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.
- 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.
Here's a cool link Chris provided in the past: www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
The problem with team competitions has long been the definition of "team."
Our Y team, for instance, gets 3 lanes to practice M W and Friday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. That said, I think we'd be pretty competitive against other groups of folks of a similar size who actually work out together.
But we'd be overwhelmed by these giant California teams with their 50 meter pools and 17 different masters practices a week for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours at a time.
We'd be even more resoundlingly creamed by conglomerations of former NCAA stars that hale from all the quadrants of the country and only see each other one a year, at Nationals, where they convene to set records in relays.
Maybe their should be a category for Lilliputian Teams made up of people who actually practice together?
- 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.
Here's a cool link Chris provided in the past: www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
The problem with team competitions has long been the definition of "team."
Our Y team, for instance, gets 3 lanes to practice M W and Friday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. That said, I think we'd be pretty competitive against other groups of folks of a similar size who actually work out together.
But we'd be overwhelmed by these giant California teams with their 50 meter pools and 17 different masters practices a week for 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours at a time.
We'd be even more resoundlingly creamed by conglomerations of former NCAA stars that hale from all the quadrants of the country and only see each other one a year, at Nationals, where they convene to set records in relays.
Maybe their should be a category for Lilliputian Teams made up of people who actually practice together?
