I'm not a big fan of short course meters meets. Maybe its my American bias, but I prefer the USA Swimming season format with two fairly distinct seasons - SCY (Fall thru Spring) and LCM (Spring/Summer). With limited meets to participate in (especially in the Northeast), I would prefer that the options were not even more diluted by short course meters meets. I would think that many Masters swimmers in the US (who mostly grew up in 25 yard pools) would agree. Just wondering what everybody else thinks.
This thread is a blast from the past! I may have weighed in back in the day but I'll weigh in again as my views have probably changed over the years.
As an age grouper, most of my High School meets were in SCM and I was indifferent as between SCY and SCM. As an adult, I definitely prefer SCY and perform better in SCY on a relative basis (relative to how I performed as an age grouper, which is still what I primarily compare my current times to). I think this is because I'm not nearly in the shape I was as a kid. So the extra distance in those 200's (and sadly even 100's) is not welcome (especially if I still have to make the same amount of turns (which I'm not great at)). On the other hand, I like LCM because you cut down on the turns. But SCM seems like the worst of both worlds.
Also, I'm not an elite swimmer and have no business comparing myself against the rest of the world. I'm happy to compare myself against just other Americans and there's no better course to do that than SCY since that's the most prevalent.
Of course, I voted (way back in 2008) to keep the SCM season and I stick by that for all the reasons people are articulating. No reason to jettison the season.
I think the more interesting poll question would have been: If there were 2 meets on a given weekend, equally distant from where you live, and one was SCY and the other SCM, all other factors being equal which would you choose? I have to think most competitive masters swimmers in the US would pick SCY, even if some of our more outspoken elite swimmers on this board might choose otherwise.
This thread is a blast from the past! I may have weighed in back in the day but I'll weigh in again as my views have probably changed over the years.
As an age grouper, most of my High School meets were in SCM and I was indifferent as between SCY and SCM. As an adult, I definitely prefer SCY and perform better in SCY on a relative basis (relative to how I performed as an age grouper, which is still what I primarily compare my current times to). I think this is because I'm not nearly in the shape I was as a kid. So the extra distance in those 200's (and sadly even 100's) is not welcome (especially if I still have to make the same amount of turns (which I'm not great at)). On the other hand, I like LCM because you cut down on the turns. But SCM seems like the worst of both worlds.
Also, I'm not an elite swimmer and have no business comparing myself against the rest of the world. I'm happy to compare myself against just other Americans and there's no better course to do that than SCY since that's the most prevalent.
Of course, I voted (way back in 2008) to keep the SCM season and I stick by that for all the reasons people are articulating. No reason to jettison the season.
I think the more interesting poll question would have been: If there were 2 meets on a given weekend, equally distant from where you live, and one was SCY and the other SCM, all other factors being equal which would you choose? I have to think most competitive masters swimmers in the US would pick SCY, even if some of our more outspoken elite swimmers on this board might choose otherwise.
