SCM Championships

On the West Coast there is a big SCM meet every yr in LA in the winter, attended by a lot of people from all over the country. I think a big Meet in the East Coast, like the one on the West coast, would take care of all the people in the US. The cost could be kept down and you wouldn't have so far to travel. The meet could be centralized or bid on so it wouldn't be that hard for people to attend and the cost of the meet could be kept on the lower end. Just my 2cents Dec 3-5, 2010: 509 USMS members competed in the SPMA SCM Championships in Long Beach Dec 10-12, 2010: 532 USMS members competed in the NE SCM Championships in Boston Since I doubt there was much (any?) overlap, that's over 1000 people competing in two SCM meets, one on the West Coast and one on the East Coast. And these numbers were low (either the economy or the suit change or whatever); in 2009, there were 636 and 602 members, respectively at these two meets for a total of 1238 members. I've always heard good things about the SPMA meet, and I can attest that the NE meet is at a very nice facility, with fast swimming, and extremely well run. It also has "extra" relays (the 400s) that nationals does not, no NQTs and a higher entry limit. In terms of finding a meet/venue that is conducive to fast swimming, I don't think that an official SCM National Championship is going to improve on either one of these. Oh, I guess the event winners in these meets aren't called "national champions." I forgot. The people in the middle of the country (and maybe the NW and SE corners) have kind of far to travel to these meets; that's a pretty legitimate gripe, because unlike nationals, these meets aren't moving around.

2 ideas(neither very good,but regular SCM Nats don't seem likely any time soon) 1) call LB Nationals West,call NE Nationals East(have a Nats Central if desired) and mail the overall top ten times medals and the fastest times National Championship Patches.(Of course we already nearly do this and call it"Top Ten." 2)Paul can have a meet in Mesa,publicize it like Nats,have great medals and patches(and gold medal sponsors) and call it "The Peoples SCM Nationals."

I think that was one of the most common complaints I heard about Worlds. For sure. Seems like a lot of trouble just to call something a national championship. I agree. If the meet has to be competed in two separate facilities I'd say forget it.

I was at Worlds in Sweden and I thought the two venues worked out well. Now, I didn't have teammates always at the other venue, that's true, and I personally liked the indoor venue better than the outdoor one, but it was a viable solution to a problem. There were what, 6,000 swimmers, and it ran very well. I would guess Harvard and BU are a lot closer than the two venues in Goteborg. If there is going to be an SCM National Championship it might be OK to go outside our comfort zone and try two venues. What do we have to lose? Nothing is ever going to make EVERYONE happy.

There is nowhere in New England to host a national-level meet at this time. Harvard is not big enough to meet the demand of the NE SCY champs. BU is not nearly big enough to host a national event. The warmup space would be way too small for that level of meet. The new Brown facility may be a possibility, but you really need three short course setups (2 for competition, 1 for warmup) for either a SCY or SCM nationals. At NE SCY champs, we have 8 competition lanes and 10 warmup lanes, and that is barely enough. -Rick

What's kind of odd is that, around here at least, virtually all summer league swimming takes place in SCM pools! Someone once told me -- I have no idea if this is true -- that many of the local summer club pools were built in the early/mid-70s when there was briefly talk of the US switching over to the metric system. My son's USA-S club has two 25y x 25m pools. They almost never set up for SCM because there are fewer lanes that way; one time they do is when they host the summer league championship meet. (So Richmond's summer swim leagues obviously know something USMS doesn't.) I grew up swimming summer league in the MCSL which is the same type of deal - pools built decades ago which are almost all SCM. And their web site uses Comic Sans more than generously. SCM - the Comic Sans of US swimming! :D (Appropriately, I plan to swim three SCM meets this fall, and zero SCY) Also, I think we can safely say that LCM is Arial Black... but I can't figure out what SCY is. Any ideas?

SCM - the Comic Sans of US swimming! :D Well, then, I guess I should be partial to SCM pools! The Buggatorium (as I affectionately like to call the pool where Bob Bugg trains), where I swim part of the time, is SCM; perfect for preparing for SCM meets. :agree:

Well, then, I guess I should be partial to SCM pools! The Buggatorium (as I affectionately like to call the pool where Bob Bugg trains), where I swim part of the time, is SCM; perfect for preparing for SCM meets. :agree: I train in SCY but I tend to enjoy SCM meets more, since it's far easier to achieve a best time and/or a top ten ranking in SCM. It never occurred to me to nickname my gym's pool but now I will think about it. The Buggatorium is a good name; I doubt I can top that :)

As a Brit, I can see the dilemma, but I do think that having SCM, SCY and LCM Nationals is a bit like having your cake and eating it! Part of me thinks that the solution is to get with the rest of the world and ditch yards, but another part of me thinks that SCY is wonderfully idiosyncratic and would be great fun to do! It's also part of your swimming culture and heritage over there in the States, so I guess ditching SCY isn't going to fly as an argument any time soon.

The problem is the ratio of SCY to SCM pools is probably 100:1. What's kind of odd is that, around here at least, virtually all summer league swimming takes place in SCM pools! Someone once told me -- I have no idea if this is true -- that many of the local summer club pools were built in the early/mid-70s when there was briefly talk of the US switching over to the metric system. My son's USA-S club has two 25y x 25m pools. They almost never set up for SCM because there are fewer lanes that way; one time they do is when they host the summer league championship meet. (So Richmond's summer swim leagues obviously know something USMS doesn't.)