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?
I'm still interested in hearing Geek's plan for including a swimmer like myself.
I think because you are not a member and haven't taken any time to understand USMS, you are missing all that is done for swimmers exactly like you. I will list a few below.
First, our magazine, love it or hate it, is quite diverse in it's presentation of all levels of swimming in USMS. There is usually a big color spread of stroke technique and/or dryland exercises. Of course, since you won't become a member, you don't see this. For goodness sakes, they put noodlers on the cover a few months back. There are articles on nutrition, human interest stories and product reviews. I would hazard a guess that less than 50% is devoted to competition, probably much less than 50%.
Next, take 5 minutes to look at the USMS web site. Have you ever done that? You will note a ton of info for non competitive swimmers. There are workouts for all levels. Or, take a FREE workout and modify it to your abilities. My favorite part is the places to swim section which has come in handy many times when I travel. There is a whole section on health and fitness.
Third, if you want a vision of USMS for swimmers like you, why won't you even bother visiting a team, just once in your life? You'd immediately realize that most swimmers don't compete. So, why are they there, FITNESS. And, they pay their dues, btw.
Lastly, you state you have no interest in meets or the social aspect. I can't help you with the social thing, swimmers like to socialize. But, you earlier stated you wanted a fitness meet with stroke judges. It's hard to follow you when you contradict yourself so often. Every USMS meet I have attended has stroke judges.
I didn't compete for my first 5 years in USMS. That made me a fitness swimmer. The technique work, coaching, friendships were what kept me around.
Today at our team workout, we had two new members. How many people asked if they competed? Zero. How many people welcomed them? All.
Apologies for the length of this. I'm just sick of the continued assault on Master's swimming from a person with absolutely no involvement in the sport and no knowledge as to what it offers.
I'm still interested in hearing Geek's plan for including a swimmer like myself.
I think because you are not a member and haven't taken any time to understand USMS, you are missing all that is done for swimmers exactly like you. I will list a few below.
First, our magazine, love it or hate it, is quite diverse in it's presentation of all levels of swimming in USMS. There is usually a big color spread of stroke technique and/or dryland exercises. Of course, since you won't become a member, you don't see this. For goodness sakes, they put noodlers on the cover a few months back. There are articles on nutrition, human interest stories and product reviews. I would hazard a guess that less than 50% is devoted to competition, probably much less than 50%.
Next, take 5 minutes to look at the USMS web site. Have you ever done that? You will note a ton of info for non competitive swimmers. There are workouts for all levels. Or, take a FREE workout and modify it to your abilities. My favorite part is the places to swim section which has come in handy many times when I travel. There is a whole section on health and fitness.
Third, if you want a vision of USMS for swimmers like you, why won't you even bother visiting a team, just once in your life? You'd immediately realize that most swimmers don't compete. So, why are they there, FITNESS. And, they pay their dues, btw.
Lastly, you state you have no interest in meets or the social aspect. I can't help you with the social thing, swimmers like to socialize. But, you earlier stated you wanted a fitness meet with stroke judges. It's hard to follow you when you contradict yourself so often. Every USMS meet I have attended has stroke judges.
I didn't compete for my first 5 years in USMS. That made me a fitness swimmer. The technique work, coaching, friendships were what kept me around.
Today at our team workout, we had two new members. How many people asked if they competed? Zero. How many people welcomed them? All.
Apologies for the length of this. I'm just sick of the continued assault on Master's swimming from a person with absolutely no involvement in the sport and no knowledge as to what it offers.
