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?
Geek, all you did was list what is already available. I may be wrong, but the purpose of this thread was to come up with NEW IDEAS, a non-competitive vision.
The continued problem with your years' long argument is that you are clammoring for new ideas yet have never taken a single moment to learn about what USMS already offers, most of which is suited very well to the fitness swimmer.
To date, perhaps a dozen people have told you that USMS is composed primarily of fitness swimmers. Just because you don't take the time to learn or participate does not mean that USMS is neglecting fitness swimmers.
What is preventing you from starting a USMS team in your town that you can mold as you see fit? Nothing. You have told us time and again you don't want to compete, you don't want to be coached, you don't want to leave your tiny hamlet, you don't want to learn about USMS. Seems all you care to do is complain about something you don't care to learn more about. If you'd like, private message me your address and I'll send you the USMS Swimmer Mag when it comes out.
Take a minute, look at the website, visit a team, you might just realize we have most of what you already want. Better yet, visit our team and see it in action. Alternatively, continue being uneducated, the choice is yours.
Geek, all you did was list what is already available. I may be wrong, but the purpose of this thread was to come up with NEW IDEAS, a non-competitive vision.
The continued problem with your years' long argument is that you are clammoring for new ideas yet have never taken a single moment to learn about what USMS already offers, most of which is suited very well to the fitness swimmer.
To date, perhaps a dozen people have told you that USMS is composed primarily of fitness swimmers. Just because you don't take the time to learn or participate does not mean that USMS is neglecting fitness swimmers.
What is preventing you from starting a USMS team in your town that you can mold as you see fit? Nothing. You have told us time and again you don't want to compete, you don't want to be coached, you don't want to leave your tiny hamlet, you don't want to learn about USMS. Seems all you care to do is complain about something you don't care to learn more about. If you'd like, private message me your address and I'll send you the USMS Swimmer Mag when it comes out.
Take a minute, look at the website, visit a team, you might just realize we have most of what you already want. Better yet, visit our team and see it in action. Alternatively, continue being uneducated, the choice is yours.
