I have just recently decided to become dually affiliated with both the USS and USMS (i.e. I am now registered with both organizations). I did this primarily so that I could swim for our local agegroup team at meets in the 17 and over age group. The main advantage for me will be that I can now attend a much larger number of swimming events per season while not having to travel nearly as far to attend swim meets. Since most of the USS meets I will be attending are going to be in Memphis, I can now travel home after each day and return the next day without having to spend the night in a hotel....Also I will be burning a lot less gas getting to the nearby USS meets than I would traveling to USMS meets (even the ones that are the closest to where I live). If you have the same kind of situation in regards to traveling long distances to attend USMS meets and spending too much on traveling expenses, then perhaps you can benefit also from attending USS meets as well?? Also I don't think you necessarily have to be dually affiliated to attend these USS meets?.....(but I'm not really sure how that works to be honest).....I noticed that several other USMS swimmers have attended USS meets before. My first USS meet will be on October 15 and 16. I know I will probably get smoked by a lot of young fast swimmers....but I am still looking forward to the experience none-the-less. If anyone else has ever swam at a USS meet before while also registered as a masters swimmer with the USMS, please share your experience with me/us....How many of y'all are also dually affiliated?
Newmastersswimmer
p.s. I intended on posting a poll for this thread as well to see how many other USMS swimmers have ever attended a USS sanctioned meet....but I'm not sure if I submitted it correctly...so the poll may not actually accompany this posting??
Former Member
I'm glad to hear that USA meets can now be coordinated so well with USMS swimmers in mind. Hopefully this will provide more swim meet opportunities for USMS swimmers who do not live all that close to the cities that typically host most of the USMS meets.
originally posted by Fisgrrl
I remember AAU!!!!! I swam AAU for two summers!! I just got back in touch with my age group coach - we called him Sickie! He now coaches Masters in San Diego
I also swam AAU as an agegrouper....I believe that the switch to USS from AAU occurred right around the time I was graduating from high school and entering college....somewhere in the early to mid eighties I believe?.....Seems like an eternity or two ago now though.
Newmastersswimmer
p.s. Thanks for all of y'all's replies and participation in my poll....The poll seems to suggest that a higher percentage of competitive USMS swimmers have attended USA meets than I would have guessed....but it is only a poll with a fairly small number of participants relative to the size of the competitive USMS swimming group as a whole.
If you go ahead and get dually affiliated by registering with USA then it won't matter whether or not the host team for a USA meet wants to dually affiliate thier USA meet with USMS since you can always enter their meets as a registered USA swimmer in the 15 and older agegroup.....So I would recommend to you Knelson, to go ahead with the registration with USA you are already considering...(the sooner the better)...then you will never have to worry about finding out what the host team wants to do....I do realize, however, that in the upcoming meet you want to enter you may not have the time to get registered before entering as a USA swimmer...but certainly for any future USA meets it would be very advantageous to already be dually affiliated....much less of a headache IMHO.....Good luck Knelson!.....I'm glad my thread helped you to make up your mind about registering with USA swimming.
Newmastersswimmer
Originally posted by Fishgrrl
(waving hand over here...)
I remember AAU!!!!! I swam AAU for two summers!! I just got back in touch with my age group coach - we called him Sickie! He now coaches Masters in San Diego...
(aaahhh...those were the days....) :)
They still call him Sickie. My best friend swims for him.
Originally posted by newmastersswimmer
Good luck Knelson!.....I'm glad my thread helped you to make up your mind about registering with USA swimming.
Yes, I think I might as well sign up. One funny thing I noticed on the application is a line to enter the last time you were registered with USS. I put 1991. I'm sure that's close to the year most of the people I'll be swimming against were born!!
Originally posted by NKMD
You need to know that the times that you swim as a USA swimmer do not count for Master FINA times.
I know. I was hoping to crack the NAG Top 16 for the 35-39 age group. Oh, they don't have it? Dang! ;)
originally posted by Knelson
Yes, I think I might as well sign up. One funny thing I noticed on the application is a line to enter the last time you were registered with USS. I put 1991. I'm sure that's close to the year most of the people I'll be swimming against were born!!
I had to put down 1983 for my last date as a registered USS swimmer (the year I graduated from high school)......Most of the swimmers I will be competing against probably don't even know who was president back then....or think that we were still in Vietnam back then.....LOL!!
Newmastersswimmer
Hi Nadine:
I was always under the impression that USA swimming times by masters swimmers from USA sanctioned meets would count for the FINA Top Ten but not for FINA World Records. In Michigan, many years ago we had swimmers that swam in USA swimming meets and our LMSC recognized or approved in those days the times for USMS Top Ten. Back about 10 years ago, FINA would count the times for records but it was around 1995 or 1996 that they changed the rule. The rule would be that times for World Records could only be accepted in Masters sanctioned meets.
Now I could be wrong but I could not find anything in the USMS Rule Book or the LMSC handbook about times not being forwarded for consideration for FINA Top Ten. If someone swims a time from a USA meet that is in our USMS Top Ten than I believe it will not be excluded from the FINA World Top Ten. If records are broken from those swims they will be counted as USMS Records and not FINA World Records. Now this assumes that all of the rules would be meet such as the application, pool measurement, officials signitures, back up timing tapes, etc.
Times achieved by USMS members are eligible for USMS top 10 and record consideration. You’ll need to ask USA-Swimming officials about how USA-S will recognize times.
