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?
Lainey:
I admire your desire to be fit. That's what is ultimately important. But I would estimate that about 75% of my team doesn't compete or very rarely competes when strong armed by the coaches. Some are just fitness freaks, some want to stay young, some want to burn calories, some want to prep for triathlons (I stay away from those people -- they're obsessed with distance freestyle and always think they should lead a lane no matter what). I find that going to a practice, as opposed to swimming by myself, usually makes me go longer and harder. And my teammates won't hesitate to point out my many stroke defects. But I also know people who train entirely alone. But it could get lonely. Don't let Aquageek scare you away from this thread or any other!! I left a note for you on another, but Peter Cruise told me the Geek chased you away....
Leslie
Lainey:
I admire your desire to be fit. That's what is ultimately important. But I would estimate that about 75% of my team doesn't compete or very rarely competes when strong armed by the coaches. Some are just fitness freaks, some want to stay young, some want to burn calories, some want to prep for triathlons (I stay away from those people -- they're obsessed with distance freestyle and always think they should lead a lane no matter what). I find that going to a practice, as opposed to swimming by myself, usually makes me go longer and harder. And my teammates won't hesitate to point out my many stroke defects. But I also know people who train entirely alone. But it could get lonely. Don't let Aquageek scare you away from this thread or any other!! I left a note for you on another, but Peter Cruise told me the Geek chased you away....
Leslie
