Does membership with USA Swimming (not USMS) require any sort of attachment to a specific club? Or, in other words, can I join USAS and go swim whatever meets they have as an "unattached" swimmer. The master's program I swim with only had USMS affiliation.
On a similar note, do times achieved in a USMS meet have any sort of merrit for making Q times for something like a Grand Prix meet?
My experience is that usually the host team's coach "adopts" you, which of course includes a team warmup lane invitation and plenty of encouragement, as well as ensuring a wheel chair, walker, and oxygen mask are on deck.:D
I usually get adopted by my kid's team and get splits, advice and the works. Of course, this is also accompanied by threats to disown me if I embarrass my kid ...
I just email the meet director and send check to him/her. I usually swim in "open" meets with no QTs. I find them a good place to try new events. My first 100 fly as a master was at an open meet last Jan., and I'm trying another new event at the same meet in a couple weeks.
Thanks for all the good info! I'm still a bit off Grand Prix Q times, so I would swim a few A/B/C meets to get my times in place and get back in touch with that style of competition. I have a USAS club team that practices in the same pool (it's a private gym/club) as the master's "team" I am on. The coach is a great guy and I am certain would allow me to affiliate myself with their team without being an official member of the team (they have no masters group in place anyhow).
Are most USA-S meets open to "adults"? I thought they were mostly age group meets--not true? How can you even tell what meets permit non-age groupers?
Just what I can gather, you can't do your local Junior Olympics or do Junior Nationals.
I swim USAS unattached (as well as USMS.) As Paul said, it is usually MUCH cheaper to enter a USAS meet since there is usually no meet surcharge (or at most a very low one.) Just $3.50 to $4.00 per event charge.
As for the hassle...My experience is that you may have to reach out to the meet director via email or phone to see how they prefer to receive your entries (over the phone, via US mail, email, Hy-Tek file, etc.) But, it's really no more difficult than USMS IMHO...
The only negative I can think of is that they don't usually have 50 stroke events we older folks are used to.:cane:
Those surcharges are only for deck entering and for a high number of manual (10+) entries. I've entered meets as unattached and the per event charge is pretty cheap and there is no meet surcharge. Last USA meet I entered, it was $3.50 per event.
Because there are no USMS meets within 100 miles of me, I swam several USAS meets unattached last year. I think was supposed go to the meet director to be assigned to a USAS team coach 'representative' but didn't. I entered with paper forms and just sent a check. Essentially the same as USMS meets. They were senior meets with qualifying times and USMS meets do not count, unless they are officially USAS 'observed' meets. Your USMS meet director will be able to tell you if any meets in which you've swum were USAS observed. But, as someone else mentioned, being able to prove your times is only an issue if you fail to make the cut when you swim.
These meets are fun, but can be a little weird when you don't fit in with the typical USAS swimmer. While I'm competitive with the younger guys, the wrinkles on my face and hair on my chest reveal my age (40). I occassionally get stares from kids who wonder why I'm not in the stands with the other 'old folks.'
Good luck!
My experience is that usually the host team's coach "adopts" you, which of course includes a team warmup lane invitation and plenty of encouragement, as well as ensuring a wheel chair, walker, and oxygen mask are on deck.:D
...I think was supposed go to the meet director to be assigned to a USAS team coach 'representative' but didn't...
Hmm, there was a PVS meet listed at the Freedom Center for next month but it showed as cancelled. Thanks for the info, I didn't even think about that.
Blue Muppet got it right. It's a VA meet. QDD is hosting. My team backed out of the Jan Open because they didn't want to drive around on the weekend of the rush of people coming in to town.
Here is the meet info www.qddswim.org/.../QDD Snowflake Invite.pdf
She and I are swimming it, Alison. But at different pools :badday:
Where are you both swimming? There is a meet the following weekend at our pool. Want to come so I can watch?
Where are you both swimming? There is a meet the following weekend at our pool. Want to come so I can watch?
I'm swimming at MLK and Fortress is at PGS. I don't see a meet at the Freedom Center on the PVS schedule.
I'm swimming at MLK and Fortress is at PGS. I don't see a meet at the Freedom Center on the PVS schedule.
Stop broadcasting my whereabouts! I'm trying to swim in secret so no one can poke fun at my times. :D
