Relays seem to spark controversy. Some people love them. Some people see them as an intrusion on their individual events. Some people are forced to scratch events to swim relays because of exhaustion. (I actually know a swimmer who practices with a team but won't officially join the team for fear of having to swim relays at zone or other big meets.) Some people "cherry pick" elite swimmers to set records in relays. Relays make meets run longer.
We're adults, not kids on a USS team. Do we really need relays at masters meets?
I've not actually swum on one, I should point out. I'm just wondering why masters swimmers bother when everyone seems to be gunning for PBs and swimming really seems like an individual sport.
Having said that, an open water relay seems oddly appealing. But that's because the relay is the event. I don't see whatyaall see in swimming lots of events and then adding on relays.
abolish relays? perish the thought. No one forces people to do relays in my experience. They exhaust, but I usually just "swim through" them. Great fun, always, though. In New England LMSC we don't include the 800 free for points in the workout group competition so the only people who do it are the ones going for records. The others score megapoints for the team. Some of the team members in our workout group have even come up for a day to a big meet just to swim relays, even when they didn't have an individual event that day. That's how much we enjoy them....
KEEP EM
abolish relays? perish the thought. No one forces people to do relays in my experience. They exhaust, but I usually just "swim through" them. Great fun, always, though. In New England LMSC we don't include the 800 free for points in the workout group competition so the only people who do it are the ones going for records. The others score megapoints for the team. Some of the team members in our workout group have even come up for a day to a big meet just to swim relays, even when they didn't have an individual event that day. That's how much we enjoy them....
KEEP EM
