Relay Carnival -- eeks

Our summer swim league has five teams:

Crafton, Scott Township, Green Tree, Mt. Lebo and South Fayette.

Each summer the teams have three big meets:

Relay Carnival, All-Star Meet, Championships.

I hate the relay carnival meet format. The meet is to be fun. But, sadly, it turns into a big 'sink' that doesn't do a good job at developing the swimmers, teams, and experiences that should come about from that meet.

So, I've offered an alternative meet format. Last year I passed about a position paper on how I'd love to see the new meet come into being.

http://rauterkus.com/PDF/SPORTS/relay-carnival-suggestions.pdf


This year at the league's rules meeting, among coaches, I raised this concern again. However, I was NOT able to attend this year's pre-season meeting among teams. So, the chance to change the meet was lost.

I'll be passing out this handout again at this year's relay carnival.

Perhaps we can, as suggested, host another meet in 2008. Perhaps the existing relay carnival can happen on one day and this relay celebration could happen on another day.

One of the best benefits of the structure of the new relay meet format is that everyone (as much as possible) gets to swim in three events. Because the 'extra' swimmers are relegated to the conference squad, there are extra relays.

When we were in New Zealand, there were plenty of opportunities for the boys and girls to swim against each other. This was good. Our winter swim league has only one gender of relay -- say 11-12 age group. You can have boys and girls in the relays. No need to have 4 boys only in a boys relay and 4 girls only in a girls relay.