FlyFins Swim Team: USA Swimming
There is an old question that goes Would you rather be a big fish in a little pond, a little fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a big pond? USA Swim Meets offers the big pond and swimmers can find out quickly where they stand.
USA Swimming is the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming. They administer competitive swimming in accordance with the Amateur Sports Act. USA Swimming provides programs and services for members, supporters, affiliates and the interested public.
Besides the YMCA dual meets, the Fairfield YMCA also offers swimmers the opportunity to compete in the USA meets offered throughout the year. These meets give the swimmers a chance to challenge themselves in a big pond and a different arena of competition. Where the YMCA dual meets tend to be more of a team competition, USA meets are more of an individual type of competition. The swimmers will be able to challenge themselves in events they may not get to swim in at the YMCA dual meets, and they will be able to see and meet many of the other swimmers in the state. Unlike Y meets, at USA meets each swimmer chooses which events they want to participate in.
The USA Swim meets are challenging in that there are cutoff times for each of the events and that raises the level of competition. The meets can often be a little intimidating for the first-time participant, but this is the kind of arena that gives athletes a chance to measure how the stand in the big pond.
The fee for USA Swimming is an additional $55, plus a small fee for each meet and event. Details of the entire USA Swimming program are available at http://www.usa-swimming.org or click on the above link to access the official USA Swimming website.
A list of USA Swimming meets that we will enter as a team will be published by soon. All USA swim meets and USA Swimming Registration is optional. Any swimmer who is interested in joining or already has joined and wishes to compete in USA Swim Meets please contact Coach Francesca.
Monday, April 21
USA Swimming 2008-2009
Summer USA Swimming Information for Old and New Members of the FlyFins
This post is all about USA Swimming. Below I will detail information regarding our "other league." As I've stated on many occasions, participation in USA swimming is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED for many reasons, not the least of which it offers swimmers several more opportunities to compete throughout the season.
Below is some basic info
Schedule
There are no additional practices for USA participants. Meets are typically held on weekends and have strict deadline dates which are clearly marked on the team calendar. We will try to attend two or three meets per month this summer, depending on availability, our first in early May. Though these meets are scheduled to span the entire weekend we typically attend one day only (with an equal mix of Saturday and Sunday offerings). The FlyFins also makes an effort to keep the meets as local as possible.
There's no required number of meets for participation, but bear in mind that in order to attend championships at the end of the season, one must swim in at least one meet over the summer, and swimmers may only qualify for events which they have already swum at least once during the season.
