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.
What a horrible poll! I love SCM. Besides, it is still relatively new to me since I only did 50 and 100s in SCM as a child in summer league. Plus, it gives some swimmers a chance to do Lifetime best times! Of course, LCM and OW are still much better, :)
SCY is why I will probably never attend USMS spring nationals. I usually make the FINA top 10 and yards are a waste of my time unless the trip south is 100% free.
SCM is a world standard, so it would be nice to get on the same page. That said, swimming SCY doesn't seem to hurt American swimmers in international competition. As far as the excuse about not swimming SCM because of lack of SCM training; I don't get it. The only difference I notice is the time. You can train in a SCY pool and have great success at a SCM meet. It may be a slight adjustment for backstrokers, but that can be easily simulated.
I have never competed in a SCM pool, so my only issue is lack of realistic time expectations vs. My SCY and LCM times.
Don't use converters and don't worry about your times in SCY or LCM. Just race SCM and you'll set a whole new set of baseline best times.
