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
Regarding Carolyn's post - I now see your point on the geographical limitations that might have to be imposed in light of an elite team that merely gathers fast swimmers from across the country for the point of competing. My basic thought is, if people don't train together, they should not be a club team. Of course there will always be exceptions with people who moved away, but for the most part, I would think a club team would have at least 85% of it's members living within its LMSC.
Regarding Regional teams - Originally (back in June) I didn't see the point or support them at all. "Train together, Swim Together, Win Together!" BUT, after discussing this for a while I realized that the club team is not really a viable option for many swimmers in more rural areas (for relays, comraderie, etc.). Therefore, I now support the idea. But, in doing so, we truly do need to seperate teams so the club teams will have the motivation to bring a team to Nationals to compete for something - team pride.
However, I think there should be an opt out provision for club teams in a regional team LMSC. Say for instance, if "Denver Masters" wanted to compete in the Club Team division, then they should be able to do so. People should not be forced to swim for their LMSC. I know that if SPMA formed a team, my team would most definitely opt out, as we like to see what we can do on our own. Hence, the birth of "Train together, Swim together, Win together!" It's nothing against regional teams, but given the current scoring system, we'd like to distinguish ourselves. To be honest, when we looked at the Nationals results to determine our place, we didn't even count the regional teams that finished ahead of us - it makes not sense to put our 15-20 swimmers against those teams.
Again, no scoring system will be absolutely fair to everyone - club in rurals areas will always have a tougher time than city clubs, and smaller LMSCs will always have a tougher time than larger ones (and that's how it is in any sport; someone from Palmdale, CA should not reasonably expect to win Nationals) - but we can definitely make it MUCH "more fair" with a simple change: Regional Team/Club Team (or whatever terminology you want to use).
Regarding Carolyn's post - I now see your point on the geographical limitations that might have to be imposed in light of an elite team that merely gathers fast swimmers from across the country for the point of competing. My basic thought is, if people don't train together, they should not be a club team. Of course there will always be exceptions with people who moved away, but for the most part, I would think a club team would have at least 85% of it's members living within its LMSC.
Regarding Regional teams - Originally (back in June) I didn't see the point or support them at all. "Train together, Swim Together, Win Together!" BUT, after discussing this for a while I realized that the club team is not really a viable option for many swimmers in more rural areas (for relays, comraderie, etc.). Therefore, I now support the idea. But, in doing so, we truly do need to seperate teams so the club teams will have the motivation to bring a team to Nationals to compete for something - team pride.
However, I think there should be an opt out provision for club teams in a regional team LMSC. Say for instance, if "Denver Masters" wanted to compete in the Club Team division, then they should be able to do so. People should not be forced to swim for their LMSC. I know that if SPMA formed a team, my team would most definitely opt out, as we like to see what we can do on our own. Hence, the birth of "Train together, Swim together, Win together!" It's nothing against regional teams, but given the current scoring system, we'd like to distinguish ourselves. To be honest, when we looked at the Nationals results to determine our place, we didn't even count the regional teams that finished ahead of us - it makes not sense to put our 15-20 swimmers against those teams.
Again, no scoring system will be absolutely fair to everyone - club in rurals areas will always have a tougher time than city clubs, and smaller LMSCs will always have a tougher time than larger ones (and that's how it is in any sport; someone from Palmdale, CA should not reasonably expect to win Nationals) - but we can definitely make it MUCH "more fair" with a simple change: Regional Team/Club Team (or whatever terminology you want to use).
