How many people are actually USMS members?

i tried the british amatuer swimming online site and only info available was uk record times.So being inquisitive i set out a search on aol search engine to find any info and here i am .I've learned a lot from this site in only a few days too .:cool:

I'm glad you brought up this subject. Can you join USMS, but not belong to a USMS Swim Club? How?

i'm not a member yet. i definetly plan on joing, but not until i am ready for meets, probably early next year. i have questions though :) 1. can you swim in meets outside of your zone? like if i become a member of north carolina ms which is in the dixie zone, can i swim in meets in virginia? can i enter in meets by myself? should i just join virginia ms? (there are no teams i want to join in my area) 2. how do you qualify for national meets? do the times have to be swam in that season? thats all the questions for now. i'm sure i'll have more later..... thanks!

Yes, you can join unattached. You have to register thru your LSMC. Look it up on the computer. Many of them combine different states. Mine was just one state Arizona.

Originally posted by jennyfer80 i'm not a member yet. i definetly plan on joing, but not until i am ready for meets, probably early next year. i have questions though :) 1. can you swim in meets outside of your zone? like if i become a member of north carolina ms which is in the dixie zone, can i swim in meets in virginia? can i enter in meets by myself? should i just join virginia ms? (there are no teams i want to join in my area) 2. how do you qualify for national meets? do the times have to be swam in that season? thats all the questions for now. i'm sure i'll have more later..... thanks! First of all, most Masters swimmers rarely or never enter meets, so you don't have to be "ready" to compete to join USMS. But there really is no such thing, anyway. Swimmers at meets are all levels of ability and the competition is very low key -- there's no reason to be afraid that you're not ready or not competitive. But to answer the specific questions: 1. Yes, you can enter meets outside your zone (anywhere in the country, in fact) and you can enter by yourself -- you can always register "unattached" (even if you are on a team, usually you would send the entry yourself). 2. You don't actually have to meet any qualifying times to enter Nationals. Any swimmer can enter up to three events, without meeting qualifying times. If you want enter more than three though (up to six), you have to meet qualifying times within the preceding year.

Hi , I am from just outside London,UK.The reason that I use this site is purely and simply that it is far superior than anything we have here.I am sure that there are plenty of other UK swimmers that out of frustration have turned to this site.I can honestly say that I have learnt a lot of things that I would never have known if I had stuck to UK sites.It seems that on this site everybody is willing to help others in improving their swimming.This contrasts with the UK.I have found that in the UK if you are not an elite swimmer then coaches tend not be that interested in helping you improve.I just wished that I lived in the US so that I could swim at some of those wonderful outdoor locations while the sun was rising/setting etc. rather than in my claustraphobic local pool.:cool:

Mattson The answer is that the quality of discussion is far higher here than in the UK. There is a forum in the UK but i have found that there are a number of problems with it. 1 - The 4 moderators are also the main contributors, with over a 1000 posts each. This causes problems as it is really a cosy little club for their views. They also tend to "gang up" and dismiss other viewpoints to their own. 2 - Most posts are 1 line put downs of the views of others. There is no interest in really discussing the issues or getting into detail. 3 - In common with the rest of swimming in the UK, which is just coming out of the dark ages of ignoring the importance of technique for the last 20 years ( breaststroke excepted ). There is little understanding or interest in latest technique developments or training improvements on the UK forum. 4 - Here I feel like I am a dentist trying to convince the UK of the importance of dental hygiene and correcting crooked teeth! In short it is an uphill battle here, getting the swim community up to date ! I have learnt so much in my last 6 months of joining this forum. I am aware that I am very much a guest, being from outside the US and I do not want to abuse that privilige.

Originally posted by Gareth Eckley I have learnt so much in my last 6 months of joining this forum. I am aware that I am very much a guest, being from outside the US and I do not want to abuse that privilige. Howdy Gareth! When I posted originally, I was doing my best to make sure this wasn't a "U.S. versus them" sort of issue. It struck me that this board, although hosted by USMS, was a valuable resource for the *entire* swimming community. I was curious if other people felt that way; it seems so. (I was also fishing for swimming resources that I may have overlooked... :cool: ) And considering the interesting discussions that you have started (Michael Phelps article, and too hot pool temperature pop to mind), somehow "(abusing) the privilge" doesn't come to mind. :)

I was on a swim team in Sigonella when I was stationed there in the Navy. And we were able to actually swim with the Italians in meets all through Italy as long as we were affiliated with a group. So we all signed up with USMS and it made it real easy. Even won some awards. I wasn't part of the awards cause I was 22 at the time and their age groups started at 25. It was a real good time though. Kelli,

I use this facility 'cause it is the best in the swimming world at mixing content with genuine disagreements with a little humour (our spelling) besides. I believe that since '85 I have competed in as many USNats as CanNats & have made many friends on your side (esp. PNA & Oregon). Celebrate the differences!