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
At this time, there is a subcommittee of the Championship Committee working on this proposal to make awards in two separate categories ("combined" club and "simple " club). Obviously, most of the convention delegates favored the idea and the nuances/definitions need to be better detailed. The Pacific proposal at convention did not pass because the Legislation committee felt it could be written better as to defining what is a combined vs. simple club. 64% of the delegates passed Pacific's amended proposal (amended in Rules), but due to Legislation's negative vote, for this proposal to go into effect, 66.7% of the delegates had to vote for it. Obviously, like many innovative proposals in the past, it takes more than one year of discussion to get the proposal to fit for the greater majority. To calm Betsy's fear "What will be next"-a fear that combined teamsmight not be able to swim relays together. There was never any intent by Pacific or anyone else to prevent combined teams from fielding relays.
I do like the idea of "Number of splashes" for size, if size is used, because that makes it less likely for a very competitive coach to discourage beginners from competing.
To answer Rob's question of Georgia vs. Pennypack, if Georgia Masters have more swimmers on their club than Pennypack, obviously Pennypack does a better job of encouraging their swimmers to compete. I am on the Club Development Task Force and much of what we learned from a questionnaire about clubs was how a strong local club encourages growth in USMS more than having one regional club for a large area.
Leianne and I are part of the Championship Committee subcommitee on the issue, and would welcome Pau (Are you still on the championship Committee) to give us your ideas. Any other ideas can continue on this forum or email Leianne or me--my email is carolynfboak@yahoo.com.
At this time, there is a subcommittee of the Championship Committee working on this proposal to make awards in two separate categories ("combined" club and "simple " club). Obviously, most of the convention delegates favored the idea and the nuances/definitions need to be better detailed. The Pacific proposal at convention did not pass because the Legislation committee felt it could be written better as to defining what is a combined vs. simple club. 64% of the delegates passed Pacific's amended proposal (amended in Rules), but due to Legislation's negative vote, for this proposal to go into effect, 66.7% of the delegates had to vote for it. Obviously, like many innovative proposals in the past, it takes more than one year of discussion to get the proposal to fit for the greater majority. To calm Betsy's fear "What will be next"-a fear that combined teamsmight not be able to swim relays together. There was never any intent by Pacific or anyone else to prevent combined teams from fielding relays.
I do like the idea of "Number of splashes" for size, if size is used, because that makes it less likely for a very competitive coach to discourage beginners from competing.
To answer Rob's question of Georgia vs. Pennypack, if Georgia Masters have more swimmers on their club than Pennypack, obviously Pennypack does a better job of encouraging their swimmers to compete. I am on the Club Development Task Force and much of what we learned from a questionnaire about clubs was how a strong local club encourages growth in USMS more than having one regional club for a large area.
Leianne and I are part of the Championship Committee subcommitee on the issue, and would welcome Pau (Are you still on the championship Committee) to give us your ideas. Any other ideas can continue on this forum or email Leianne or me--my email is carolynfboak@yahoo.com.
