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
And mine either. However, since everyone ignored it, I will restate- why keep track at all. Before you recoil in automatic horror, consider that there are evident large flaws in the system and no one (to this point) has come up with a seamless solution that satisfies everyone- so why do it? In Canada (I know, some of you automatically discount this statement) we have not, in my experience, kept track of team standings at nationals. There has been no observable suffering on the deck because of this- so why do it?
I wouldn't be bothered by this at all.
I guess in an ideal world if you could keep things somewhat "fair," it would be fun for club teams to go head to head or do battle in long standing rivalries, and my team does that sometimes. This year (like last) we finished second at zones in the medium sized team category. Gave it the old college try, everyone cheered like crazy and no one worried more than a nanosecond about coming in second. (The cheering would no doubt have occurred without scoring as well.) I think the team competition may bring out more swimmers, so that is a benefit. But generally, I'm happy to swim my events, do a relay or two with my team and call it a day. I'm not sweating standings and that's not why I show up at meets. I also don't want to be forced to swim 8 events a day just to garner points if I find it to be physically detrimental.
Personally, I dislike the concept of superteams. I guess if if we're going to keep score, they should be separated from the true club teams. Although when they win, everyone knows why. I can't get too worked up about team scoring. And if someone wants to join a superteam to swim relays because their club team doesn't have enough swimmers, I don't care, fine. However, I wouldn't join a superteam team to swim with strangers. Now, if we had a forum posters relay for Team Hottub, I would consider that. Otherwise, nah. I'll do relays with my team if and when enough people show up and are sufficiently inspired to do it. I did enjoy my first mixed 200+ year relay at a local meet last December. No thanks to Team Mid-Atlantic or Team Virginia.
And mine either. However, since everyone ignored it, I will restate- why keep track at all. Before you recoil in automatic horror, consider that there are evident large flaws in the system and no one (to this point) has come up with a seamless solution that satisfies everyone- so why do it? In Canada (I know, some of you automatically discount this statement) we have not, in my experience, kept track of team standings at nationals. There has been no observable suffering on the deck because of this- so why do it?
I wouldn't be bothered by this at all.
I guess in an ideal world if you could keep things somewhat "fair," it would be fun for club teams to go head to head or do battle in long standing rivalries, and my team does that sometimes. This year (like last) we finished second at zones in the medium sized team category. Gave it the old college try, everyone cheered like crazy and no one worried more than a nanosecond about coming in second. (The cheering would no doubt have occurred without scoring as well.) I think the team competition may bring out more swimmers, so that is a benefit. But generally, I'm happy to swim my events, do a relay or two with my team and call it a day. I'm not sweating standings and that's not why I show up at meets. I also don't want to be forced to swim 8 events a day just to garner points if I find it to be physically detrimental.
Personally, I dislike the concept of superteams. I guess if if we're going to keep score, they should be separated from the true club teams. Although when they win, everyone knows why. I can't get too worked up about team scoring. And if someone wants to join a superteam to swim relays because their club team doesn't have enough swimmers, I don't care, fine. However, I wouldn't join a superteam team to swim with strangers. Now, if we had a forum posters relay for Team Hottub, I would consider that. Otherwise, nah. I'll do relays with my team if and when enough people show up and are sufficiently inspired to do it. I did enjoy my first mixed 200+ year relay at a local meet last December. No thanks to Team Mid-Atlantic or Team Virginia.
