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"
Parents
Former Member
Isn't a true masters swimmer someone who has paid their dues and signed the release at the bottom of the form?
The thing that I love about masters swimming is one is free to choose their level of competition. When I started masters swimming I was just there as a fitness swimmer. Meets were available to me if I wanted to compete. I didn't and wasn't forced to. A few years ago, I caught the competition bug again and started competing in the meets. Last year I decided to complete all of the standard pool events in all three courses (53 different events). My LMSC only had two SCM meets scheduled. 18 events can not be completed in only two meets but fortunately I could travel to a different LMSC to get in the remaining six events that I'd need to complete my goal. This is the beauty of being a masters swimmer--freedom of competition/freedom from competition.
If someone wants to compete once every five years that's fine with me. If someone wants to compete in every meet that's fine with me too. If someone just wants to be a once a week 'fitness' swimmer, that's fine with me too. Worrying about someone else knocking you out of a top 10 time or record is pretty petty don't you think? If you want it, it's your responsibility to train harder and work on your stroke if it's that important to you.
Isn't a true masters swimmer someone who has paid their dues and signed the release at the bottom of the form?
The thing that I love about masters swimming is one is free to choose their level of competition. When I started masters swimming I was just there as a fitness swimmer. Meets were available to me if I wanted to compete. I didn't and wasn't forced to. A few years ago, I caught the competition bug again and started competing in the meets. Last year I decided to complete all of the standard pool events in all three courses (53 different events). My LMSC only had two SCM meets scheduled. 18 events can not be completed in only two meets but fortunately I could travel to a different LMSC to get in the remaining six events that I'd need to complete my goal. This is the beauty of being a masters swimmer--freedom of competition/freedom from competition.
If someone wants to compete once every five years that's fine with me. If someone wants to compete in every meet that's fine with me too. If someone just wants to be a once a week 'fitness' swimmer, that's fine with me too. Worrying about someone else knocking you out of a top 10 time or record is pretty petty don't you think? If you want it, it's your responsibility to train harder and work on your stroke if it's that important to you.
