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
Thank You Leslie. Yes it is true I was made to feel very unwelcome by several USMS members, not just Geek. If you've read my postings you will probably realize Geek, Gull, et al, don't scare me.
What Geek doesn't seem to be able to understand is that I don't think that USMS Club members are evil or that USMS Clubs are bad organizations. I also don't doubt that a USMS swim meet is a lot of fun. What I have said though is that USMS doesn't offer a swimmer like myself, in a town where there is no club and who doesn't want to compete, an incentive for joining, and I am not interested in going to a swim meet, whether it is to compete or to socialize. Now, if there was something in place like what is being discussed in this thread, that might lure me to join.
I'm still interested in hearing Geek's plan for including a swimmer like myself. Remember Geek, I have no club to swim with, I have no coach, I don't want to compete or socialize at swim meets. What I do want to do is improve my swimming and fitness. Design a USMS program for swimmers like myself.
Lainey
Thank You Leslie. Yes it is true I was made to feel very unwelcome by several USMS members, not just Geek. If you've read my postings you will probably realize Geek, Gull, et al, don't scare me.
What Geek doesn't seem to be able to understand is that I don't think that USMS Club members are evil or that USMS Clubs are bad organizations. I also don't doubt that a USMS swim meet is a lot of fun. What I have said though is that USMS doesn't offer a swimmer like myself, in a town where there is no club and who doesn't want to compete, an incentive for joining, and I am not interested in going to a swim meet, whether it is to compete or to socialize. Now, if there was something in place like what is being discussed in this thread, that might lure me to join.
I'm still interested in hearing Geek's plan for including a swimmer like myself. Remember Geek, I have no club to swim with, I have no coach, I don't want to compete or socialize at swim meets. What I do want to do is improve my swimming and fitness. Design a USMS program for swimmers like myself.
Lainey
