As a swimmer from a backwater LMSC that virtually never has enough people at USMS meets to field even the slowest of relay teams, I would like to see team orphans like myself be allowed to aggregate with others of my ilk to form a rag-tag band of misfit style "Pick Up" relay teams at masters meets.
I personally believe this would foster camaraderie and new friendships as people like me, who practice in Amish mudholes, would be able to swim on a relay team with, say, Cayjuns from Baton Rouge, who swim in oil-slickened bayous littered with oxygen-starved crawdads.
I would furthermore and personally like such relays to "count" for Top 10 consideration, provided they were made up exclusively of unattached swimmers--or people who are the sole representatives of their "teams"--i.e., bona fide hardship cases, like me, who truly have no other options for swimming relays at most meets.
What say ye? Please take my simple poll; USMS bigwigs, please take note of my simple poll, especially if it comes back (as I hope) with a resounding and enthusiastic endorsement of the hopes and aspirations of mud-and-oil-coated misfits throughout the nation!
Arguably, the intent of that rule has been circumvented with the formation of regional teams, not to mention the practice of recruiting swimmers from across the country for purposes of breaking records.
I would say this is what the NCAA does in some fashion. Plus they even recruit internationally to help break relay records. Just think if a state school was only permitted to recruit swimmers from within its state to be eligible to swim on that team.
For those who want to disallow swimmers from registering across the country with a different club: how would you enforce it other than requiring a mailing address within the LMSC? Nowadays somebody could put down a bogus mailing address and never even get the hardcopy of their USMS card in the mail - they could simply download the PDF of their card and enter meets with their USMS number. Are you going to require a copy of their 1040 tax return to show proof of residence when they register? My point is the idea might have merit but if you can't implement it, you can't make the change. Sort of like allowing tech suits but not having any suit manufacturers to make the product (purely hypothetical analogy). :bolt:
Arguably, the intent of that rule has been circumvented with the formation of regional teams, not to mention the practice of recruiting swimmers from across the country for purposes of breaking records.
I would say this is what the NCAA does in some fashion. Plus they even recruit internationally to help break relay records. Just think if a state school was only permitted to recruit swimmers from within its state to be eligible to swim on that team.
For those who want to disallow swimmers from registering across the country with a different club: how would you enforce it other than requiring a mailing address within the LMSC? Nowadays somebody could put down a bogus mailing address and never even get the hardcopy of their USMS card in the mail - they could simply download the PDF of their card and enter meets with their USMS number. Are you going to require a copy of their 1040 tax return to show proof of residence when they register? My point is the idea might have merit but if you can't implement it, you can't make the change. Sort of like allowing tech suits but not having any suit manufacturers to make the product (purely hypothetical analogy). :bolt:
