"Dara Torres should be the face of United States Masters Swimming"
Brent Rutemiller, October issue Swimming World Magazine
"Of Course, Torres isn't on this trip alone. Aside from the support of Hoffman, her daughter and her coaches, Torres relies on a team. She has a nanny who tends to Tessa, a strength coach, and physical and massage therapists who work her like a piece of dough."
John Lohn, October Swimming World Magazine
With all due respect to Mr. Rutemillier & Mr. Lohn I would suggest that they spend a little more time around the people who not only compete in the meets of our sport but with the people who are the backbone as volunteers in the day to day running of it....Dara's only contribution has been making a few workouts early in her comeback, attending a couple of meets and signing autographs and collecting checks for clinics.
If you want a "face" of Masters Swimming look to Susan Von der Lippe who beat Dara as the first person over 40 to qualify for Trials....and she did it training with a masters team 3x a week...working par time, no nanny, no trainers....no PR person....that to me this is the core of what we are in my opinion.
How about Rob Copeland who somehow manages to run this entire organization, swim extremely well, post on our forum....all without a massage therapist and pilates instructor....again this is what Masters represents...to me.
Dara has done something remarkable for anyone her age... give her credit..but lets see if at some point she wants to time at one of our meets...or be on one of our committee's to help promote masters...without an appearance fee.
I do think the way to build it is to focus on the fitness community. Most adult swimmers do not compete, but they DO want to improve their swimming. They like organized work-outs because it adds interest to their work-out, therefore keeps them doing it. It allows them to meet and swim with like minded folks, and maybe at some point, when their life allows it, they may compete. These people will not even give USMS a glance if you start jacking up the fees. After all, they can find work-outs on the internet, meet with friends at the pool for a work-out, without paying that money. You will also totally drive out the college kids who don't swim in college. They cannot afford those prices. Therefore, you are driving away your feeding group. I know many college kids who would like to participate, but the cost is prohibiting them(the cost of swimming with an organized group, and the cost of going to meets, not the yearly cost of USMS).
I think Go the Distance is a good plan, but from the looks of the results, I don't see a lot of folks from Illinois participating. At least not compared to the number of swimmers here.
Dorothy, you have several great points in here. On my team, i'd say at most 25% of our membership has done more than one meet this year. Mostly fitness swimmers. But therein lies the problem. How to further include this large segment of our swimming community?
My experience is that for the most part, there is no interest in comparing any sort of results - folks just want to get in and swim, and then be on their way. I think Go the Distance and the Postal swims/ check off challenge are great tools, but again, there are comparisons made for these.
As for the college kids, I was paying ~$2 per swim to swim with my team while in college. Our program offered a student price, facility member price and regular joe price - all of which I will add are VERY reasonable. I never knew about masters until I signed up to swim with them. The UM Club team doesn't have a coach, and dues are $65 + any travel expenses. That gets you a free tshirt, suit, meet fees, and hotels if you travel to a meet. They get subsidized by the SGA, but its a deal. Perhaps Masters programs at universities can find a way to subsidize students' practice fees to encourage participation. MTSU has a club team, geared mostly to the college kids, that are USMS members, and have gone to Nationals. Clearly they see some value in USMS.
I do think the way to build it is to focus on the fitness community. Most adult swimmers do not compete, but they DO want to improve their swimming. They like organized work-outs because it adds interest to their work-out, therefore keeps them doing it. It allows them to meet and swim with like minded folks, and maybe at some point, when their life allows it, they may compete. These people will not even give USMS a glance if you start jacking up the fees. After all, they can find work-outs on the internet, meet with friends at the pool for a work-out, without paying that money. You will also totally drive out the college kids who don't swim in college. They cannot afford those prices. Therefore, you are driving away your feeding group. I know many college kids who would like to participate, but the cost is prohibiting them(the cost of swimming with an organized group, and the cost of going to meets, not the yearly cost of USMS).
I think Go the Distance is a good plan, but from the looks of the results, I don't see a lot of folks from Illinois participating. At least not compared to the number of swimmers here.
Dorothy, you have several great points in here. On my team, i'd say at most 25% of our membership has done more than one meet this year. Mostly fitness swimmers. But therein lies the problem. How to further include this large segment of our swimming community?
My experience is that for the most part, there is no interest in comparing any sort of results - folks just want to get in and swim, and then be on their way. I think Go the Distance and the Postal swims/ check off challenge are great tools, but again, there are comparisons made for these.
As for the college kids, I was paying ~$2 per swim to swim with my team while in college. Our program offered a student price, facility member price and regular joe price - all of which I will add are VERY reasonable. I never knew about masters until I signed up to swim with them. The UM Club team doesn't have a coach, and dues are $65 + any travel expenses. That gets you a free tshirt, suit, meet fees, and hotels if you travel to a meet. They get subsidized by the SGA, but its a deal. Perhaps Masters programs at universities can find a way to subsidize students' practice fees to encourage participation. MTSU has a club team, geared mostly to the college kids, that are USMS members, and have gone to Nationals. Clearly they see some value in USMS.
