At risk of "beating a dead horse"....at least in respect to broaching this topic again! I had a number of conversations at convention with people who would like to see USMS move to a 3rd Championship meet in the fall for short course meters.
There are some great Zone meets going on...when you have 600+ going to Long Beach or New England why not up the ante a bit?
Thoughts?
How is That Guy doing this? And I thought it was cool when I was ten and could make words by entering numbers in a calculator and then turning it upside down. 58008, anyone? :)
Anyway, yes, pools like Indy and Federal Way have the two bulkheads pushed to the ends of the pool for a 50 m course. Put them together in the center and you've got two 25 m courses.
I can believe that, but to me there's not much of a difference between being a LMSC champ or a Zone champ in an event. If I have the chance to be a National champ, that's more enticing. I think there's going to be more high level competition if a meet has the Nationals label.
The Zone label had no cache at NE Champs because it was announced at the very last minute. I'm not sure the word Zones even appeared on the meet program or that many participants realized it was a Zones meet.
Agree with Greg about the Nationals label being more compelling. I don't care too much about what a meet is called otherwise -- I'm just looking for a somewhat large geographical close meet for a taper.
I also think, at least around my parts, that people prefer SCY. Why? Because for so long everyone has competed and practiced almost exclusively in SCY and SCM seems foreign. If there were more SCM meets, everyone would get used to it soon enough. And I see no reason why Spring Nationals couldn't be SCM once in awhile. If this happened, maybe an eventual separate SCM Nationals championship wouldn't immediately die a slow death.
NCAA's is practically a third Nationals.
Only if you're in college... :)
I can believe that, but to me there's not much of a difference between being a LMSC champ or a Zone champ in an event. If I have the chance to be a National champ, that's more enticing. I think there's going to be more high level competition if a meet has the Nationals label.
If it is a big enough zone meet, the level of competition can meet or even exceed that of nationals. The reason is that, at zones, they seed by time only. And at zones you aren't limited to 6 events and you (usually) don't have to worry about qualifying times.
Interesting that so many pools can run two SCM courses, presumably with additional space for warmup/warmdown. I wonder why hosts don't exercise the option of running spring nationals as a SCM meet? (I seem to think this was done once.) Are they worried there would be less interest? I believe that the primary drivers of nationals attendance are location and timing, but maybe people are just more comfortable with SCY.
How is That Guy doing this? And I thought it was cool when I was ten and could make words by entering numbers in a calculator and then turning it upside down. 58008, anyone? :)
:) .sǝdʎʇ ǝɥ uǝɥʍ uʍop ǝpısdn pɹɐoqʎǝʞ sıɥ ƃuıuɹnʇ ʇsnɾ sı ǝH
Why wouldn't either of those events bid to have their meet be nationals? And if one gets it the other goes on as a lot of folks won't travel across the country regardless.
I agree with this logic.
I don't think we really know how successful a SCM Nationals would be until 'we' try it. If it turns out to be a flop no one will bid and the idea will die a natural death.
In 1989 there was a Pan Pacific Masters meet in SCM at Indy.It was a fairly big meet as I remember but they managed to hold it on one course.This was the first major SCM meet in the US and it was memorable that in some events you had to break the existing WR to finish 6th.I was under the existing WRs in the 3 BRs and finished 3rd,3rd and 2nd.
As a trial maybe someone could put on a meet like this in Nov or Dec and if it was well attended and popular it could serve as an impetus for SCM Nats.
Definitely all good points that most of us who aren't intimately involved with the process would (and obviously) have glossed over. Maybe a SCM Nationals could be a USMS Nationals with some austerity measures to keep costs down?
Maybe a SCM Nationals could be a USMS Nationals with some austerity measures to keep costs down?
I think that is a great idea. Let's call it Zones:rofl:
