With the continued growth in USMS membership, I would submit that it's time to eliminate the regional teams at Nationals. Case in point: NCMS sent a "team" of 123 swimmers to Atlanta, enough to enter A, B, C, and D relays in many events (e.g. the mens 35+ 200 free relay in which our club team placed 13th behind eight regional teams). It's been argued that the formation of regional teams allows more swimmers to participate in relays, yet local clubs from North Carolina sent as many as thirty or more athletes and could have entered relays on their own as our club (with eight swimmers) did. Swim with the guys you actually train with.
... a rag-tag band of self-assembled misfits that do not require coaching ministrations to excel...Jim, what does it take to actually create a Masters team? Does said team actually have to have any workouts together? Maybe you should create RagTagMasters and starting recruiting for teammates from around the country.
Like many people, I had only 1 person from my training group come to Atlanta (and we don't really know each other), so we never could've fielded a relay team. I did swim a relay with folks from Arizona Masters, but, nice people though they were, I didn't really know them either as they were from a different part of the state. I do consider myself an Arizonan as I've lived here longer than any other place, so it makes sense for me to swim on that regional team.
For you, though, I would be happy to pimp myself out for your team.
... a rag-tag band of self-assembled misfits that do not require coaching ministrations to excel...Jim, what does it take to actually create a Masters team? Does said team actually have to have any workouts together? Maybe you should create RagTagMasters and starting recruiting for teammates from around the country.
Like many people, I had only 1 person from my training group come to Atlanta (and we don't really know each other), so we never could've fielded a relay team. I did swim a relay with folks from Arizona Masters, but, nice people though they were, I didn't really know them either as they were from a different part of the state. I do consider myself an Arizonan as I've lived here longer than any other place, so it makes sense for me to swim on that regional team.
For you, though, I would be happy to pimp myself out for your team.
