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
Parents
Former Member
what about some crazy scoring that would 'level' the field so large teams and small teams would have 'equal' opportunity of winning the meet. Here's what I mean, score as usual, but then divide the total score by the number of swimmers on a team, resulting in an AVERAGE score per swimmer. The team with the highest average score would win. (Team A with 50 swimmers scores 450 points would average 9 points per swimmer, team B with 30 swimmers scores 300 would average 10 points per swimmer--team B wins) This could be extended to individuals as well... Divide the individuals total score by the number of events and you would get the average score per swim.
What about allowing heat winners to contribute 1 point to the total score or DQ's causing a 5 pt debit to his/her total score as well as to the teams total score. That could make things get really interesting.
what about some crazy scoring that would 'level' the field so large teams and small teams would have 'equal' opportunity of winning the meet. Here's what I mean, score as usual, but then divide the total score by the number of swimmers on a team, resulting in an AVERAGE score per swimmer. The team with the highest average score would win. (Team A with 50 swimmers scores 450 points would average 9 points per swimmer, team B with 30 swimmers scores 300 would average 10 points per swimmer--team B wins) This could be extended to individuals as well... Divide the individuals total score by the number of events and you would get the average score per swim.
What about allowing heat winners to contribute 1 point to the total score or DQ's causing a 5 pt debit to his/her total score as well as to the teams total score. That could make things get really interesting.
