It's time for the NCAA to switch to LCM; a Manifesto
Former Member
I believe that the US team has been hurt by the NCAA continuing to stick with the SCY format. I believe that the fact that fewer and fewer college athletes are making the team is partially because college athletes are trained to race SCY (of course there are several other reasons for the shift as well). Here's a summary of why I think sticking with SCY is silly:
1. LCM requires specific training and experience to race optimally. Starts and turns are somewhat deemphasized, pacing and rhythm are made even more important. You often see relatively inexperienced US swimmers crushing walls but then losing time between the flags (Tom Shields springs to mind). I believe this is partially a result of focusing on short course. Most NCAA teams train long course on occasion, but it needs to be the focus.
2. I believe that part of the reluctance to go LCM is that the NCAA feels it may discriminate against programs without their own LCM facility. This shouldn't be a concern any more. At this point every major DI program has an LCM facility (or several LCM facilities). Many (the majority?) of quality DII and DIII programs have LCM facilities. The NCAA should stop worrying about upsetting a minority of members, bite the bullet and say they're going LCM.
3. SCY is the Galapagos of swimming formats: it was developed in a vacuum and exists only in the US. LCM is the world standard. SCY to LCM time conversions are very suspect. The excitement of NCAA championships would be much enhanced if the times were comparable to other times around the world. This would improve the prestige of the conference and the meet and improve the centrality of the NCAA in the world swimming landscape. It would also remove one of the (smaller) concerns that foreign talent may have for training in the US. IMO, the US needs to swim and train with the best at all times to ensure it stays competitive. Moving to LCM will enhance their ability to do so.
All of these points are debatable. I'd be interested to see what other people think.
Jeff> How many swimmers have long term careers in swimming?!?
Ande> Not many.
Surely there must be some statistics somewhere? Might USAS be able to query a database of its membership and cough something up?
This doc gives some insight: www.usaswimming.org/.../Statistics-2011 Rev 2-2-11.pdf
In 2011, there were 291,182 Year-round athlete members of USA-S. The average age is 12 and half. After the age of 11 the number of members drops each year. There were only 10,960 swimmers 19+. Completely guessing here, but I'd say 9,000 of those are between the ages of 19-23. Obviously, there are a lot of kids who swim in college and no longer register for USA-S, so that accounts for a lot of the drop-off. But if they didn't swim in the summer when they were in college, I doubt they would come back after they graduate.
Another interesting stat: Number of year-round athletes that have been registered for 10 or more consecutive years – 10,816!!! That seems crazy low to me. Count me as one!
My LSC had 5,848 swimmers last year. There are probably 5 or fewer swimmers over the age of 25 registered with USA-S each year in our LSC.
Jeff> How many swimmers have long term careers in swimming?!?
Ande> Not many.
Surely there must be some statistics somewhere? Might USAS be able to query a database of its membership and cough something up?
This doc gives some insight: www.usaswimming.org/.../Statistics-2011 Rev 2-2-11.pdf
In 2011, there were 291,182 Year-round athlete members of USA-S. The average age is 12 and half. After the age of 11 the number of members drops each year. There were only 10,960 swimmers 19+. Completely guessing here, but I'd say 9,000 of those are between the ages of 19-23. Obviously, there are a lot of kids who swim in college and no longer register for USA-S, so that accounts for a lot of the drop-off. But if they didn't swim in the summer when they were in college, I doubt they would come back after they graduate.
Another interesting stat: Number of year-round athletes that have been registered for 10 or more consecutive years – 10,816!!! That seems crazy low to me. Count me as one!
My LSC had 5,848 swimmers last year. There are probably 5 or fewer swimmers over the age of 25 registered with USA-S each year in our LSC.
