first of all, congrats to the meet directors and all the volunteers on a job well done. so organized and efficient!! very impressive. the only thing i wish someone could explain to me is why the usms champ. committee changed the team scoring from large, medium and small team to clumping everyone in the same category. seems extremely unfair to have what i call "real teams" competing against state mega teams. there is no possibility for "real teams" to ever come close to competing against them. if you are going to give team awards at the end of the meet, is there any way you can do it fairly? our team is extremely proud to have gotten as many team members as we did to go to natls. (most of them for the first time), but unfortunately they were very disillusioned (as was i) with the idea that we would be competing against state teams. as one of the coaches i didn't have an explanation. even though we were very proud of our 7th place finish in men's division, and our 12th place in combined, we were only one of a few "real teams" in the top ten. would appreciate responses. maybe even someone from the champ.committee could explain how they felt this scoring system would be more fair to the majority of swimmers. then i can pass it along to my teammates.. i don't want them to be so disillusioned that they lose interest in attending any future natls. thanks
I just attended my first Nationals in Federal Way and I was thrilled with the level of excitement and competition. But, I guess I wasn't the only one questioning the rationale of the scoring system.
It makes sense to me why they did away with the old large/medium/small team scoring system, as the dividing line was COMPLETELY ARBITRARY (and therefore, inherently unfair), and it seems from what I've read that some teams were actually discouraging swimmers from attending the meet in order to stay in a smaller division. I would never want to discourage anyone, no matter what speed, from competing in a meet, so I'm glad that system is gone.
However, not having ANY divisions seems just as bad, if not worse. These mega teams obviously have an insurmountable advantage, and the winning team of the meet is most likely a forgone conclusion. If an LMSC, or state, wants to pool its teams to create a mega team for the purpose of scoring more points, then I think, in doing so, they should be opting into another scoring category. *For the record, the argument that a state combines several teams in order to make a relay, or for comradrie sake, does not carry much weight with me - it's to have BETTER relays, and score MORE points.
High schools do have divisions based on school size (at least where I'm from in Washington state) in order to make competition more fair. Could you imagine if some high schools combined to compete together for the state championships!? Essentially, that's what we have here. In my ideal world, every club team would compete as itself - a club team. But, since these mega teams have apparently been accepted, there needs to be SOME FORM of division between mega teams and true club teams.
MY MAIN POINT:
By dividing mega teams and true club teams, the pitfalls of the previous scoring system are still avoided: (1) There is no arbitrary size division; (2) Swimmers will not be discouraged from competing.
It is true that some mega teams will be larger than others, and some club teams will be larger than others, but there is nothing anyone can do to avoid that, and that's all part of competing. At least this way it SUBSTANTIALLY LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD WITHOUT PUTTING ANYONE AT A DISADVANTAGE. Has anyone posted an argument as to why this should NOT be the way it's scored?
Thanks. I'm looking forward to differing perspectives.
I just attended my first Nationals in Federal Way and I was thrilled with the level of excitement and competition. But, I guess I wasn't the only one questioning the rationale of the scoring system.
It makes sense to me why they did away with the old large/medium/small team scoring system, as the dividing line was COMPLETELY ARBITRARY (and therefore, inherently unfair), and it seems from what I've read that some teams were actually discouraging swimmers from attending the meet in order to stay in a smaller division. I would never want to discourage anyone, no matter what speed, from competing in a meet, so I'm glad that system is gone.
However, not having ANY divisions seems just as bad, if not worse. These mega teams obviously have an insurmountable advantage, and the winning team of the meet is most likely a forgone conclusion. If an LMSC, or state, wants to pool its teams to create a mega team for the purpose of scoring more points, then I think, in doing so, they should be opting into another scoring category. *For the record, the argument that a state combines several teams in order to make a relay, or for comradrie sake, does not carry much weight with me - it's to have BETTER relays, and score MORE points.
High schools do have divisions based on school size (at least where I'm from in Washington state) in order to make competition more fair. Could you imagine if some high schools combined to compete together for the state championships!? Essentially, that's what we have here. In my ideal world, every club team would compete as itself - a club team. But, since these mega teams have apparently been accepted, there needs to be SOME FORM of division between mega teams and true club teams.
MY MAIN POINT:
By dividing mega teams and true club teams, the pitfalls of the previous scoring system are still avoided: (1) There is no arbitrary size division; (2) Swimmers will not be discouraged from competing.
It is true that some mega teams will be larger than others, and some club teams will be larger than others, but there is nothing anyone can do to avoid that, and that's all part of competing. At least this way it SUBSTANTIALLY LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD WITHOUT PUTTING ANYONE AT A DISADVANTAGE. Has anyone posted an argument as to why this should NOT be the way it's scored?
Thanks. I'm looking forward to differing perspectives.
