I personally had a great time at Nationals. Not allowing everyone to participate goes against everything masters swimming stands for. I think it's great so many people are participating. It's a great opportunity to get to meet people that share the same passion.
Does anyone else think it may be time to reconsider how big we want Nationals to be? I know it's a balance between including everyone who wants to participate and keeping the meet a manageable size...
I can honestly say that Austin was the first nationals I've been to that I did not enjoy. Unfortunately, my prevailing memories from that experience are crowded warm ups, crowded deck, impossible warm up/cool down pool, very long days and difficult parking. I kept thinking, is this really how I want to spend vacation time?
While I agree with the crowded conditions in the lanes, everything else just made for a wonderful meet. Also, I beleive that Austin was the 2nd largest Nationals ever behind Baltimore (I could be wrong, anyone know for sure?) so that might have contributed.
As for difficult parking? I didn't have much trouble parking on campus Sat or Sun but as for trying to park anywhere else? Yes, it was tough but trust me, it wasn't because USMS was there (or only because), there were so many activities going on in Austin at the same time, such as high school girl's volleyball tournament, Cinqo de Mayo, motorcyle rally (and they stayed in the same hotel as Poolraat and I), graduations not to mention several other smaller events that created a perfect storm of parking woes.
Paul
I can honestly say that Austin was the first nationals I've been to that I did not enjoy.
That's interesting because I felt Austin was the most well-run Nationals I've been to. Yes, the pool was pushed to the limits of what it could reasonably accomodate, but otherwise everything was great.
Any other thoughts?
I guess my first thought would be that, in general, Nationals have not been getting bigger so there isn't really a need to change anything at this point.
1) Don't let really old people swim the mile (saves hours).
2) Don't let really old people complete the 400 IM after they got disqualified on the first lap of butterfly (that would have saved 20 minutes from Woodland's nationals).:drown:
3) Let nonqualifiers compete and give legitimate times. Then seed the nonqualifiers into heats (still eligible for top 10). This way you wouldn't have one person in every heat sucking the timeline down.
3) Let nonqualifiers compete and give legitimate times. Then seed the nonqualifiers into heats (still eligible for top 10). This way you wouldn't have one person in every heat sucking the timeline down.
I've never been and had no idea how it worked for those who did not qualify. Your idea #3 seems to make far more sense.
I'm not sure I understand. Non-qualifiers can enter with realistic times now. You don't need to enter with a time under the cut (as long as you're only doing this for three or fewer events).
