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 saw that and got to thinking about it myself... I love doing meets now, but if you had asked me seven months ago I might have reacted differently. I did my first meet in December and really enjoyed it, but I was pretty hesitant going in... not knowing what to expect.
Competition is fun, I love it, even when I'm only competing with myself, but for some folks it might seem daunting. Even as competitive as I am, the thing that keeps me going back now is the encouragement and support I get from other swimmers on other teams. I love to see people 40 years older than me still starting off the blocks, or people who are 20 years younger starting from push. All different ability levels, it's great... maybe the folks who shy away from ever swimming in a meet think that only the super-competitive super athletes do them. That hasn't been my experience.
The main reason that most of our local workout group does not compete in meets is the extra commitment required to travel to meets. That is one reason I worked to get a meet locally, but sadly even holding it during our normal Saturday morning practice time the locals are not coming. Almost true to the 25% stat offered above.
I still coach towards the competition, but don't focus on it as much. Have some fun with the meet, offer a few prizes or a fun swim, and it will grow. Perhaps getting the swimmers not desiring to compete in as timers/counters/volunteers will at least show them that Masters Meets are great fun!
For me personally, if I don't have a meet coming up, I lose interest in training. Goals keep me motivated. Plus, meets are fun.
I suspect that a lot of people prefer open water because it seems like less pressure: in a meet, you're up there, in front of everyone, with maybe five or so other people swimming at the same time. You're exposed and everyone will know if you do poorly. Whereas in open water, you're just one cap and set of flailing arms among many.
The main reason that most of our local workout group does not compete in meets is the extra commitment required to travel to meets. That is one reason I worked to get a meet locally, but sadly even holding it during our normal Saturday morning practice time the locals are not coming. Almost true to the 25% stat offered above.
I still coach towards the competition, but don't focus on it as much. Have some fun with the meet, offer a few prizes or a fun swim, and it will grow. Perhaps getting the swimmers not desiring to compete in as timers/counters/volunteers will at least show them that Masters Meets are great fun!
Our team is part of the Niagara LMSC. Our chair, Greg Danner, has done a lot of analysis and our LMSC's percentage of swimmers who compete compares favorably with USMS as a whole. Our local club's percentage is double the norm especially for our annual home meet. All the reasons given by other posters on this thread are true. There is no one or two simple reasons. It truly is a team psychology thing and the momentum helps carry others with it. As coach I try to concentrate on the new members and I've had good success especially with the many triathletes on our team who seem to find they "enjoy" doing something all out and fast. I rely on the team leaders to help encourage others to set a few meets a year as targets for our goals and we taper for those. In 2012 we won the Colonies Zone Large team division with "only" 29 swimmers going the 300+ miles to the meet vs some local clubs with 2-3 times that many. We make sure everyone swims lots of relays. We don't care if we score a point but we want all to try and they usually have a PR when doing so. We car pool, share rooms, and have a dinner/party the middle night. Needless to say the first time swimmers often turn into my best "missionaries" getting people to complete the next year. We came in 6th at Indy this year with 19 swimmers in the local club division. At our end of the season party we have announced our goals for next year which is to return to Zones in April and LCM Nationals in August.
As you see the time to get people to swim in meets really isn't two weeks before the meet. We are all adults and we all have lots of other things going on. We try to get people to think about key meets months away and structure the workouts accordingly to get swimmers to have the best chance of fast swims. I find that a swimmer who does have a great swim becomes much more likely to go to other meets.
All this can't fall just on the coach or club president. We have an assistant coach(one of the swimmers), we have a relay czar(one of the swimmers). We buy championship team shirts with the names of all the participants on the back and the swimmers name on the front. We have team warm ups with their name on the front. We have team shirts which we give free to each member when they compete in their first meet. In case you might wonder we swim four days a week in a six lane pool for a total of six hours a week if someone makes all the swims. So nothing that many other clubs can't do also.
New swimmers: The key here is they don't want to be embarrassed thinking they will be in the same heat with the studs. When they find that they are seeded by their entry time regardless of sex or age it helps. I have never had a new swimmer who I have "coaxed" not thank me afterward as they have swum much faster than they ever did in practice.
I've actually been in the fastest heat in a couple of events. I'm not really a new swimmer, but I'm certainly not one that I'd consider a stud either.
It kind of freaked me out when I first saw it last year, in the fastest heat of the 1500 LCM free. I was honest with my seed time (what I thought I could do at least), and ended up being about 30 sec faster than I expected. Maybe seeing someone finish when I still had 200m to go helped, who knows ;)
Most of the time (80% I'd guess) that I don't do meets is because of scheduling. I already have plans to be out of town, I'm doing something else (I also cycle and do some running), etc. For people who complain about the lack of swim meets, there are even fewer cycling events locally, and it always seems that 2 cycling events are the same weekend as swim meets.
I far prefer an open water swim to a swim meet. You get in, swim, get out and you're done. No waiting around, looking at schedules, timing your eating/restroom breaks, etc. The first time I ran a marathon, I was shocked how I was home by noon, while it is rare I'm home by 2pm for most meets.
All this said, there are some meets I've gone out of my way to attend. The NE Masters SCM meet in Boston every December is simply awesome--from the timing to the pool to the number of swimmers. Even swimming back-to-back I get a reasonable amount of rest. It is big enough that I have plenty of competition, yet small enough that warm-up isn't too much of a CF. Plus there's several other forumites who attend and it is great to catch up with them in-person.
I experienced a swimmer snub once, at the only nationals I've swum at. It was enough to keep me away from meets all together for 7-8 years. But generally other swimmers at meets are very encouraging, and I try to be the same.
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?
Most Masters groups average only 25-35% of their swimmers who compete. I coach, and swim also, over 100 swimmers. I have been pretty successful in beating the average by alot. Different approaches need to be taken with different swimmers:
New swimmers: The key here is they don't want to be embarrassed thinking they will be in the same heat with the studs. When they find that they are seeded by their entry time regardless of sex or age it helps. I have never had a new swimmer who I have "coaxed" not thank me afterward as they have swum much faster than they ever did in practice.
Older swimmers: Most often the reply here is "I'm too old to have any more PR's so why bother". What we have done on our team, the "BUMS", is to start thinking of "RPR's" or recent PR"s in a rolling four year time span. The thought here is to avoid the "I'll wait till I change age group" mentality or swim once every five years. Sure you are older. That's why we have age groups. These guys really need to have their teammates and especially lane mates behind them. Maybe getting them to try a new event can help also.
Ex HS or collage swimmers: This is the toughest group to work with. You have to get them to let go of their last great swim which was most likely shaved, tapered and many years ago in a championship meet. It has to be a combined effort from the coach but more importantly from the other swimmers that they want him or her at the meet. Sometimes inclusion in a relay that's shooting for a top ten time can help. It really does come down to having goals and the whole team behind each swimmer. Usually they are glad they did it afterwards and the next meet is easier to get them to swim in.
I compete for a couple of reasons. Like sickfish, goals keep me motivated. I also train alone, so meets are an opportunity to be around a group of people with whom I share a common interest. While I'd like to have more truly local meets, I don't really mind the travel. I'm an introvert and a demographic outlier in my town so sometimes it's nice to get away.
I have no problems letting go of my best times from the past. Heck, I can't remember what most of them are anyway. That's one of the benefits of growing up swimming in the pre-digital age. I'd actually love to know all of my prior best times in my 'off events' and my exact times from my best events in college (e.g., I know the minutes and seconds, but not more), but they are unsearchable and I stopped detailed tracking of times after high school.
I wonder if this barrier to masters competition -- comparing oneself to younger times -- will grow as the current generation ages since there are all these digital records of their 'performance in their prime.'
As far as the question of why people don't compete, I am looking forward to answers as a number of us in Arizona have been frustrated/stymied by our low meet participation rates. I want to try to understand what would increase participation --
adding social activities?
adding 'fun' events (e.g., fun relays, swim the IM in whatever order you want, etc.)?
having more frequent meets, but with fewer events in each meet and a shorter timeline (e.g., create a ~2 hour meet)?
having a 'first timers' meet where truly 'novice' master swimmers (or those retruning to competition after a long time) can compete without the so-called studs?
other ideas?
