All,
Coming from a smaller team at Stevens, I agree a great deal with the points that Dan is making, although maybe for different reasons. While restricting smaller, weaker teams to smaller or less competitive events would help increase the overall competitiveness of MAISA, it would also work a great deal to help develop the skills and confidence of sailors on smaller teams. Through my years being involved with MAISA, I have often noticed that there is very little skill to be gained sailing against a fleet that is always a lap ahead of you. When attending smaller regattas, it always seemed like our team was able to stay with, and actually compete against the pack, which is both more educational and more fun. I know that our sailors have always come away from a small regatta more happy and confident about what they are doing than after going to one of the large regattas. This being said, the scheduling process does little to help team planners figure out which regattas are appropriate for them. While you can see the number of berths at an event, that is not always a telltale sign of the level of competition that you would find there. I would like to see an addition to the draft process so that there is a short, maybe one-line, description of each event, or maybe even a numerical competitiveness rating if that is possible. Furthermore, for this to work, there would need to be an increased number of smaller regattas, possibly hosted at the smaller schools, but with the help of coaches from multiple teams. I don't know if it is feasible, but perhaps each weekend, or maybe every other weekend, several small teams in each of the three sections can pool their resources to host a regatta. These could start as one day events to help teams with fewer members make their commitments. It must be remembered though that many small teams don't have coaches and don't have many members, so collaboration of leadership would be key for making this work. Those are my thoughts, Thanks, Jason Taormina Stevens '05 On 10/9/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Folks, > > We have problems with our competition in MAISA. While the Executive > Committee has passed legislation that will address the problems to a > degree, we need > to deal with some basic problems. > > Here are some of the problems and situations to think about. > > 1. Poorly run events. The requirement that at detailed request be > submitted > for the addition of new events and from teams whose events have been > poorly > done will help. Teams will be required to give MAISA assurance that they > are > properly prepared to run a regatta BEFORE they are granted an event. At > the > least, they will have to give some attention the magnitude of the > endeavor > BEFORE they ask for an event. > > 2. Late withdrawals from events that leave little or no time to secure a > replacement. The Executive Committee has moved to address this. > > 3. The heart of the problem for the teams that run small events, > lies with > the fact that MAISA wants as many teams as it can get in order to have > as many > spots at the nationals as possible. So, we don't put much scrutiny into > evaluating new teams and we don't want to make the task of setting up > and running > a team seem too big and, thus, scare off potential teams. So, teams start > > only to be gone in a short time. Some leave without ever having done > a single > race. Those teams fill events (or, make then seem filled) only to > leave them > short right before the event. > > 4. We could get far more restrictive with adding teams, but that > isn't going > to sit well with the teams who have a legitimate chance of going to the > nationals. However, keep in mind that only FIVE MAISA teams went to one of > the > Spring National Championships and, at best, only eight could be considered > to > have had a real shot at going. That makes having the rest of the 40+ MAISA > teams put up with poor events, weak competitors and unfilled events in > order to > send one more team to the Nationals seem pretty stupid. Still, when MAISA > looks good, all the teams in MAISA look good. The point is that in order > for the > smaller teams to support the aspirations of the big teams, the big teams > should be looking to support the small teams, even if only by supporting > MAISA > rules that address the problems. > > 5. A suggestion I would like to advance is that we send new teams only to > events specifically organized for new and developing teams. These would > be more > like our Clinic & Regatta, but these would be smaller events that > could be > run by smaller teams. As smaller events, they could give more individual > attention and as "special instructional events" they would not be so > competitive > that the last place teams gets constantly lapped by the better teams. The > Riley, OCN, and SMC regattas featured this drastic difference in skill > and the > delays that result. The basic idea is that we may accomplish more with > several > smaller clinics than we can with one big one. Perhaps setting up one in > each > region would work well. CNU has not offered to host the clinic because we > can't host a large number of teams. We would and could for a smaller > group. The > weakest MAISA teams could also be confined to these regattas. > > 6. So, on the one hand, we have smaller events being left unfilled due to > poor planning by weaker teams and bigger events being degraded by teams > that > really are not good enough to be there. While we are striving to fill all > events, we could do more to fill them with teams that are of similar > skill levels. > The draft order does this to a degree. However, it does more to keep the > weakest teams out of the biggest events. It doesn't do so well as we go > deeper > in to MAISA. > > 7. I'm opening this discussion and hoping for new ideas as to how we can > improve. I certainly don't have all the answers, but there must be some > things > we can do if we only look for them. > > Our goals should be: > Competition between teams of similar skill levels. > Full regattas. > Better run regattas - both the big and the small. > A developmental system that encourages and nurtures new teams, not that > overwhelms them. > A greater sense of responsibility on the part of smaller teams. > > Dan Winters, CNU > > > > > > > > ************************************** See what's new at > http://www.aol.com > _________________________________________________ > maisa mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=maisa > _________________________________________________ maisa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=maisa
