Picture that you have been suddenly transported to an alternative universe in which none of the swimmers enjoys competition. You find yourself the president of an organization sort of like USMS and have been put in charge of designing programs for swimmers who aren't at all interested in racing but who enjoy swimming and have a desire to improve. What do you think an organization like USMS would look like under such a scenario?
A couple of things have been suggested to me:
Think of swim clinics like TI offers but based on a largely volunteer basis like USMS is instead of having an entrepreneurial basis. Instead of going to meets to race swimmers would be going to clinics to learn, and yes, test their progress.
Consider the number of person-hours needed to organize a swim meet, just in terms of officials. A tremendous amount of effort is put into ensuring a "fair race" and that times swum at one meet can fairly be compared to times swum at another. If you were able to get the same number of people to volunteer the same number of hours and undergo the same level of training aimed in a more instructional vein what could you accomplish? It seems to me that you could organize really great clinics, that non-competitive swimmers would benefit from a lot more than swimming in a meet and perhaps still obtain a similar social experience.
Would it be possible to produce tools for evaluating swimmers progress that would be more informative than just time in a race? For example could one use stroke checklists to give more feedback on technique? Could you develop standardized evaluation tools that, for example, used inexpensive video equipment to do a detailed analysis of a swim, including all the stuff currently used for analysis of elite swimmers such as reaction time, distance under water, time to 15m, stroke count and turnover, turn time, etc..
I suspect that there is a lot of great stuff being done at larger more established clubs that have really good coaches that could be captured and documented and codified and used in the many clubs that are currently struggling to find a good coach in their area that they can afford.
What can you envision?
Parents
Former Member
I find it very hard to comprehend why competitive swimmers can’t grasp the concept that there are other ways of measuring success and fitness than swimming a race. I find it even harder to understand in light of the fact that competitive swimmers frequently talk about, and are very proud of, their personal bests. A personal best has nothing to do with whether or not you placed in an event, it means that you challenged yourself, set a goal, and succeeded. Why must a swimmer who isn’t interested in competing be told that swimming a race is THE WAY to measure success/fitness and improvement? Isn’t it possible that fitness swimmers can set and meet PBs without competing? The “Competition Blinders” need to come off.
I like the idea of different levels of achievement. A USMS task force, made up of coaches and fitness swimmers, should develop the different levels. The last thing a fitness swimmer wants is a competitive swimmer telling him/her what he/she should be doing. The beginning levels should be low so even beginning swimmers will not be intimidated and to provide early success. The achievement criteria for successive levels should be increasingly more difficult to attain with emphasis on achieving PBs while working toward the criteria. The highest levels should require the swimmer to demonstrate superior skills in all four strokes.
As the swimmer progresses through the levels, there should be an emphasis on meeting a speed criteria because speed does measure fitness, and is an indication of good technique. However, these criteria should not be equivalent to qualifying times. Remember the emphasis is on FITNESS, not on fitness to compete. The difficult question the task force will have to address is “What time is a measure of good fitness?” A possible starting point for determining the time criteria might be Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s research. For example, one of several fitness criteria for a male 40 to 49 years old might be swimming an 800 free in 16 min, 30 sec.
Who would judge whether or not a swimmer met the criteria? His or her coach, of course. The coach will submit a form to USMS affirming that he/she has ‘tested’ the swimmer and that the swimmer met or exceeded the level criteria. The swimmer should also be required to pay a fee to USMS in order to be officially recognized at that level. This raises another question. What about members who are not affiliated with any team? There must be something in place so these swimmers will have as much access to the ‘fitness program and recognition’ as those who are members of a team. A possibility might be regional fitness meets, or, perhaps, testing should not be allowed at the team level, and all testing should be done at regional fitness meets.
I find it very hard to comprehend why competitive swimmers can’t grasp the concept that there are other ways of measuring success and fitness than swimming a race. I find it even harder to understand in light of the fact that competitive swimmers frequently talk about, and are very proud of, their personal bests. A personal best has nothing to do with whether or not you placed in an event, it means that you challenged yourself, set a goal, and succeeded. Why must a swimmer who isn’t interested in competing be told that swimming a race is THE WAY to measure success/fitness and improvement? Isn’t it possible that fitness swimmers can set and meet PBs without competing? The “Competition Blinders” need to come off.
I like the idea of different levels of achievement. A USMS task force, made up of coaches and fitness swimmers, should develop the different levels. The last thing a fitness swimmer wants is a competitive swimmer telling him/her what he/she should be doing. The beginning levels should be low so even beginning swimmers will not be intimidated and to provide early success. The achievement criteria for successive levels should be increasingly more difficult to attain with emphasis on achieving PBs while working toward the criteria. The highest levels should require the swimmer to demonstrate superior skills in all four strokes.
As the swimmer progresses through the levels, there should be an emphasis on meeting a speed criteria because speed does measure fitness, and is an indication of good technique. However, these criteria should not be equivalent to qualifying times. Remember the emphasis is on FITNESS, not on fitness to compete. The difficult question the task force will have to address is “What time is a measure of good fitness?” A possible starting point for determining the time criteria might be Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s research. For example, one of several fitness criteria for a male 40 to 49 years old might be swimming an 800 free in 16 min, 30 sec.
Who would judge whether or not a swimmer met the criteria? His or her coach, of course. The coach will submit a form to USMS affirming that he/she has ‘tested’ the swimmer and that the swimmer met or exceeded the level criteria. The swimmer should also be required to pay a fee to USMS in order to be officially recognized at that level. This raises another question. What about members who are not affiliated with any team? There must be something in place so these swimmers will have as much access to the ‘fitness program and recognition’ as those who are members of a team. A possibility might be regional fitness meets, or, perhaps, testing should not be allowed at the team level, and all testing should be done at regional fitness meets.
