I finally got my USMS Swimmer magazine today. Thought a poll might be in order.
My own first impressions, very well done. I was worried about lack of advertising space. I was surprised that so much space was sold. I count 5 full page adds, and many quarter page adds.
Hopefully this added potential income to USMS will allow us to better serve our members.
My overal all grade is an A-, why not a A or A+?
Well I actually liked the Freestyle Open Turns article. I have perfected my own freestyle turn where I can beat most flip turn people. Note I said most. Having a great flip turn is an awesome advantage to fast freestylers. But that leaves me out.
A good open turn allows me to get a good breathe, VERY important for someone with asthma. It also allows me to get in a perfect streamline and push off about 7 to 8 yards before the first stroke. I also have a bad wing, so taking less strokes per lap means I can sleep at night.
But now to be critical, looking at pages 18 and 19 there are several minor flaws in this "Competitive Butterfly Turn". My concern is that both new and older swimmers will think this is the "perfect" butterfly turn, and it is not. I will elaborate in another thread on this.
I am sure many people worked very hard on this issue, everyone deserves credit in making this first issue a proud new tool for our organization to spread the values of Masters swimming.
Originally posted by Matt S
But, I ask you, given USMS runs on volunteer labor, and we have only so much in the volunteer labor pool to draw on, is publishing our own magazine, instead of contracting out to Swim, the best use of our limited labor supply?
Jim only partially responded to this comment when he stated that we have a paid USMS editor. The misconception is that we, as a volunteer organization, have taken on the full burden of publishing the magazine - not true. We also have a professional publisher who we contracted with to publish our magazine, the same as with SWIM. The real differences are that we own the product - hence the increased ad revenue and control over what goes in the magazine.
Originally posted by Matt S
But, I ask you, given USMS runs on volunteer labor, and we have only so much in the volunteer labor pool to draw on, is publishing our own magazine, instead of contracting out to Swim, the best use of our limited labor supply?
Jim only partially responded to this comment when he stated that we have a paid USMS editor. The misconception is that we, as a volunteer organization, have taken on the full burden of publishing the magazine - not true. We also have a professional publisher who we contracted with to publish our magazine, the same as with SWIM. The real differences are that we own the product - hence the increased ad revenue and control over what goes in the magazine.
