Is there really a division between masters swimmers? i.e. one camp allied to a more low key fitness oriented approach with low membership growth vs. a meet oriented competitive (elite) camp?
This sounds ridiculous to me. I don't think I've ever run into anyone that acknowledged this debate on a pool deck.
What spawns this rift in Masters swimming? Is this an old guard vs. younger member phenonmenon?
Are there different motivations that exist that create this conflict in terms of the future of USMS? Why can't both coexist?
I say we poll some people out there and find out what they support.
John Smith
Parents
Former Member
Also I think Nationals are generally plenty big. There are enough swimmers that the days are plenty long as is. However, more competitive swimmers in USMS could certainly lead to more meets at the local level, which would be a good thing, IMO. On the balance I would say growth of USMS is not a top priority for me.
originally posted by Knelson
On the other hand, USMS Nationals is a huge event. It's too big in my opinion. I'm certainly in favor of cut off times to limit size and scope of this meet.
originaly posted by Evil/Good Smith
I think that we can also subdivide the issues of crowded lanes at practice and a crowded Nationals....As John points out in his quote above; The way to keep the Nationals relatively reasonable in size is by making the qualifying times faster.....Think about USS swimming....certainly there are waaaay more USS swimmers than there are Masters swimmers (even if you just include the 15 and over USS swimmers)....but Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals are not any more populated than Masters Nationals (or are they??).....and the reason of course is b/c the qualifying time standards for those big USS meets are set the way they are (at least) partly for the reason of controling the size of these big meets......I want Masters Nationals to be very competitive...don't get me wrong....I would rather not place in the top ten and have stronger competition in my age group (which is already pretty strong) then place in the top 3 in my age group in every event and have weak competition to face.....but the competitiveness of the Masters Nationals can still be preserved if the qulifying standards were harder to make....and we could still increase USMS membership without increasing the size of Masters Nationals.....I don't know what the obstacle to doing this actually is?.....Only a modest change in the qualifying time standards could probably slim the size of the meet down enough to make it a more comfortable experience for everyone involved...IMHO only of course!!
Also I think Nationals are generally plenty big. There are enough swimmers that the days are plenty long as is. However, more competitive swimmers in USMS could certainly lead to more meets at the local level, which would be a good thing, IMO. On the balance I would say growth of USMS is not a top priority for me.
originally posted by Knelson
On the other hand, USMS Nationals is a huge event. It's too big in my opinion. I'm certainly in favor of cut off times to limit size and scope of this meet.
originaly posted by Evil/Good Smith
I think that we can also subdivide the issues of crowded lanes at practice and a crowded Nationals....As John points out in his quote above; The way to keep the Nationals relatively reasonable in size is by making the qualifying times faster.....Think about USS swimming....certainly there are waaaay more USS swimmers than there are Masters swimmers (even if you just include the 15 and over USS swimmers)....but Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals are not any more populated than Masters Nationals (or are they??).....and the reason of course is b/c the qualifying time standards for those big USS meets are set the way they are (at least) partly for the reason of controling the size of these big meets......I want Masters Nationals to be very competitive...don't get me wrong....I would rather not place in the top ten and have stronger competition in my age group (which is already pretty strong) then place in the top 3 in my age group in every event and have weak competition to face.....but the competitiveness of the Masters Nationals can still be preserved if the qulifying standards were harder to make....and we could still increase USMS membership without increasing the size of Masters Nationals.....I don't know what the obstacle to doing this actually is?.....Only a modest change in the qualifying time standards could probably slim the size of the meet down enough to make it a more comfortable experience for everyone involved...IMHO only of course!!
