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
I am rehashing things I posted 2-3 years ago, but having been to a couple of USMS national meets this century, I observed one less than great thing. Here is an example: in the 100 free, there were a series of heats run by agegroup. There are a few competitive heats, followed by the final heat, where one or two stars blew away the field, then the pattern repeats. It seems like it would be more amenable to better competition for the faster swimmers to be seed by time, at least faster than (or slower than) a certain time standard. I think people tend to go faster in a tight race. The same problem can make you sit through multiple heats with one person significantly slower than the rest.
As for surfing/dragging off people in a meet, it sounds great, but I don't believe it works across modern lane lines. Real posibility of a placebo effect, but you still gotta go fast for it to work.
We seem to have solved the empty lane problem we were having years ago with signin procedures. Facilities with huge warmup facilities help with the crowding at warmup, but that can be a problem at nationals.
Another problem is the geographic effect. People are way more likely to go if its close. When has a meet not been "won" by a local team?
This may be another topic, but I am against ageism to the extent that we have it in USMS. Being 41, I don't relish the idea of being beaten by men older than myself. It does happen though, and that if I go to Nationals and am spared the head to head beating, and chose not to look at the results of other age groups, I can fool myself into thinking that I am better than I really am.
I think we should change all the age groups to 25+, 30+, 35+, ... and report results that way (but you could not seed heats that way, so you have to go by time). So when you manage to beat 2 people your age but get spanked by someone 15 years older than you, it would be obvious. So someone like Dennis Baker might win the 200 fly in 4 or 5 age groups. Reality hurts sometimes.
I am rehashing things I posted 2-3 years ago, but having been to a couple of USMS national meets this century, I observed one less than great thing. Here is an example: in the 100 free, there were a series of heats run by agegroup. There are a few competitive heats, followed by the final heat, where one or two stars blew away the field, then the pattern repeats. It seems like it would be more amenable to better competition for the faster swimmers to be seed by time, at least faster than (or slower than) a certain time standard. I think people tend to go faster in a tight race. The same problem can make you sit through multiple heats with one person significantly slower than the rest.
As for surfing/dragging off people in a meet, it sounds great, but I don't believe it works across modern lane lines. Real posibility of a placebo effect, but you still gotta go fast for it to work.
We seem to have solved the empty lane problem we were having years ago with signin procedures. Facilities with huge warmup facilities help with the crowding at warmup, but that can be a problem at nationals.
Another problem is the geographic effect. People are way more likely to go if its close. When has a meet not been "won" by a local team?
This may be another topic, but I am against ageism to the extent that we have it in USMS. Being 41, I don't relish the idea of being beaten by men older than myself. It does happen though, and that if I go to Nationals and am spared the head to head beating, and chose not to look at the results of other age groups, I can fool myself into thinking that I am better than I really am.
I think we should change all the age groups to 25+, 30+, 35+, ... and report results that way (but you could not seed heats that way, so you have to go by time). So when you manage to beat 2 people your age but get spanked by someone 15 years older than you, it would be obvious. So someone like Dennis Baker might win the 200 fly in 4 or 5 age groups. Reality hurts sometimes.
