In a letter sent out to USA Swimming coaches, and distributed through several LSC’s, USA Swimming’s Senior Development Committee has made several proposals to tweak the junior-level championship meet system.
As of right now, there are Sectional meets around the country and there is a Junior National Championship meet. While some areas have zone meets in between, the focus for those meets have largely been the younger age groups.
The focus of the change is based on the 40% increase in athletes 13 & over since 2003, which has seen “relatively few changes to USA Swimming’s championship meet program.” In other words, the demand for participation at these higher level meets has grown immensely, to the point where Junior Nationals cuts are almost the same as Senior Nationals cuts. This means that while Junior Nationals are overflowing a reasonable meet capacity (Winter Juniors, specifically), making the cuts appreciably faster could leave Winter Juniors and Winter Nationals cuts the same, or even with faster Juniors cuts.
The championship format has really become a hot topic in the last two years. There is a double pull here: the need for development opportunities for young swimmers (both at the junior level and those ready for the senior level) coupled with the need to maintain an elite atmosphere.
With those ideas in mind, the 5 proposals were put forth in the document sent out are as below:
5 Ideas Considered and Debated
1) Split Juniors into two meets (ex. East/West)
2) Create a third level of championship meets between Sectionals and Juniors
3) Develop a series of Junior Grand Prix Meets
4) Create a 16 & Under Junior Nationals
5) Create a National Age Group Championships
Today, the committee announced the proposal that they have submitted to the Rules and Regulations Committee, which will then be “deliberated at the USAS Convention in September.”
Long Course Proposal
For the long course season, the SDC proposed the creation of a third level of championship meets. They’re using a working title of “Legends Championships.
These meets would have no age limit, would likely begin with three sites around the country, and would be proposed to have time standards 2.5% slower than 2013 Juniors cuts. These meets would begin in 2015 and would be held the same weekend as Junior Nationals. This means that it is not as much of a stepping-stone within the same year, but an alternative championship to Junior Nationals.
The benefits of this system is that geographically, many swimmers just can’t make the commitment to travel to meets like Junior Nationals – especially when held somewhere like Southern California.
Short Course Proposal
In the short course season, the proposal is quite different. Instead of adding another layer, USA Swimming has proposed splitting Winter Juniors into two different East/West meets, and would maintain the 3.5 day format that will be used in 2014. The goal would be 800 swimmers per meet, and this too would be implemented in 2015.
This again makes sense, as most swimmers who in an ideal world would be competing for Junior National Championships instead go straight to Winter Nationals.
To read the full proposal document, click here.
Questions about the proposals have been asked to be directed to the beneath members of the committee:
Dave Ferris, Chair – [email protected]; Shawn Smith – [email protected]; Kathleen Prindle – [email protected]; or Paul Silver – [email protected].
There’s nothing here in Alabama all we have is Southeastern Championships we need more events here!!
Do USA Swimming Club coaches get a vote in these type of changes? Having a committee of, one would assume, experienced and respected coach/administrators make recommendations is fine, but shouldn’t the Clubs they are representing get a vote before changes take effect?
Danjohnrob – as it says at the end of the post, yes, it will be discussed at the House of Delegates meeting in the fall, which provides a more representative sample from all clubs.
Braden: Thanks for taking the time to reply! It’s really none of my business, as I’m not currently a USS coach; but, what makes the most sense to me when it comes to major changes that would affect ALL the member clubs in the organization (as opposed to a subset like the National Team or college athletes) is to have give each club a vote. This is America after all! LOL!
Ok, I admit I’ve been out of the loop for a few decades, so bear with me. Unless my coach lied to me, while I was swimming (70s-80s), you made a choice: once you went to nationals you didn’t go back to juniors. I quit around the time that they started splitting east/west. Now it sounds more like jr nats is simply another version of nationals (and bigger) but with the older swimmers excluded. What happened?
So, splitting Winter Juniors is strictly a “meet size/facility management” solution, does nothing to bridge the gap of swimmers with Sectional times, but way off Junior qualifying.
Wouldn’t splitting the winter meet theoretically allow for easing qualifying cuts at the two meets?
Probably not….with meets split across the country, probably will get higher combined attendance than what came to 1 meet on just the east or west coast. There were 1200 or so at Dec. 2013 so not unreasonable to expect 800 each at split meets. This would keep cuts from having to get faster than Srs. in the future.
Looking deeper. The Juniors split has come from some of the same individuals that had it “taken away” from them in the ’90’s. They are now in power. That’s how this works. In addition, the committees are being stacked with university coaches. Out of touch and never experienced club swimming first hand. Also; what does this do to already strapped college budgets in terms of the used car lot of Juniors recruiting vacations? Now they will be forced to go to another meet and play vulture to our athletes around their last event.
The Juniors concept has been watered down to the point where there are multiple organizations running “juniors” type meets. USAS had the brand in hand. Now… Read more »
What a great idea to split the meets… Oh wait a minute they did this already and usaswimming said they didn’t want split juniors and created sectionals instead. I would rather Juniors be the exact parameters of the national jr team qualifications. Males 17&under and females 15&under. All other swimmers go to nationals. We have SWIMS we know how many swimmers are in of these groups and what percentile we need to make the standards to support a decent size meet. Make it consistent and stop trying to please everyone.
Don’t like the lower level meet the same weekend as summer Jr’s. Lots of clubs will be forced to choose one or the other as many teams don’t have coaching staffs that could cover both.
I think a national age group meet for young kids would not be the best idea because they would not appreciate some of the smaller meets that might take place during the regular season. The last thing you need is to get a bunch of egotistical 12 and unders who suddenly think they’re the best. I just don’t think they know better at their age about how to deal with winning and being a national champion. I think the zone meets are perfect the way they are. I do think that a third meet in between sectionals and juniors would be a good idea. I’m not sure whether it should split it by region or a national meet, but that… Read more »