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!
102.9.1 Relay teams shall not compete unattached. In all cases, relay teams must be composed of USMS members of the same club, which is a member of USMS.
Interesting interpretation here... you see the word I underlined above. if swimmers of unattached or non-matching teams entered a relay as exhibition, were not scored and were not included in the results, they are technically not "competing" at the meet. That solves your desire to get up and swim a relay within the confines of the rules (albiet loosely) - but I think if you want times to count, you need to find yourself an honest-to-God team. A general definition of a "Relay Race" is: members of a team take turns performing a certain action. The rule, in that aspect, seems reasonable to me.
If you really want to do relays that count, some suggestions:
join a team with enough people to field relays regularly
bring more teammates to meets - host a BBQ for your teammates if they come to a particular meet
have your LMSC's default UNAT and/or out-of-LMSC team be a "regional team" to capture more swimmers (kind of like New England or PNA)
Lastly, remember that not everyone is enthusiastic about doing relays. Our sport in general (and the athletes in particular) often place a higher value on individual achievements than on team and athletes commonly prefer to swim solely individual events. Moreover, at our level, we have total freedom to say no for any reason, as opposed to a USAS team, for example, where we need to follow coach's orders. On top of that, remember that some of us don't have unlimited supplies of gas in our tanks.
And however inconvenient this may be for those who want to do relays (or those of us who create relays), I don't see much wrong with the above three reasons for declining to swim relays.
102.9.1 Relay teams shall not compete unattached. In all cases, relay teams must be composed of USMS members of the same club, which is a member of USMS.
Interesting interpretation here... you see the word I underlined above. if swimmers of unattached or non-matching teams entered a relay as exhibition, were not scored and were not included in the results, they are technically not "competing" at the meet. That solves your desire to get up and swim a relay within the confines of the rules (albiet loosely) - but I think if you want times to count, you need to find yourself an honest-to-God team. A general definition of a "Relay Race" is: members of a team take turns performing a certain action. The rule, in that aspect, seems reasonable to me.
If you really want to do relays that count, some suggestions:
join a team with enough people to field relays regularly
bring more teammates to meets - host a BBQ for your teammates if they come to a particular meet
have your LMSC's default UNAT and/or out-of-LMSC team be a "regional team" to capture more swimmers (kind of like New England or PNA)
Lastly, remember that not everyone is enthusiastic about doing relays. Our sport in general (and the athletes in particular) often place a higher value on individual achievements than on team and athletes commonly prefer to swim solely individual events. Moreover, at our level, we have total freedom to say no for any reason, as opposed to a USAS team, for example, where we need to follow coach's orders. On top of that, remember that some of us don't have unlimited supplies of gas in our tanks.
And however inconvenient this may be for those who want to do relays (or those of us who create relays), I don't see much wrong with the above three reasons for declining to swim relays.
