Super teams

From the comments so far, a good system would:not leave swimmers from small clubs unable to swim relays help boost sense of affiliation with team - teammates cheer for you - way for slower swimmers to contribute to team points With respect to club versus regional teams the question arises do members of clubs need affiliation more than members of regional teams or vica versa? What is the basic principle behind small team/large team divisions? How does it differ from fast swimmer/slow swimmer distinctions? Are there mechanisms for allowing small club swimmers to participate in relays short of regional teams? E.g. exhibition status (no points) relays. Is there any justification for this route? Shouldn't the solution to "it gets old being beaten all the time" be to get faster? It seems to me that the basic flaw is the FINA requirement that relay team members be part of the same club where club is loosely defined. USMS could simply ignore that rule, with the only consequence being that some relays would not qualify as FINA records. -------- other unorganized thoughts: ------------- Some people have brought up double points, what is the justification for these? Unless the number of awards is increased dividing the awards between club teams and regional teams means that some teams that would have won an award in a non-split system might not win an award in the split system. How is this justified? Individuals drive to win versus team building - stacking? - relay teams - points to members of relays instead of teams - in the spirit of personal best, what is wrong with four unaffiliated swimmers joining together to see how fast they can go in a relay? e.g. four fastest swimmers in 40-44 age group do a relay. Allow as exhibition swim? why not award points for participation? - one point for each swimmer - one point for each NQT swim - one point for each relay swim basic tension between participation and performance FINA rules require affiliation

From the comments so far, a good system would:not leave swimmers from small clubs unable to swim relays help boost sense of affiliation with team - teammates cheer for you - way for slower swimmers to contribute to team points With respect to club versus regional teams the question arises do members of clubs need affiliation more than members of regional teams or vica versa? What is the basic principle behind small team/large team divisions? How does it differ from fast swimmer/slow swimmer distinctions? Are there mechanisms for allowing small club swimmers to participate in relays short of regional teams? E.g. exhibition status (no points) relays. Is there any justification for this route? Shouldn't the solution to "it gets old being beaten all the time" be to get faster? It seems to me that the basic flaw is the FINA requirement that relay team members be part of the same club where club is loosely defined. USMS could simply ignore that rule, with the only consequence being that some relays would not qualify as FINA records. -------- other unorganized thoughts: ------------- Some people have brought up double points, what is the justification for these? Unless the number of awards is increased dividing the awards between club teams and regional teams means that some teams that would have won an award in a non-split system might not win an award in the split system. How is this justified? Individuals drive to win versus team building - stacking? - relay teams - points to members of relays instead of teams - in the spirit of personal best, what is wrong with four unaffiliated swimmers joining together to see how fast they can go in a relay? e.g. four fastest swimmers in 40-44 age group do a relay. Allow as exhibition swim? why not award points for participation? - one point for each swimmer - one point for each NQT swim - one point for each relay swim basic tension between participation and performance FINA rules require affiliation