BAGCAT & Youth Champs VS European Long Course Championships

[bean]

http://www.sportcentric.com/vmgmt/vfilemgmt/page/filedownload/1,8202,5026-49221-98585-0-file,00.pdf

Looks like BAGCAT & Youth Champs may be down on numbers next summer! ;)

[Bazza]

I don't know, wouldn't expect many BAGCAT & Youth swimmers to be going to the Europeans. Having said that, the confirmed selection policy - as it is called - has no qualifying times whatsoever!

[NotVeryFast]

This is getting onto the topic of "the other thread", but conditions 4.6 and 4.7 in that pdf do bother me, because they seem to say that you can't "opt out" of the whole British Swimming regime if you want to compete at major championships, even if you don't want any money from British Swimming.

Suppose, for example, a lottery winner decides they want to fund some swimmers, and pays for the best coaching money can buy, arranges the best quality pool time, pays for all costs associated with attending competitions etc, and the swimmers they fund become the fastest in the world. Why on earth should those swimmers be forced to attend and take part in Bill's preparation activities, would we really end up in the situation where the fastest swimers in the world wouldn't be allowed to compete for GB if they refused to undertake training that British Swimming wished to impose on them (because, for example, they believed that training would harm their performance in the competition)?

Is this actually a fault of the major competitions? Shouldn't there be a place for competitions that are entered solely by individuals, with no national representation at all, anyone who can make the qualifying time can enter? This is sort of how it is for Masters competitions in that most clubs don't really demand much of their Masters members. At my club, for example, you could be a member and compete but not attend any club training sessions. So you can compete as a Masters swimmer on a completely self-funded basis, with nobody able to dictate how you train or prepare for competition. Shouldn't people be able to do this for open competition as well, why should a national body have this sort of power over swimmers?

[typhoon]

Interesting point made there NVF,in my opinion, a swimmer who is good enough to swim for his or her country(who has qualified by winning trials or made qualifying times) but doesn't like the GB training regime should be able to represent there country.

In other words regardless whether they like uncle Bill's training regime or not if you are the fastest swimmer in a certain event you should represent your country.

In other country's it is quite normal that national squads involve club coaches on the international scene, in Holland V/D Hoogenband takes his coach from his home club to international meets.

In the States club Coaches,who's swimmers are part of the national squad,travel with the national team.

I am not saying you don't need a head coach but i think it's important that a coach who know's his or her swimmer through and through can be very important to that individual at a big meet.

[Martin-Y]

Isn't this already the case with some of our swimmers training overseas presumably under a different regime (USA for example) but are still swimming for their home country.

[Martin-Y]

Ignore that, I was thinking of senior swimmers.

[NotVeryFast]

Isn't this already the case with some of our swimmers training overseas presumably under a different regime (USA for example) but are still swimming for their home country.
Yes, I've read that they are exempt from some requirements, so my hypothetical lottery winner who wants to fund some swimmers would probably want to start by locating their swimmers overseas. The question is, is there any training that people like Simon Burnett would still have forced upon them, e.g. in a camp immediately prior to the competition?

[Pink Paraffin]

As far as I am aware, all selected athletes have to be at the Holding Camp leading into the meet, but this is fairly standard across a number of the major swimming nations - acclimatisation to air temp, humidity, food, culture, quality of beds etc etc leading into the meet, not to mention relay preparation and team bonding