My team, Rockwall Aquatic Masters is having a long course meet on 6th July and I am actively trying to convince team mates to sign up. On my blog I was describing my disappointment that more of my team mates had not signed up. One commenter posted the following, "Why do they have to participate? I have more fun going to practice than I do meets. I don't find meets fun anymore." I guess I had assumed that most people enjoy meets and I found it strange that my team mates did not want to sign up. This got me thinking and I wondered why people compete or don't compete? Any thoughts?
As others said I go to meets to give me something to motivate me to workout harder.Another thing is fighting aging.If I go to a meet and swim well I feel like I have pushed back Father Time for awhile longer.I know he wins in the end,but I want to keep ahead of him for as long as possible.I get that positive feedback some in workouts,but I doubt I'd try as hard in workouts without a meet.
All the individual reasons to compete or not to compete are of course correct and good reasons for each swimmer. However they don't address the very important issue of getting meet attendance up. Meet swimmers keep the organization going. There are few non meet swimmers who volunteer on any level to keep USMS going. There are some notable exceptions to this but they are few and far between. Meets that are financial losses seldom repeat the following year and often are gone for a long time.
In my opinion any workout club that wants to increase it's meet attendance both at their own meet and away meets needs to get the team behind the concept and not just the coach or one or two swimmers. Team shirt, warm ups, meeting both at the pool and at local watering holes are a few of the ways to help build a sense of team. None of this will offend the non meet swimmer and may help get some folks on the fence to give it a try. Sometimes getting a swimmer to volunteer one year will motivate them to swim the following year. Relays, even fun ones also become a team building thing if you can get some guys and girls together who are competitive be it mixed or not.
At past home meets we have had a local syncro club bring their kids for a demo during a break. We have had a marriage proposal on the deck during a break. And we have had the local varsity divers put on an exhibition during a break(that's why diving was invented after all to give swimmers a longer rest). Be creative and make "Masters Fun".
As others said I go to meets to give me something to motivate me to workout harder.Another thing is fighting aging.If I go to a meet and swim well I feel like I have pushed back Father Time for awhile longer.I know he wins in the end,but I want to keep ahead of him for as long as possible.I get that positive feedback some in workouts,but I doubt I'd try as hard in workouts without a meet.
All the individual reasons to compete or not to compete are of course correct and good reasons for each swimmer. However they don't address the very important issue of getting meet attendance up. Meet swimmers keep the organization going. There are few non meet swimmers who volunteer on any level to keep USMS going. There are some notable exceptions to this but they are few and far between. Meets that are financial losses seldom repeat the following year and often are gone for a long time.
In my opinion any workout club that wants to increase it's meet attendance both at their own meet and away meets needs to get the team behind the concept and not just the coach or one or two swimmers. Team shirt, warm ups, meeting both at the pool and at local watering holes are a few of the ways to help build a sense of team. None of this will offend the non meet swimmer and may help get some folks on the fence to give it a try. Sometimes getting a swimmer to volunteer one year will motivate them to swim the following year. Relays, even fun ones also become a team building thing if you can get some guys and girls together who are competitive be it mixed or not.
At past home meets we have had a local syncro club bring their kids for a demo during a break. We have had a marriage proposal on the deck during a break. And we have had the local varsity divers put on an exhibition during a break(that's why diving was invented after all to give swimmers a longer rest). Be creative and make "Masters Fun".
