This is somewhat related to another post I just started (Top Ten conerns). I noticed in the top ten list a number of swimmers (generally very fast swimmers) who swam their first nationals (or any other masters meet) in 5 years due to being in a new age group. I state this by looking at the past few years top ten lists and not seeing their names. Is this a good thing for masters swimming? Swimmers whose only affiliation with masters swimming is showing up to one meet every 5 years to break a record. These records should be owned by people that are true masters swimmers.
What is a true masters swimmers?- Perhaps doing a few meets a year might work. When I swam on an age group team as a child, I know in order to qualify for our championship meet, we had to swim at least 3 regular meets. Perhaps a rule like that for Nationals could begin to fix this problem-
If not, many of our national records will be held by "ringers"
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Time for me to chime in:
1. I eat Ho-Hos ... and Moon Pies ... and Ring-dings ... though I did give up twinkies awhile back
2. I swim maybe 6-8 meets a year and most of them I swim poorly at because the events are seeded by time, not gender, and I invariably end up in a lane between 2 guys who are a lot taller, bigger, heavier, and their wake blows me out of the water on the sprint events. I might as well be swimming a time trial after workout. Only occasionally do I actually get to race against women
3. I taper for nationals and that is the only place I swim fast, the only meet I care about.
Does the above disqualify me from Top Ten, I think not.
Some of us swim for fun, some for speed, some for socializing, some for health. What does it matter which of these you swim for? Masters is for everyone. Top Tens and Records are for those who are just simply the fastest.
Being fast doesn't make you more or less of a person.
Time for me to chime in:
1. I eat Ho-Hos ... and Moon Pies ... and Ring-dings ... though I did give up twinkies awhile back
2. I swim maybe 6-8 meets a year and most of them I swim poorly at because the events are seeded by time, not gender, and I invariably end up in a lane between 2 guys who are a lot taller, bigger, heavier, and their wake blows me out of the water on the sprint events. I might as well be swimming a time trial after workout. Only occasionally do I actually get to race against women
3. I taper for nationals and that is the only place I swim fast, the only meet I care about.
Does the above disqualify me from Top Ten, I think not.
Some of us swim for fun, some for speed, some for socializing, some for health. What does it matter which of these you swim for? Masters is for everyone. Top Tens and Records are for those who are just simply the fastest.
Being fast doesn't make you more or less of a person.
