WSJ Article on Masters Swimming

When you see and talk with people who are triathletes, they identify with the RACE / the "big event" as a key factor in their training. A triathlete friend asked me this question in January one year: What are your big plans for the year? My response was: Not get fat or injured. I think it threw him a bit :bliss: I'm fine with the way USMS is setup right now. If I want to swim in a meet, there seem to be plenty of options, way too many for me to keep track. If I just want to go workout with a group, there's that option too. I've heard of some teams that require swimmers to swim in x number of meets/year. If that works for them, then fantastic. I much prefer a more laid-back atmosphere. In my opinion, the article seemed to convey that message well.

I'm going to p*** some people off, but this article really bugged me. So, here goes my :soapbox::bitching:: If the goal of the USMS leadership is to grow the membership, I think they are off-base strategically by de-emphasizing competition. USAT references about 500,000 members (www.usatriathlon.org/.../about.aspx), almost 10x as many as USMS. When you see and talk with people who are triathletes, they identify with the RACE / the "big event" as a key factor in their training. They take pride in the RACE, they advertise the RACE, they enthuse about the RACE. Just about anyone who sees a 140.6 or 70.3 bumper sticker on a car knows that the person in the car is a triathlete. I think this pride and joy USAT members show in the RACE is the main factor contributing to the organization's growth and the their membership's satisfaction and health impacts. We don't have that same broad-based racing culture in USMS. I think that hurts our membership numbers ... and I think that not emphasizing competition, not encouraging competition, not cajoling more of our members to compete means that USMS is doing a disservice to our membership, in terms of the mental/emotional and physical value they can get from the sport. Yes, everyone might not be comfortable racing, but growth and development is uncomfortable. I'd like to see people clamoring to buy "400 IM" or "1500 M" or "5K OW" bumper stickers. I'd like to see more Masters swimmers bragging about their last "Splash & Dash" as Rowdy likes to call the 50. I'd like to see the general public know what any of this terminology means in the way they understand triathlon lingo. I'd like to see USMS move away from the current "everyone gets a trophy for showing up to workout" mindset and to a competition-forward culture. There, my :soapbox: is over and I need to go train because I've got my next meet in less than two weeks. I didn't like the"we aren't competitive" aspect of the article either. One doesn't have to compete to be a Masters Swimmer,but you don't have to be ashamed of being competitive either. I just don't thing there is anything wrong with being serious about testing yourself against others and being focused on a competition.

"crossed their final finish line." Is that a euphemism for died.

From the article: ...says Clay Evans, an Olympic silver medalist who is head coach at Southern California Aquatics, the nation’s largest Masters group. Here is the current SCAQ roster of registered USMS swimmers (119 at the time of this post): www.usms.org/.../club.php There is a club in my LMSC with 841 registered swimmers. I think SCAQ has its own insurance and doesn't require USMS membership. Therefore we don't really know how big the program is to compare to others. But it certainly isn't the largest USMS club in the country. Jeff

I didn't like the "we aren't competitive" aspect of the article either. One doesn't have to compete to be a Masters Swimmer, but you don't have to be ashamed of being competitive either. I just don't think there is anything wrong with being serious about testing yourself against others and being focused on a competition. So apparently you're not one of those athletes who have "crossed their final finish line."

I'm going to p*** some people off, but this article really bugged me. So, here goes my :soapbox::bitching:: If the goal of the USMS leadership is to grow the membership, I think they are off-base strategically by de-emphasizing competition. USAT references about 500,000 members (www.usatriathlon.org/.../about.aspx), almost 10x as many as USMS. When you see and talk with people who are triathletes, they identify with the RACE / the "big event" as a key factor in their training. They take pride in the RACE, they advertise the RACE, they enthuse about the RACE. Just about anyone who sees a 140.6 or 70.3 bumper sticker on a car knows that the person in the car is a triathlete. I think this pride and joy USAT members show in the RACE is the main factor contributing to the organization's growth and the their membership's satisfaction and health impacts. We don't have that same broad-based racing culture in USMS. I think that hurts our membership numbers ... and I think that not emphasizing competition, not encouraging competition, not cajoling more of our members to compete means that USMS is doing a disservice to our membership, in terms of the mental/emotional and physical value they can get from the sport. Yes, everyone might not be comfortable racing, but growth and development is uncomfortable. I'd like to see people clamoring to buy "400 IM" or "1500 M" or "5K OW" bumper stickers. I'd like to see more Masters swimmers bragging about their last "Splash & Dash" as Rowdy likes to call the 50. I'd like to see the general public know what any of this terminology means in the way they understand triathlon lingo. I'd like to see USMS move away from the current "everyone gets a trophy for showing up to workout" mindset and to a competition-forward culture. There, my :soapbox: is over and I need to go train because I've got my next meet in less than two weeks.

Great perspective, Patrick! I do like USMS's "something for everyone" tack, but I also agree that competition should be promoted as much as possible.

These comments were in THIS article. Many others that have been published, tell of the "average swimmers" in our sport. Maybe someone out there should pen for an upcoming publication , a counter piece on all the other than "elite swimmers" Anyone?? Beuhler? beuhler? Elaine k ??

I'm going to p*** some people off, but this article really bugged me. So, here goes my :soapbox::bitching:: If the goal of the USMS leadership is to grow the membership, I think they are off-base strategically by de-emphasizing competition. USAT references about 500,000 members (www.usatriathlon.org/.../about.aspx), almost 10x as many as USMS. When you see and talk with people who are triathletes, they identify with the RACE / the "big event" as a key factor in their training. They take pride in the RACE, they advertise the RACE, they enthuse about the RACE. Just about anyone who sees a 140.6 or 70.3 bumper sticker on a car knows that the person in the car is a triathlete. I think this pride and joy USAT members show in the RACE is the main factor contributing to the organization's growth and the their membership's satisfaction and health impacts. We don't have that same broad-based racing culture in USMS. I think that hurts our membership numbers ... and I think that not emphasizing competition, not encouraging competition, not cajoling more of our members to compete means that USMS is doing a disservice to our membership, in terms of the mental/emotional and physical value they can get from the sport. Yes, everyone might not be comfortable racing, but growth and development is uncomfortable. I'd like to see people clamoring to buy "400 IM" or "1500 M" or "5K OW" bumper stickers. I'd like to see more Masters swimmers bragging about their last "Splash & Dash" as Rowdy likes to call the 50. I'd like to see the general public know what any of this terminology means in the way they understand triathlon lingo. I'd like to see USMS move away from the current "everyone gets a trophy for showing up to workout" mindset and to a competition-forward culture. There, my :soapbox: is over and I need to go train because I've got my next meet in less than two weeks. Disagree with most of this post. There are certainly hardcore triathletes who like to RACE but more who participate simply for the right to put that sticker on their car. And I use the word "participate" deliberately because they are not "racing" at all, they simply want to fuel their water cooler talk. And that's fine but I don't think there is much parallel to masters (pool) swimming, they are more like OW swimmers who take pride in completing a particular (possibly quite challenging) swim. Swimmers who want to fire up their competitive juices are already drawn to USMS because they are mostly the only game in town for adults who are serious about competitive swimming. Attendance at nationals flat-lined long ago and probably so has the number of swimmers in other sanctioned meets. Don't get me wrong, I think that the more competitive USMS members are a huge asset, and I think we should be more aggressive in pursuing swimmers who quit or "graduate" out of USA-S or college varsity/club swimming. But IMO even those people are less interested in competition than a great club environment. Great coaches and great clubs are the secret sauce, not more/better catering to competitive urges.

Swimmers who want to fire up their competitive juices are already drawn to USMS because they are mostly the only game in town for adults who are serious about competitive swimming. Attendance at nationals flat-lined long ago and probably so has the number of swimmers in other sanctioned meets. Don't get me wrong, I think that the more competitive USMS members are a huge asset, and I think we should be more aggressive in pursuing swimmers who quit or "graduate" out of USA-S or college varsity/club swimming. But IMO even those people are less interested in competition than a great club environment. Great coaches and great clubs are the secret sauce, not more/better catering to competitive urges. Agreed. I think there is certainly a balance between attracting both competitive and non-competitive swimmers. On the one hand, after a lifetime of competitive swimming, many post-college/club swimmers should be encouraged to stay with the sport and experience the satisfaction of being competitive in the sport that they love (sometime even more competitive than they were as age groupers) within a welcoming club environment. And on the other hand, there should be plenty of encouragement given to non-competitive swimmers who would prefer to enjoy swimming for fitness, and who might even become potential future competitive swimmers, within a welcoming club environment. USMS is on the right track in welcoming both competitive and non-competitive swimmers, and understanding that this is the key to growth.