Milton Keynes Masters meet

[typhoon]

Is this meet still on?someone at training said this meet is cancelled.

[Odie]

I haven't heard anything to say this. It is not mentioned on their website at all.

[Lightning Boy]

It has been cancelled, due to lack of entries.
Anybody got any ideas why the entries have nosedived over the last couple of years?
Come on Ivor, what's your views?

[DAK]

It has been cancelled, due to lack of entries.
Anybody got any ideas why the entries have nosedived over the last couple of years?
Come on Ivor, what's your views?

Pure speculation but it could be because it is close to Christmas, after Sheffield so everyone is taking a break after training hard for that and the fact that MK is a nightmare of a place to get to!

Is it also the same weekend as the South Yorkshire Masters at Ponds Forge? This would be a more preferable meet for people to go to even from the South East. Or is it the same weekend as a Speedo gala?

[NotVeryFast]

If I'm anything like the typical Masters swimmer, I don't like to plan too far ahead. I'm getting better in this respect, but I still ended up in the situation where after doing a lot of distance swims at Sheffield, I fancied having a go at 100 and 200 freestyle races, looked for a suitable meet in the near future, found the Milton Keynes one, but unfortunately the closing date was the day I was doing all this. Spidey has complained in the past about receiving a flood of entries on the closing date, and a substantial number during the following week, so my guess is that people managing to get themselves organised to enter these meets in time is a general problem.

[Ivor]

We decided, as a club, not to go this year.

I agree with DAK (though not about the relative merits of Barry Ferguson)

In my limited experience the problem with the event (and I fully admit this is certainly not CMK's fault) is that the entry date is always around the time of the nationals when everyone is really fired up and focused on competition.

You enter the events in that positive, nationals-fuelled, frame of mind, but by the time the competition actually comes round you haven't been training properly since Sheffield, you've got loads of Christmas shopping still to do and you're hungover from your office party. All this means enthusiasm for swimming is low. Or is that just me?

[Of course the stupid vents in lanes 5 and 2 don't help either, but that is a very minor thing]

[DAK]

Or is that just me?


No, I think there is a general 'come-down' feeling after Nationals.

[Juicy Lucy]

It has been cancelled, due to lack of entries.
Anybody got any ideas why the entries have nosedived over the last couple of years?


Quite simply, the meet is at the wrong time of the year. It needs to be well away from the Christmas holiday and spread over two days with a social event on the Saturday evening for the swimmers.

Maybe the departure of coach John Bellis has something to do with it? Don't underestimate the pulling power of a good coach!

Juicy Lucy

[Ivor]

It needs to be well away from the Christmas holiday and spread over two days with a social event on the Saturday evening for the swimmers.

MK is a nightmare of a place to get to!

I agree with moving it away from the Christmas holiday, if there's room in the schedule, and I'm sure a social event in the evening couldn't hurt, but I wouldn't have said there were enough events to make a two day event worthwhile.

Plus masters swimmers seem to prefer sticking things all on the one day - short course southern counties down to one day for example. This becomes particularly relevant when the event is perceived as being a slog to get to.

[NotVeryFast]

Plus masters swimmers seem to prefer sticking things all on the one day - short course southern counties down to one day for example. This becomes particularly relevant when the event is perceived as being a slog to get to.
As a counter-example, though, the Surrey closed Masters competition is two days, two weeks apart from each other, and is well attended. I really like this approach because you can be fresh for the 2nd day. I also think the awarding of points for each race and competing for points total at the meet adds a bit of extra interest.

[Taxiandbank]

As a counter-example, though, the Surrey closed Masters competition is two days, two weeks apart from each other, and is well attended. I really like this approach because you can be fresh for the 2nd day. I also think the awarding of points for each race and competing for points total at the meet adds a bit of extra interest.

Age corrected points in different catagories. What a novelty. I am sure the statistically minded members are already working on algorythms so that all ages could compete on a level playing field and compare long and short course at the same time.

[NotVeryFast]

Age corrected points in different catagories. What a novelty. I am sure the statistically minded members are already working on algorythms so that all ages could compete on a level playing field and compare long and short course at the same time.
I don't know if you misunderstood or not, as I didn't really go into details about the points. The points are awarded for position in each race in each age group. The totals are added up for each age group. The reason I think this makes it more interesting is that if you want to try to get the most points in your age group you have a tricky decision to make - do you enter more events, possibly finishing lower in later events in the day due to tiredness, what is the optimum number of races to enter to maximise your points total?

[Taxiandbank]

I don't know if you misunderstood or not, as I didn't really go into details about the points. The points are awarded for position in each race in each age group. The totals are added up for each age group. The reason I think this makes it more interesting is that if you want to try to get the most points in your age group you have a tricky decision to make - do you enter more events, possibly finishing lower in later events in the day due to tiredness, what is the optimum number of races to enter to maximise your points total?

I did realise that was probably the case. I wanted to give someone bighter than me the chance to prove that age correction points needn't be the dark art that the ASA make it out to be.:)

[NotVeryFast]

I did realise that was probably the case. I wanted to give someone bighter than me the chance to prove that age correction points needn't be the dark art that the ASA make it out to be.:)
Okay :) Clearly the same approach that I described for young swimmers could be applied to Masters, however I feel it would work less well for Masters due to the relative lack of numbers of outstanding performers, and the confounding factor of drastically differing amounts of training as people get older, whereas there will be a lot of young age group swimmers doing about as much training as is humanly possible.

[Spidey]

I did realise that was probably the case. I wanted to give someone bighter than me the chance to prove that age correction points needn't be the dark art that the ASA make it out to be.:)
This age adjusted points sytem has been used quite some time ago at the Amersham Masters Meet, and proves very interesting. It it not hard scientific formular, with competitors troulbing the officials about how the adjusting factors are used, as it is for fun. Got me some good times (if I were 25). :rainbow:

[Steve]

Age corrected points in different catagories. What a novelty. I am sure the statistically minded members are already working on algorythms so that all ages could compete on a level playing field and compare long and short course at the same time.
At our master's club champs a few yeasr ago we handicapped the races in the same way as they do EAD events at major meets i.e. based on the difference between the time recorded and the British record in that age group and event. It's not perfect by any means (especially in the couple of cases where older age groups have faster records than younger ones, although this is starting to even itself out a little, especially in the 25-29) but it worked well overall.

[Juicy Lucy]

This age adjusted points sytem has been used quite some time ago at the Amersham Masters Meet

The Amersham Meet was interesting but it did help the older swimmer. Several younger masters at our club refused to attend this meet for a second time, claiming that the age-adjustments were stacked in favour of the better and older swimmers. Our older masters were particularly good, which annoyed the youngsters even more.

Juicy Lucy

[Spidey]

[/URL]The Amersham Meet was interesting but it did help the older swimmer. Several younger masters at our club refused to attend this meet for a second time, claiming that the age-adjustments were stacked in favour of the better and older swimmers. Our older masters were particularly good, which annoyed the youngsters even more.
Juicy Lucy
Are you sure, as the age adjustments were additional and a bit of fun to the ordinary placings and medal awards within the age groups. Seems a bit harsh not to go for that reason. Good to see that the meet is on for 2006, but unfortunately with out the adjstment awards. http://www.bsbasa.org/masters/masters%2006%20total.doc And we were looking for ways to "up" the Masters competitions! :rainbow: When you open the link, press on he cancel for the passwork request.