I feel a little like our old friend Ion Beza. He always complains about the age groups that he swam in and how unfair it is. Anyway, I saw the NT's for my age group and in the 100's there were 2 second drops from last year and in the 200's 4 seconds drop. Anyway, it drives home on how medicroe I am and worst in my middle age than my youth. Granted, I can swim butterfly better than last year but the best stroke breaststroke hasn't improved since last summer. Anyone else feel the same way. I know that in your middle years swimming should be more of an exercise and I don't want the shoulder operations or knee prpblems that some master swimmers had.
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Originally posted by dorothyrd
I just have read some threads on these forums where there is a little bit of griping about Nationals being too big, and it sounded a little like there was some people who would like the times to be more restrictive and not allow non NQT. That is probably a small percentage.
From my experience over 20 years in USMS, that represents a very small percentage of the overall USMS membership -- these forums are not necessarily a representative cross-section. I've been to Nationals several times over past 20 years, even though I've never come close to making NQT's. No one's ever given me a hard time over my right to be there. With one exception (who I think was having a bad day and so shall remain nameless) every swimmer, including the "elite," is just as supportive at Nationals as at any local meet. There's no reason to be afraid to go and compete.
Originally posted by dorothyrd
I just have read some threads on these forums where there is a little bit of griping about Nationals being too big, and it sounded a little like there was some people who would like the times to be more restrictive and not allow non NQT. That is probably a small percentage.
From my experience over 20 years in USMS, that represents a very small percentage of the overall USMS membership -- these forums are not necessarily a representative cross-section. I've been to Nationals several times over past 20 years, even though I've never come close to making NQT's. No one's ever given me a hard time over my right to be there. With one exception (who I think was having a bad day and so shall remain nameless) every swimmer, including the "elite," is just as supportive at Nationals as at any local meet. There's no reason to be afraid to go and compete.
