! If that is not the essence of Masters swimming, I don't know what is. To me her performance was truely amazing! Let me add too that the meet ran smoothly and right on time. It was nice to be able to hear the announcer too. Great job all:D Glenn

Karen, I was thinking the same thing. It will probably not be decided this year. In part because the swimming rules portion of the USMS rule book is voted on ever other year. This year, we are dealing with the legislative portion of the book. Also, to be fair, we should probably let the current system be used for a few meets before we begin changing things. I would expect that the topic may be discussed this year and actual rule proposals will come forth next year.

Ft. Lauderdale was one of the best run meets I have ever been to! Kudos to everyone who organized, planned and worked the meet!! It was nice to have time to go to the beach and enjoy a dinner out with my teammates at the end of each day. Very relaxing!! I've been to Nationals that started at 7 and ended at 8-9 at night.....very exhausting and not the best conditions for peak performances. Ft. Lauderdale was GREAT!! THANKS!:D

Yes, Mark was entertaining indeed. Then again, being a self proclaimed Metrosexual, creativity flows naturally from Mark. Just remember this Mr. Gill...... The "Good" and The "Evil" are watching your every move. We are researching your past, digging up dirt on you every day. What's worse, Mrs. "Evil" is equally interested in your blossoming career as an announcer. Note: she is not as forgiving as her sasquatch husband. The "Good" Smith :cool:

Originally posted by Glenn Who was the woman who swam the 200 back who, it appeared to me, had had a stroke and was essentially swimming with one arm? Glenn Similarly, who was the woman swimming longer freestyle events and, with a fast rhythm, alternated 3 strokes with right arm and 2 strokes with left? Had to be in great condition to keep that up. I wondered about her story.

Sorry to say that life ain't fair..............and we're trying to make this far to complicated. I guess we should look to the Olympics and change thir current format so that large countries like the US & China can't always win the most medals?! Or the current USS system, maybe we should "fix" the number of people that attend JO's or nationals so that we can level the playing field.........can you say "socialism"? Jim's point about size being in your own hands is correct and Colorado is an example of that.......a small group of people busted their butts getting people on board, organizing hotels, relays, etc. and we managed to get over 80 of them all the way across the country. Everyone that atended got to swim on relays regardless of points scored or not.

Originally posted by matysekj A team with 1,000 registered swimmers that only brought 13 swimmers to the meet could earn an award in the small team category. A team that large is hardly a "small team" and should not be rewarded arbitrarily for such a small turnout (unless these 13 swimmers really placed in the top ten overall team points). That attitude would tend to penalize teams that encourage new swimmers and triathletes to sign up (for practices, maybe not meets), and reward overly competitive (selective) teams. I hear what people are saying about the team designations, but I still kinda enjoyed it. You didn't know a priori where the team divisions were (or often how many people from your own team signed up) until the results were in. Unless your team was clearly the largest or smallest, your team could easily be at the top *or* bottom of a "team" category.

It's worth noting that the Olympics use a fixed team size in swimming (although allowing teams to be less than full size), so the question is really the other way around, should the Olympics be changed to allow countries to enter as many athletes as they want? The Olympics already went in the other direction by limiting each country to two swimmers per event.