Saw one of the more interesting articles about the past, present, and future aspects of competitive swimming on SwimInfo's website the other day from Wayne Goldsmith..
www.swiminfo.com/.../7720.asp
I think it provokes a great deal of thought in this arena and specifically within this group since many of us either participate, have friends/relatives who participate, or remember participating in competitive swim meets.
I particularly appreciate the parents perspective provided in the article. While I have little children (5 and almost 3 years old), the thought of going through what my parents did with me makes me hesitate to sign up for the first set of SwimAmerica lessons or summer club swim team to introduce them to swimming. While I swam through my school age years, I didn't really consider just what my parents had to go through right along with me.. I was always thinking about what i was going through. Wow!
Check out the article and see what you think...
Rob
I worry about the distance events being left out of the short meet formats. But why not start the season of with a 500 freestyle and 400 IM 2 hour meet. The only two events offered at the meet. Then the next meet is a backstroke meet, with the 200, 100, and 50 backstrokes. The next week would be breaststroke....
I would almost bet that this would help coaches promote the all around swimmer, by making their athlete compete in every stroke and every distance. You could hold pentathlon contest over the combined times of all the meets. Reward swimmers for competing in their best events, but also reward swimmers for becoming stong all around swimmers. There are endless ways to reward the swimmers in this type of system....
I worry about the distance events being left out of the short meet formats. But why not start the season of with a 500 freestyle and 400 IM 2 hour meet. The only two events offered at the meet. Then the next meet is a backstroke meet, with the 200, 100, and 50 backstrokes. The next week would be breaststroke....
I would almost bet that this would help coaches promote the all around swimmer, by making their athlete compete in every stroke and every distance. You could hold pentathlon contest over the combined times of all the meets. Reward swimmers for competing in their best events, but also reward swimmers for becoming stong all around swimmers. There are endless ways to reward the swimmers in this type of system....
