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
Hmm,
The idea of showing up for one meet when most of the competition is in another age group is intriguing. However, I'm waiting for when I'm 44, not 45. Why? For whatever reason, there seems to be more talent up to 5 years above my age than 5 years below it. Don't get me wrong; I'm not dissing the 35-39 age group. They still have legions of swimmers that can wax me without breaking a sweat. What get depressing, though, is when the NQT's I have to meet are regularly the fastest of ANY age group (and consequently always just out of reach) while in the next youngest age group, hypothetically speaking, I would have a real shot.
Enough of my pointless grousing; I've riffed on this before.
Matt
Hmm,
The idea of showing up for one meet when most of the competition is in another age group is intriguing. However, I'm waiting for when I'm 44, not 45. Why? For whatever reason, there seems to be more talent up to 5 years above my age than 5 years below it. Don't get me wrong; I'm not dissing the 35-39 age group. They still have legions of swimmers that can wax me without breaking a sweat. What get depressing, though, is when the NQT's I have to meet are regularly the fastest of ANY age group (and consequently always just out of reach) while in the next youngest age group, hypothetically speaking, I would have a real shot.
Enough of my pointless grousing; I've riffed on this before.
Matt
