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 want to say first this is a great discussion. I've said before that the issue doesn't really have much pull for me personally. However, I think the basic underlying principle here is that folks are looking for a way to recognize more people for their efforts, and include more people.
More awards can potentially open the door for plenty of good things... an increase in competitors due to more small teams looking for a banner is the first thing that comes to mind.
Folks have mentioned that increased # awards translates to a financial burden... here's a question: why does everyone need to walk home with a trophy or banner? However things get divided out (s/m/l, or local/regional, m/w/both) - why not just hand out awards for only one set of winners, then list a boatload more online?
For example - hand out trophies/banners to the top three combined teams in small, medium and large teams. That's nine awards. Online, list those on the top of a page. Then, break it down some more: top three men small, med and large; women s/m/l, combined s/m/l; top freestyle teams, top teams for each stroke, most 1-10 finishes... we could go on. But it is a way to recognize and include more teams.
I want to say first this is a great discussion. I've said before that the issue doesn't really have much pull for me personally. However, I think the basic underlying principle here is that folks are looking for a way to recognize more people for their efforts, and include more people.
More awards can potentially open the door for plenty of good things... an increase in competitors due to more small teams looking for a banner is the first thing that comes to mind.
Folks have mentioned that increased # awards translates to a financial burden... here's a question: why does everyone need to walk home with a trophy or banner? However things get divided out (s/m/l, or local/regional, m/w/both) - why not just hand out awards for only one set of winners, then list a boatload more online?
For example - hand out trophies/banners to the top three combined teams in small, medium and large teams. That's nine awards. Online, list those on the top of a page. Then, break it down some more: top three men small, med and large; women s/m/l, combined s/m/l; top freestyle teams, top teams for each stroke, most 1-10 finishes... we could go on. But it is a way to recognize and include more teams.
