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?
I am one of the members on my team who is tasked with encouraging people to compete in our local meets and occasionally at a far away meet. In my experience, the question of why people compete or not is directly related to the question why people swim. Many people on my team swim for the social and fitness aspect. There is a smaller group who swim for the purpose of improving their performance at meets. It can be tough to get some of my teammates at meets as that is just not why they swim.
On a related note, I am of the opinion that all three goals (fitness, social, competition) can be accomplished in workouts that are geared towards improvement in competition. However, some people with fitness as their primary goal often complain when sets are written with more of a competition viewpoint- say a longer rest interval or shorter repetition. If rest is longer than :10, they're not happy!
I am one of the members on my team who is tasked with encouraging people to compete in our local meets and occasionally at a far away meet. In my experience, the question of why people compete or not is directly related to the question why people swim. Many people on my team swim for the social and fitness aspect. There is a smaller group who swim for the purpose of improving their performance at meets. It can be tough to get some of my teammates at meets as that is just not why they swim.
On a related note, I am of the opinion that all three goals (fitness, social, competition) can be accomplished in workouts that are geared towards improvement in competition. However, some people with fitness as their primary goal often complain when sets are written with more of a competition viewpoint- say a longer rest interval or shorter repetition. If rest is longer than :10, they're not happy!
