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?
Former Member
As the person that posted the comment on your blog, I don't find the enjoyment in meets. Every now and then, there will be a meet that perks my attention, but more often than not, the excitement just isn't there. When Muppet hosts the scm in D.C., that meet got my attention since I went to college just down the road. The nationals in puerto rico got my attention as a great place for a vacation. But most places just don't build excitement for taking the time to go there for a meet.
I have no problems letting go of my best times from the past. Heck, I can't remember what most of them are anyway. I find going to meets more of a hassle anymore.
Patrick,
One reason that I find it a hassle is meet locations. My team has shown ZERO interest in hosting a pool meet. We have a great facility that could do either a scy or scm meet. They are very hung ho on hosting an open water swim though.
I have gone to meets in Nashville,Atlanta, Charlotte, Fairfax,Raleigh,D.C., Louisville, to name a few places. All of those are 2 or more hours away. Granted, Nashville and Atlanta can be day trips but the rest require at least one, possibly two overnight stays.
You are fortunate that your area has truly local meets. You can sleep in your own bed, go to the pool, and be home within an hour or less of the finish(if you choose too)
At least for me(speaking of only me) the cost of doing meets isn't worth it. I have no desire to do a usa meet with the kids. I have done that in the past as well but they take it way more seriously than I do at meets.
nice post dan ... can't wait till next spring when i plan on being there at the zones ( am doing the lcm colony zones this weekend ) i'd be interested in purchasing a team warm up ... later, your most southern team member (?) jack cothren
I will see you this weekend. For some reason I thought the 1500 sounded like fun. Well, that was before my cat bit me and now I have a swollen, painful wrist. I'll be the one with wrap around my wrist.
Jeff, thank you. If we are still here in this area, I plan on swimming a lot at UMD.
LOVE LOVE LOVE ROCKWALL POOL! And best of all, there's a BRAUM'S ICE CREAM right outside the road to the pool!! Not everyone is going to be gun-ho about racing - especially pool racing. There is no Truth like the Truth of your times to the one hundreth of second in a controlled environment. On our team, it seems so many people enjoy open water vs. pool competition for that reason. It's hard to get people to want to swim a meet if they aren't already self-motivated. I'd love to go to the meet. I already read the meet info. There's few more competition motived than me.
However, it is the only week that works to go to visit my parents, and Braums/Rockwall ISD pool can't compete with my dad's beef tripe and Kennywood Park.
PS - Please host a SCM meet, or SCY meet!!!! Thank you.
Not everyone is going to be gun-ho about racing - especially pool racing. There is no Truth like the Truth of your times to the one hundreth of second in a controlled environment.
This is so true, Chowmi - it takes many years to "forget" your times of your youth & just enjoy the improvements you're making now.
My biggest hang up is the social aspect. My area has no masters team, so I have to join a team 4 hours away to swim on relays - since I've done this, swim meets are so much more fun! I have someone to sit with, someone to cheer with & cheer for, and someone cheering for me besides my husband!! I would love it if the local adults would also join USMS and go to meets with me, they are my friends & I think it would be a blast - but they would rather do triathlons I guess, and I think Chowmi has hit the nail on the head as to why - they don't really want to know how slow/fast they are! The older I get, the faster I was!
My biggest hang up is the social aspect.
Mine too, but for different reasons. I'm not the most outgoing person around people I don't know, so swim meets tend to be fairly boring for me. I swim, wander back to my stuff and read. Lather, rinse, repeat. I'm not real big on chattering about swimming minutiae either ("I sucked on my 50 free start", "do you think the water's too warm?", "I don't think I'm catching the water well at the start of my stroke", ...), so the most obvious conversation starter isn't really there.
Our coach in Irving is trying to get a gang of us to go to a meet later this summer. I haven't done one since I was 19 and that was well over 20 years ago (not saying how much more though... LOL!) I'm really excited since all I've done since then is OW swims. I'm nervous and excited, but sooo ready to compete. I love a good push from other people and the energy. Looking forward to the new challenge and getting to meet some other pool peeps.
Just over a year ago, I would have said I love meets. Then it changed as I got just that much older. Now I get anxiety from meets and find they are not as much fun. I still go to a few just to hope to get a Top 10 for the year but I have found that I enjoy training more than competing now. For the travel meets like Nationals, I only go if the location is something I enjoy. I love Nationals as far as the fun of it but I can't always justify the money spent so I pick and choose.
Wookie, I feel bad you are getting heat. I deliberately did not post your name because this was a fear I had. I think you represent a large group who don't enjoy meets and I want to understand why. Your reasons make sense and I suspect hold true for quite a few. I appreciate your directness and respect your reasons.
LOVE LOVE LOVE ROCKWALL POOL! And best of all, there's a BRAUM'S ICE CREAM right outside the road to the pool!! Not everyone is going to be gun-ho about racing - especially pool racing. There is no Truth like the Truth of your times to the one hundreth of second in a controlled environment. On our team, it seems so many people enjoy open water vs. pool competition for that reason. It's hard to get people to want to swim a meet if they aren't already self-motivated. I'd love to go to the meet. I already read the meet info. There's few more competition motived than me.
However, it is the only week that works to go to visit my parents, and Braums/Rockwall ISD pool can't compete with my dad's beef tripe and Kennywood Park.
PS - Please host a SCM meet, or SCY meet!!!! Thank you.
I am not normally a conspiracy theorist however on this one I find the location of Braums relative to the new city hall highly suspicious. It was there first and now the aquatic center and the city hall are within a block of the best and cheapest ice cream in Rockwall. You can't tell me it's coincidence.
