And I thought the suits were killing the sport ...

We're all pretty excited - but... 50,000 is still a low ball number considering there are many masters swim clubs in the USA operating WITHOUT requiring USMS registration of their swimmers! Sheez... I have to jump in... SCAQ has about 1,000 members and today only 4%-to-5% want to compete. It use to be 1%. I would go to championship meets and sit by myself for there was no interest whatsoever. In fact, it was one of the reasons why I started the SCAQ blog. The front office sends out emails biweekly at the very least encouraging swimmers to go race in a swim meet, to go and swim in one of Erik's sprint workouts, and there were regular emails encouraging SCAQ members to swim and win at the SPMA Regionals LCM Championships. (We did! - We owned you all! Muwahahahaa!) In fact, there is going to be a fund raiser for the LMU girls team on September 27th, in LMU pool and the girls team will be actually conduct an ad hoc clinic beforehand to encourage newer swimmers to show up and to see how fun it is to compete. I think that is terrific outreach and this is something SCAQ does not brag about. Joining the USMS must be a choice and not a "license" that you have to obtain just for the right to go swimming with a particular club especially if you are a beginner. Most of the SCAQ's swimmers in the Van Nuys area are not that affluent and 50% of the swimmers therein are either learning or simply enjoying themselves.

We're all pretty excited - but... 50,000 is still a low ball number considering there are many masters swim clubs in the USA operating WITHOUT requiring USMS registration of their swimmers! Sheez... I have to jump in... SCAQ has about 1,000 members and today only 4%-to-5% want to compete. It use to be 1%. I would go to championship meets and sit by myself for there was no interest whatsoever. In fact, it was one of the reasons why I started the SCAQ blog. The front office sends out emails biweekly at the very least encouraging swimmers to go race in a swim meet, to go and swim in one of Erik's sprint workouts, and there were regular emails encouraging SCAQ members to swim and win at the SPMA Regionals LCM Championships. (We did! - We owned you all! Muwahahahaa!) In fact, there is going to be a fund raiser for the LMU girls team on September 27th, in LMU pool and the girls team will be actually conduct an ad hoc clinic beforehand to encourage newer swimmers to show up and to see how fun it is to compete. I think that is terrific outreach and this is something SCAQ does not brag about. Joining the USMS must be a choice and not a "license" that you have to obtain just for the right to go swimming with a particular club especially if you are a beginner. Most of the SCAQ's swimmers in the Van Nuys area are not that affluent and 50% of the swimmers therein are either learning or simply enjoying themselves.