NEW ENGLAND SWIMMING TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING, April 2, 2006

This report was accepted by the Board of New England Swimming at its meeting on April 4, 2006 with the exception of part of the information concerning RELAYS AT CHAMPIONSHIPS.

The Technical Committee met at the home of Dan Warner on April 2, 2006. Attending were: Dan Warner, chairman, Pam Warner, Laura Matuszak, Mariella Allard, Priscilla Davis, Bob Gauvin, and Mary Riddell. The meeting was called to order by Dan Warner at 2:00 pm.

RELAYS AT CHAMPIONSHIPS: This year teams were allowed an unlimited number of relays and an unlimited number of “relay only” swimmers at both 12 and under and 13—19 age group championships, although only two could score. The committee agreed that these policies created problems at both championships. The large number of relays extended the length of both meets, and the large number of “relay only” swimmers caused problems, especially at 12 and unders where the number was close to 100 swimmers. In addition, the quality of some relays was not appropriate for championship level meets.

After some discussion, the committee agreed to recommend that the policy be changed to allow two relays per team per event with both relays allowed to score. NOTE: The following sentences will be replaced. ( The committee also agreed to recommend that there be no “relay only” swimmers. There were two reasons for this last recommendation. One was a desire to keep each meet at a “championship” level. A recommendation had been received to establish time standards for relays but verifying the times of relays is very time consuming, usually involving verifying four individual times for each relay. The other reason was the confusion and misunderstandings involved in the past policy of allowing each team to “fill out” one relay.) The Board of New England Swimming voted that for championship meets a team with 1, 2, or 3 swimmers of the same sex and age entered in at least one individual event could enter one relay in each relay event of that sex and age. If a team has 4 or more swimmers of the same sex and age entered in at least one individual event, the team may not have any “relay only” swimmers for relays of that sex and age. The policy for the regional meets would remain the same—no “relay only” swimmers. For the long course open championship all relays would be “open” but teams would be free to enter relays with 13—14 only swimmers or 15—18 only swimmers if they were interested in achieving records or top 16 times and assuming that they had the proper number of swimmers of each age group.

WARM UPS: At an earlier Board Meeting this year, the athletes had recommended to the board that warm ups, especially for older swimmers, be at least 30 minutes. The board agreed to this recommendation, but did not feel that it could become a mandate.

After the 13—19 age group meet this summer, the suggestion was made that a 30 minute warm down be “guaranteed” at championship meets. The committee agreed that this was a good policy but felt that it could not require that all teams running championship meets guarantee this time. Often teams are constrained by the requirements of facilities that the facilities be cleared at a certain time because of adult swim or other obligations. The committee recommends that teams running meets put together the best possible package to address the warm up and warm down needs of swimmers at all meets, including “end of season” meets.

END OF SEASON MEETS: Dan Warner stated that the main problem with the regional meets and also the 12 and under age group championships was that the meets were too crowded. For the 12 and under meet, the change in relays as stated above would help. All agreed that the time standards needed to be addressed. A tightening of some of the time standards would ensure that the meet remain a “championship” meet and also address some of the over-crowding concerns. Dan offered to help Laura Matuszak look at some possible changes in format for both the 12 and under and regional meets.

For the regional meets, all agreed that we need to go to five sites. Laura Matsuzak will look at possible changes in the format to make the sessions more even. The committee also recommends that an early “preliminary” deadline be established so that teams running regional meets will have an idea of attendance at each site and the age group committee can make an early decision to change teams from one site to another if necessary. Laura Matuszak reported that the age group committee is planning to do some parent education about these meets and the limitations of many of our facilities.

Since the changes in relays, time standards and number of sites would impact the finances of the “end of season” meets, the committee agreed to recommend that all “end of season” meets charge a $5 per swimmer “swimmer participation fee.” After some discussion concerning ways of increasing revenue (increased fees for each event, increased subsidy by New England Swimming), the committee agreed that this would have the least impact on the finances of swimmers entering meets and on the finances of New England Swimming. The committee hopes that this change will increase the number of teams willing to bid on the meets. This fee would be in place for the 12 and under and open meets this summer.

There was some discussion concerning the format of the 12 and under age group meet this summer. The 10 and under swimmers will have timed finals and the 11 and 12 swimmers will have trials and finals. The committee recommends that the morning session be for both 10 and under and 11 and 12 age groups so that the meet will not run too fast for either age group.

This summer the time standards will be the same for 12 and under age group championships as for short course since the meet in the summer is usually smaller than in the winter. For the open meet the time will be the same as for the 13—19 age group meet in the winter but will be “14 and under” rather than 13—14 and “15 and over” rather than 15—19.

Some out of district teams have expressed an interest in attending the Open Championship this summer. The committee is afraid that allowing out of district teams in the meet this summer would make it too crowded and recommends that out of district teams not be allowed except for teams from Maine who have always been included in our long course summer championship meets for 13 and over swimmers.

Some teams running regional meets expressed the desire to be able to exclude certain teams from their sites because of previous “bad behavior.” There was disagreement among the committee on this point. Some felt that teams should be able to exclude teams that they wanted to exclude. Others thought that the issues had to be addressed at the meet if at all possible, and the problem should be documented and submitted to the office (or possibly the board of review) before a team could exclude another team from a meet.

75%, 25% POLICY: Teams seem to be happy with the process but there have been some problems with teams who have been included in the 75% and then withdraw at the last minute. The committee agreed to recommend a policy that allows teams running meets to require that teams included in the 75% submit their entries and check at an advance date of a week before the first day of acceptance. This way the team running the meet would have a firm number of swims in the meet well in advance of the date of accepting the 25% teams. The policy would be optional for teams running meets.

OTHER: Teams that owe meet fees: Some teams (included New England) have had problems with teams that owe money for meet fees, usually for late entries. Most teams pay these fees when they come to the meet but others do not and collecting this money becomes a problem. The committee recommends that teams that have been unsuccessful in obtaining this money from teams can refer the problem to the Board of Review which can then prohibit the team from entering any other meet until the past fees have been paid.

Meet template change: Bob Gauvin reported that he and Mary Riddell made a decision when they were going over the meet invitations submitted with the meet bids. They would like the committee to support their decision. They changed the sentence “New England teams entering the meet are recommended to check their entries with the online registration check tool on the New England Swimming web site” to “New England teams entering the meet are required to check….” The committee agreed to recommend this change.

Food on deck: Mary Riddell brought up the problem that New England had with food on deck at the 13 and over meet at MIT this winter. Most meet invitations state that food is not allowed on deck but it appears that it is not being enforced at all meets. She and Mariella Allard will address this problem at the meet managers meeting so that all teams can be on the same wave length in addressing this problem.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm.

Submitted by Mary Riddell