May/June cover of USMS Swimmer

Humor and ad hominem attacks. Two wonderful ways for avoiding original thinking and changing the subject. So, this appears to be what we have thus far: (1) A suggestion that we have more open water events because they seem to be more approachable and meaningful for people who don't care much for competition. (I particularly liked the analogy of meet swimming is to open water what track meets are to road races and "fun runs." That clarified a lot of ideas for me.) (2) Martial arts styled skills tests. Actually, I think this idea has real merit. We already do something a little bit like this with the "check-off challenges" some teams run (e.g. swim at least once in competition each event from this list, and win a t-shirt or some other recognition). Please note that the concept can be done anyway that gets people excited, especially the numerous but elusive "fitness" swimmer, and can be effectively administered. I personally would recommend AGAINST doing skill tests at meets. The fitness types are telling us that meets put them off, rather than attract them. Also, that would make the problem of meets that run too long to be interesting that much worse. Please also note that we can put a time component into the skill test if that makes sense for us. The "yellow belt" level for freestyle might simply be a block start, a flip turn, and complete a 500 any which way you can. However, the "black belt" level might require completion of a 10K open water swim, X number of hours coaching at some level, and finish at 200 free SCY in competition at or faster than some time level. We may, or may not, norm that time standard by age or gender. (3) My idea: could we reach and benefit the "fitness" swimmer by trying to help USMS teams and coaches? We already help with the group liability coverage. Could we be more systematic and comprehensive with training for coaches, possibly subsidized? Offer some tangible help to start up teams? If all fitness swimmers really want is a place to hit the water, and maybe engaging organized workouts, are there ways to create more opportunities for them? Again, we already do some of this with our "Places to Swim" pages off of the web site, and that is a real, valuable service. What more can we do? The raw numbers are that the people who join USMS and don't ever swim a meet greatly outnumber those of us who swim meets. Add in the people who would join USMS if only we offered ____. I don't think it waters down masters swimming at all to try to do more for the majority of our membership, or for those who might become members. In fact, if the only resources to run the competitions USMS sanctions came from the people who actually participate in these competitions, you'd see the variety and quality of meets drop dramatically. I cannot emphasize this enough, each and every one of us built USMS into what it is today. We do not yet have the luxury of being so big that we can splinter into several interest groups and expect all of them to survive, or any of them for that matter. Back to the "fitness" swimmers. please, Please, PLEASE tell us what the _____ is that would make your experience bigger and better. So this doesn't turn into naked consumerism, please offer these suggestions in the spirit of "_____ would be great, and this is what I, personally, could do to help make it happen." Matt

Humor and ad hominem attacks. Two wonderful ways for avoiding original thinking and changing the subject. So, this appears to be what we have thus far: (1) A suggestion that we have more open water events because they seem to be more approachable and meaningful for people who don't care much for competition. (I particularly liked the analogy of meet swimming is to open water what track meets are to road races and "fun runs." That clarified a lot of ideas for me.) (2) Martial arts styled skills tests. Actually, I think this idea has real merit. We already do something a little bit like this with the "check-off challenges" some teams run (e.g. swim at least once in competition each event from this list, and win a t-shirt or some other recognition). Please note that the concept can be done anyway that gets people excited, especially the numerous but elusive "fitness" swimmer, and can be effectively administered. I personally would recommend AGAINST doing skill tests at meets. The fitness types are telling us that meets put them off, rather than attract them. Also, that would make the problem of meets that run too long to be interesting that much worse. Please also note that we can put a time component into the skill test if that makes sense for us. The "yellow belt" level for freestyle might simply be a block start, a flip turn, and complete a 500 any which way you can. However, the "black belt" level might require completion of a 10K open water swim, X number of hours coaching at some level, and finish at 200 free SCY in competition at or faster than some time level. We may, or may not, norm that time standard by age or gender. (3) My idea: could we reach and benefit the "fitness" swimmer by trying to help USMS teams and coaches? We already help with the group liability coverage. Could we be more systematic and comprehensive with training for coaches, possibly subsidized? Offer some tangible help to start up teams? If all fitness swimmers really want is a place to hit the water, and maybe engaging organized workouts, are there ways to create more opportunities for them? Again, we already do some of this with our "Places to Swim" pages off of the web site, and that is a real, valuable service. What more can we do? The raw numbers are that the people who join USMS and don't ever swim a meet greatly outnumber those of us who swim meets. Add in the people who would join USMS if only we offered ____. I don't think it waters down masters swimming at all to try to do more for the majority of our membership, or for those who might become members. In fact, if the only resources to run the competitions USMS sanctions came from the people who actually participate in these competitions, you'd see the variety and quality of meets drop dramatically. I cannot emphasize this enough, each and every one of us built USMS into what it is today. We do not yet have the luxury of being so big that we can splinter into several interest groups and expect all of them to survive, or any of them for that matter. Back to the "fitness" swimmers. please, Please, PLEASE tell us what the _____ is that would make your experience bigger and better. So this doesn't turn into naked consumerism, please offer these suggestions in the spirit of "_____ would be great, and this is what I, personally, could do to help make it happen." Matt