Masters Team Competition

I'll second the idea because I've had some experience with this system. IMHO, it is a lot fun and more exciting than regular meets. The team aspect and the scoring system motivates you to do your best regardless of the competition. You score more points by swimming faster - thereby helping your team by compensating for team members who are not as speedy in other events. It's much more team oriented than college dual meets. And as a bonus, all the teams usually gather for a big party (read really, really great beer) and food. All in all, it is great event and a very healthly way to consider the sport. I was stationed in Germany from 1983-1988 and swam with a German swim team (Schwimmverien Weiden). I was the old auslander - 30 years old and swimming at the real schule twice a week. We had a kontact program and I went to try to improve my German. The high school kids were thrilled to have someone to practice their conversational English - so my German never really improved. But it was great life experience and we shared many good times. I got to swim in both the league meets and masters meets (went to the very first European Masters Champs in Blackpool, England). Their perspective on sports (and life in general) was an eye opener to an American. If you don't know, there are no varsity college athletics - only club sports - which means no scholarships and no "big money" sports pressure. I was very impressed with their sports systems and can only shake my head at the way college sports in this country have evolved (contrast swimming with american football). People have very different motivation to participate in sports and there is (or was) a more community focus on athletics. I can't tell you how many volksmarches I went to, but I do have a ton of trinkets (plates, beer mugs, medals, etc) from many volksmarching weekends. These are non-competitive events that focus on getting people active by going for a 5 or 10k walk. While volksmarching has been imported to the US, it is not as big as it is in Germany. Erik - thanks for starting this thread. It brought back many fond memories. I usually go to the Holiday Invite at Belmont and I've seen your name many times. I'll make a point to try to talk you in person this year (assuming we both make to another Grunion swim fest). regards, Philipp I think there should be a Masters Team Competition out there - besides the team scoring at Nationals -- Here is an idea I grew up with in Germany -- they hold team championships every winter and it's a great event. It's based on a point system (FINA or USA swimming one could do) -- - the world record usually equals 1000 points and slower times are based on a calculation - for example a 50 Free in 30 sec is 348 points. - every team swims every event twice. 2 people enter the 50 Free, 2 for the 100 Free and so on -- there are 16 events (or 18 if you add the 100 IM and 800 Free) -- so that means 36 total swims. You could add a couple of relays and make it 44 swims - no team member can swim more than 4 or 5 times - so even small teams can compete -- larger teams could field multiple teams. - now for Masters, we would use a conversion factor for the times and age groups - I think Chris Stevenson could come up with something fair really quick. - the team with the biggest point total wins - no individual prizes. In Germany they have Men and Women (for Masters) on the same team - or you could keep it seperate.

I'll second the idea because I've had some experience with this system. IMHO, it is a lot fun and more exciting than regular meets. The team aspect and the scoring system motivates you to do your best regardless of the competition. You score more points by swimming faster - thereby helping your team by compensating for team members who are not as speedy in other events. It's much more team oriented than college dual meets. And as a bonus, all the teams usually gather for a big party (read really, really great beer) and food. All in all, it is great event and a very healthly way to consider the sport. I was stationed in Germany from 1983-1988 and swam with a German swim team (Schwimmverien Weiden). I was the old auslander - 30 years old and swimming at the real schule twice a week. We had a kontact program and I went to try to improve my German. The high school kids were thrilled to have someone to practice their conversational English - so my German never really improved. But it was great life experience and we shared many good times. I got to swim in both the league meets and masters meets (went to the very first European Masters Champs in Blackpool, England). Their perspective on sports (and life in general) was an eye opener to an American. If you don't know, there are no varsity college athletics - only club sports - which means no scholarships and no "big money" sports pressure. I was very impressed with their sports systems and can only shake my head at the way college sports in this country have evolved (contrast swimming with american football). People have very different motivation to participate in sports and there is (or was) a more community focus on athletics. I can't tell you how many volksmarches I went to, but I do have a ton of trinkets (plates, beer mugs, medals, etc) from many volksmarching weekends. These are non-competitive events that focus on getting people active by going for a 5 or 10k walk. While volksmarching has been imported to the US, it is not as big as it is in Germany. Erik - thanks for starting this thread. It brought back many fond memories. I usually go to the Holiday Invite at Belmont and I've seen your name many times. I'll make a point to try to talk you in person this year (assuming we both make to another Grunion swim fest). regards, Philipp I think there should be a Masters Team Competition out there - besides the team scoring at Nationals -- Here is an idea I grew up with in Germany -- they hold team championships every winter and it's a great event. It's based on a point system (FINA or USA swimming one could do) -- - the world record usually equals 1000 points and slower times are based on a calculation - for example a 50 Free in 30 sec is 348 points. - every team swims every event twice. 2 people enter the 50 Free, 2 for the 100 Free and so on -- there are 16 events (or 18 if you add the 100 IM and 800 Free) -- so that means 36 total swims. You could add a couple of relays and make it 44 swims - no team member can swim more than 4 or 5 times - so even small teams can compete -- larger teams could field multiple teams. - now for Masters, we would use a conversion factor for the times and age groups - I think Chris Stevenson could come up with something fair really quick. - the team with the biggest point total wins - no individual prizes. In Germany they have Men and Women (for Masters) on the same team - or you could keep it seperate.