Virtual Club Champs

 

 

A note from Coach Cliff

I am issuing a challenge to all NLSC swimmers.  USA Swimming has a program by which they compare the results of clubs throughout the country and rank them.  Specifics about the program, known as the Virtual Club Championships, are outlined below.  If you click through and bring up the results for our club, you will see that we are ranked 2nd in Alaska, 94th in the Western Zone, and 384th in the country.  There are 2430 clubs ranked in USA Swimming, so we are ranked in the top 15%.  Before the KNIK Winter Splash we were 105th in the Western Zone and 438th in the country.  Pretty nice improvement, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

When you bring up the scores for our club it shows you where the majority of your points come from.  You can see that we get a majority of our points in sprint free and backstroke, but we do not get very many points in distance free or in the IM events.  I want to encourage you to swim more of those events in which we currently score low, or not at all.  For our 13 and over swimmers, this means swimming 200 Fly, 200 Back, 200 Breast, 400 IM, 500 Free, 1000 Free (girls), and 1650 Free (boys).  For our 11 & 12 year old swimmers, it means swimming the 100 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Free, 500 Free, and 200 IM.  These are many of the events that are in the IMX Challenge.  

 

 

In the upcoming meets I believe that we can easily take over the top spot in Alaska.  My challenge to you is to move up significantly in the national rankings.  I believe that we can get into the top 100 by summer of 2010.  This means we have to work hard through this season from now through JO's and the Splash Into Spring.  As we make our way up, want to offer the following incentives.

  • 1st in Alaska - a high 5 from yours truly (hey... we have to start somewhere).
  • 250th in the country - Pizza party at practice (in Palmer and in Anchorage).
  • 100th or better in the country - A t-shirt to commemorate the club achievement.
  • 50th or better in the country - I don't know yet, but if we do I will make it excellent.

In order to move up, we need to not only sign up for meets, but we need to swim as many of the events possible throughout the season.  In the upcoming Valentines Day Invite you can swim 5 events per day and 6 events over the entire meet.  The 500 is on Friday night of the meet.  If you have not swum the 500 free this season, then I encourage you to sign up.  As for the rest of the meet, you should sign up for all 5 events for your age group.  For 9-12 year olds this means swimming the 50 Free, 50 Breast, 100 IM, 50 Back, and 50 Fly.  For the 13 & Over swimmers this means swimming the 50 Free, 100 Breast, 200 IM, 100 Back, and 100 Fly.  8 & Under swimmers are not scored in the Virtual Club Championships, so you should swim whatever your coach thinks is appropriate for your skill level.

Many swimmers categorize themselves at a very early age, or think of themselves as unable to do certain events.  It is important that we shed these conceptions about ourselves in order to broaden our skill base.  Don't be afraid to try new events or events that you have not swum for a long time.  If you never swim them, you will never know what you are capable of.  We had several swimmers at the Winter Splash who were amazed at their abilities in some of the longer races they swam.  The Valentines Invite, other than the 500, offers mostly shorter races!  This is a great opportunity to check out those other events.

Good luck this season and we will see you at the Valentine's Day Invite!

 

Click here to see the Virtual Club Championship Rankings

Purpose: Recognize and highlight clubs that are developing athletes and achieving success at multiple levels in the club swimming continuum emphasizing the team element in club swimming. This program serves as a key part of the Athlete Development & Performance component of the Club Recognition Program.

Period: The Virtual Club Championships will be tabulated annually for both short course and long course from September 1 through August 31 of the following year. (Prior to the 2008-2009 season, short course rankings were tabulated using results from September 1 through May 31).

Tabulation: All registered USA Swimming clubs will be scored automatically. The USA Swimming Star Times Data Base will be used in combination with the Hy-Tek Single-Year Age Group Power Point system. The program will score single age groups from 11-16 years old and a combined 17-18 age group. After all eligible swims have been scored using the power point system, a team score for each registered USA Swimming club will be calculated. The tabulation will occur once every evening.

Team Event Limit: Each team will be limited to two entries per event by age group and gender. The program will automatically tabulate which two events in combination with other teammates produce the highest team score.

Individual Event Limit: Each swimmer will be limited to four events. A swimmer may contribute only four times per season even if they age up (i.e. may have two times selected as an 11-year old and two as a 12-year old, but not four as an 11-year old and four as a 12-year old). The program will automatically tabulate which four events in combination with other teammates produce the highest team score. For larger clubs, the computer will go through more than 1,000,000,000,000 (1 Trillion) calculations to determine the optimum score!

Eligibility: For a swimmer’s point total on a specific swim to count toward the overall team total, the athlete and/or their swim must meet the following eligibility criteria:

  • Times must have been achieved while representing a registered USA Swimming club (no unattached times may be used).
  • Age Groups and Events: The following event results will be tabulated for both men and women:
    • 11 & 12 year olds – 50 Fr, 100s of each stroke, 200 Free, 4/500 Free, 200 IM (8 events).
    • 13, 14, 15, 16, 17-18 year olds – All recognized Olympic events (13 events). This means for Women the 1000y/800m freestyle and for Men the 1650y/1500m will be the long distance event scored.
  • No relays will be scored.

View Options: A viewer has four options to look at their club ranking:

  1. If you select no option you will see all clubs sorted by national rank
  2. Select Club will see only the selected club (it will show the national rank and then show VCC rank=1)
  3. Only looking at clubs in their LSC (will show the national rank first then the rank within the LSC)
  4. Only looking at clubs in their Zone (will show the national rank first then the rank within the Zone)

"View Detail" Option: A team may choose to look at the detail summary chart by clicking on the View Detail link on the far right-hand side of the ranking. At the beginning of the report, the viewer will see a chart that will quickly give coaches the ability to assess strengths and weaknesses of the team.

  • Sprint freestyle for 11 & 12 year olds includes: 50 & 100 freestyles.
  • Sprint freestyle for 13-18 year olds includes: 50, 100, 200 freestyles.
  • Distance freestyle for 11 & 12 year olds includes: 200 & 400/500 freestyles.
  • Distance freestyle for 13-18 year olds includes: 400/500 freestyles and either the 800/1000 freestyle for Women or the 1500/1650 freestyle for Men.
  • The 11 & 12 year olds in the IM column only have the 200 IM while the 13-18 year olds include the 200 and the 400 IM.

Following the chart is the detail breakdown of every swimmer that was used in the computation of the team's score.

Click here to see the Virtual Club Championship Rankings