Super teams

Originally posted by mattson My post shows, that for this meet, "superteams" obviously did *not* have an advantage. (My point is also that *any* large club, like WCM, will have as much of an advantage over small clubs, as any combined team.) That really depends on how you look at it. Here is another view. Geographically close teams will be able to bring a higher percentage of their swimmers to a meet. For the Tempe meet, Arizona Masters, Rocky Mountain Masters, Walnut Creek ($39 on southwest), San Deigo Swim Masters, The Olympic Club ($39 on southwest), City of Las Vegas Masters and Rio Grande Swim Club all lived close. Some of these are superclubs others regular clubs. But, for each of these clubs it was easier to bring a higher percentage of swimmers than other clubs. Once you look at the teams that had to travel to the meet some distance, the top performers were Pacific Northwest Aquatics (superclub), Indy SwimFit (club), Illinois Masters (superclub), New England Masters (superclub), Oregon Masters (superclub) In the case of Indy SwimFit, you had a club that made a big deal out of this meet. They chose this instead of YMCA Nationals as their team trip, chartered a plane with special fares for the trip, had a great hotel rate at the best hotel in town, arranged side trips for spouces and family before and during the meet. It was impressive organization. The majority of the teams that travel to a national championship meet and place in the top 10 will be superclubs. Geographically close clubs and superclubs will do well, but when we look beyond those teams, it will be the super clubs taking the rest of the top spots. If we can come up with a way to reward regular clubs also, it would encourage their participation in the meet and growth on their team. If we can accomplish this, it would be great. Note: if anyone wonders why I know airfare and team arrangements for this particular meet, it is because the team I swam with hosted this meet and I helped with many of the arrangement for teams.

Originally posted by mattson My post shows, that for this meet, "superteams" obviously did *not* have an advantage. (My point is also that *any* large club, like WCM, will have as much of an advantage over small clubs, as any combined team.) That really depends on how you look at it. Here is another view. Geographically close teams will be able to bring a higher percentage of their swimmers to a meet. For the Tempe meet, Arizona Masters, Rocky Mountain Masters, Walnut Creek ($39 on southwest), San Deigo Swim Masters, The Olympic Club ($39 on southwest), City of Las Vegas Masters and Rio Grande Swim Club all lived close. Some of these are superclubs others regular clubs. But, for each of these clubs it was easier to bring a higher percentage of swimmers than other clubs. Once you look at the teams that had to travel to the meet some distance, the top performers were Pacific Northwest Aquatics (superclub), Indy SwimFit (club), Illinois Masters (superclub), New England Masters (superclub), Oregon Masters (superclub) In the case of Indy SwimFit, you had a club that made a big deal out of this meet. They chose this instead of YMCA Nationals as their team trip, chartered a plane with special fares for the trip, had a great hotel rate at the best hotel in town, arranged side trips for spouces and family before and during the meet. It was impressive organization. The majority of the teams that travel to a national championship meet and place in the top 10 will be superclubs. Geographically close clubs and superclubs will do well, but when we look beyond those teams, it will be the super clubs taking the rest of the top spots. If we can come up with a way to reward regular clubs also, it would encourage their participation in the meet and growth on their team. If we can accomplish this, it would be great. Note: if anyone wonders why I know airfare and team arrangements for this particular meet, it is because the team I swam with hosted this meet and I helped with many of the arrangement for teams.