Swimming has a problem...

[@Sockwell]

Uhhhhh ohhhhhh…are consistently KZbin uploads back?!?!

[@izzyfishie]

YAY

[@BoldFrame1657]

@@Sockwell LETS GOOOOOO

[@BlossomyPen6275]

That’s a first.

[@meowser872]

At last

[@GordoFabulous]

Hope so. You need to do these when you travel to big meets.

[@BNG-tx2ro]

Crazy idea for collegiate swimming, add a team championships where team race a dual-meet against each other and use that for "games" like in other collegiate sports and have a playoff for an NCAA champion, but also have an individual championship to run like a normal ncaa meet for individual titles

[@Sockwell]

It blows my mind that we still haven’t tried this in some way shape or form in the modern swimming era…

[@KingOfYouAllGamerBoy]

@@Sockwellit would put the team back in swim team if it were really a team event and possibly make it as fun as summer swim at a high level.

[@jeffreyvlass6585]

@@Sockwellwe do this for NJ high school swimming. Playoff dual meet style bracket to determine a state championship, meets are absolutely electric and people often swim fast as it’s just one school against another. We also have a separate meet after that which is traditional prelims/finals so all the top swimmers can go against each other. This is the best model to appease everyone.

[@randychristensen6503]

I love the dual meets matter idea. It makes the season relevant and challenging. I actually like the idea of having dual meets give ranking in conferences, then a playoff style elimination bracket until there is one team. But then there is a second meet for the top 32 individual swimmers in each event, with prelims/finals. This would all be for traditional events and include the 50s of each stroke and 100 IM. Another idea would be a mid-season unique races event for each conference and then a championship for the top 16. This would be for money prizes. The races would be things like reverse 100 IM, underwater 50s for time with monofins. Could do mixed relays of various types (male and female, 25/50/75/100 free, 25/50/75/100 medley), IMX style challenge (who can swim fastest 50 of each stroke combined, not a relay, but the 50s of each stroke, swam separately and the times combined). Maybe something like a heptathlon or decathlon (50, 100, 200 only can swim 1 event of each fly, back and breast), 100 IM, 200 free, and 200 IM, all have scores that add up like the heptathlon or decathlon). Perhaps even a skills event of some sort (water polo shot, best time to 15 meters, best springboard diving, kicking with a kickboard relay with in water starts), dryland and swim event. A tshirt exchange relay (male, female, and combined) could end it all. In HS, we had an all relays meet. Many of these were included. It was so much fun and challenging. Perhaps this has a limit to the number of events each swimmer can swim, so strategy plays a part. Again, all for money.

[@randychristensen6503]

Perhaps a lead off swimmer starts a certain amount of time early and others try to chase them down aka the Lezak swim. 😂 Mix with different strokes. Points for those closest to our actually beating the lead swimmer, number of points depends on the distance behind our in front of the lead swimmer. What about a unique IM swim? 50 of fly, 100 back, 150 breast, 200 free, 500 yards total. Broken our unbroken. There are so many options when you start thinking outside the box.

[@Sockwell]

We need more wins and more losses, more often.

[@quinnchalton9615]

swimming in general but NCAA in particular need to make the data,times, and streams more accessible for people. i think that fans that are just getting into it have trouble finding the meet results

[@KingOfYouAllGamerBoy]

Meet results are so hard to find sometimes

[@Notbethdutton]

This goes deeper than NCAA, it starts at the club level. We have too many at the top who swam 30, 40, 50 years ago and think there’s nothing wrong with how it is. They don’t like change, they don’t think swimming should change, and they’re scarred of things not being as they always were.

[@harrymaishman5755]

Coach of a small town UK club here. Most of my swimmers love competing, but aren't really 'into' the world of competitive swimming. The ISL definitely changed that. It made it more fun for them to watch, they started to recognise big names, ask me more questions, and engage more with the sport overall. It was also a popular watch among parents. I appreciate it was quite problematic in some ways, but a new & improved ISL season every year would do wonders for the sport.

[@willstuart4504]

It's a funny sport to love, especially as a Canadia. Got to see our phenom Summer absolutely own her events and it was Incredibly exciting..... but NOW What?? See next year I guess... Just wish there was MORE, plain and simple.

[@BoldFrame1657]

You know it’s an awesome day when Kyle sockwell uploads

[@Mike-bc7xv]

Kyle Sockwell uploads keeping you big as hell

[@OilRigMan11]

KYLE SOCKWELL #1 KZbinR

[@jonathanwesleybell]

You are 100% on point here.

[@jamesrobinson2175]

Thank you for this video Kyle! I hope to meet you Kyle!!!

[@aramkhachaturian8043]

Three things: Short course meters so there can be a world record line. Events from the ISL specifically skins and the 400 and 800 test event that they did that was pretty cool. Third is for a league point system like soccer in UEFA football (if you win its three points, if you draw its one point, and if you lose its none).

[@Straightsmilesolutions]

You're spot on- it would be so good for the sport if the restructured it and made the dual meets actually COUNT during the season

[@Unsung_Heroes_of_History]

Plan: Make dual meets entertaining->televise them and it will generate add income. (the number of people that will watch swimming at home is exponential from that in an arena). In fact make dual meets super cheap to increase engagement and encourage people to come. (you'll never make enough from the dual meet sales tickets alone). Put adds on the suits and caps, doesn't have to be gaudy like NASCAR, but classy like F1.

[@bdawg7159]

I think the core of the problem is that swimming doesn‘t understand it should be part of the entertainment industry to appeal to people. We need to entertain, and fast times don‘t neccessarily do that. We need to put on a show, whatever it looks like.

[@ezeqruls]

Just wondering why. Why should it be part of the entertainment world? Is there some mantra that says everything worth doing has to make money directly?

[@bdawg7159]

@@ezeqruls „industry“ was probably the wrong term. And no, i don‘t say swimming has to generate big amounts of money. But i feel like that‘s what the swimming community demands (at least to a certain degree to make a swimming career somewhat financially sustainable), while not being willing to try to make the sport more appealing to others. For me personally i‘ve noticed (after a couple of years after retiring from competitive swimming), that i can‘t watch swim meets anymore (world level meets excluded). No emotions, no excitement, just the same schedule of races and way to organize and run a swim meet as it used to be for the last 100 years.

[@maxcore5815]

08:47 I like watching swimming but not a true follower of it. I follow my countrymen in the national team(Sweden) but I follow other sports more. And you are so correct. Swimming has no soul other then during worldcup or olympics(for me), the sport needs more as you said "story telling" . This was an easy follow :-)

[@maxcore5815]

Dont read my post, just listen to this Kyle who are speaking words that are true even for other sports and not just swimming.

[@swammer13]

On the subject of races to add I'd love to see them add in some eliminator races. There was a meet I went to that did a 50 free eliminator (start with a heat of 8, swim a 50, and eliminate the slowest 2 swimmers, then repeat). It created a lot of excitement and led to a 1 v 1 showdown between two exhausted swimmers swimming there 4th 50 in 15 minutes but it was sure as heck fun to watch and fun to be in. They also did a 400 eliminator that was the same concept, but basically eliminated the slowest swimmer at the 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 mark. Things like that that focus on racing other swimmers rather than racing the clock I think could add a lot of excitement to the sport.

[@drakestallworth3621]

Arguably, it’s a marketing issue. Basketball practically goes through the same thing where most teams’ in-season games don’t really matter. Like sure it helps them get an easier bracket but most basketball fans will agree it’s not really that important, but they still have people show up to these games. I mean swimming becomes all the rage for the Olympics bc it’s marketed better. If the atmosphere of a meet was more fun for spectators then I think the viewership would increase.

[@drakestallworth3621]

Like a solid half of any cfb student section doesn’t know or care what’s going on. They’re just there for the environment.

[@patstefanou8919]

I also think that walkouts are something that swimmers don’t take advantage of…it’s tough because there’s 8 swimmers, but currently if you wave to the crowd that’s considered entertaining…stuff like Pereira firing the arrow or Adesanya doing a dance before they fight is exciting…swimming needs to do more than what they are doing right now…

[@robomania5346]

Honestly even though many people may disagree with me, I think we need to start a petition and gather as much support as possible to show those in charge that many people want change. Then we need someone with influence to convince them to change the current format. If we can get the majority of coaches to realize that their programs are at high risk of dying without change, then the influence of their voices will support the cause further.

[@willstuart4504]

Agreed 100% of all of this!!👏👏👏

[@mountainsmelodies4096]

I'm not sure that I agree with this take. I was a collegiate track athlete, but I've trained competitively at swimming, also, and it is my favorite sport to watch. I may be atypical but I'd vastly prefer to watch swimming NCAA championships than any football or basketball game. I feel like putting more competitive emphasis on duel meets or mid-season meets would have a detrimental effect on the long-term development of athletes. As a runner or swimmer, you can only build up to a peak 2 or 3 times a year. If you place too much incentive on mid-season results, there is a danger that both coaches and athletes might focus too much on short-term success and winning match-ups against rival schools, rather than long-term improvement, especially at mid-tier colleges. I think you can only have so many swimming races at the Olympics, so more sprint 50s are unlikely to be added. I don't think there's another Olympic sport where an athlete will ever win 8 gold medals in one Games. There are people who say that the number of swimming events need to be cut at the Olympics because of this fact. As a runner, I always wanted to see cross country added to the Olympics, but it probably won't be. C'est la vie! I agree that the 100 IM is an exciting race to watch and wouldn't mind seeing more of them.

[@bensytsma773]

Couldn’t have said it better

[@KansaSCaymanS]

The biggest difference between Swimming and other sports (football, basketball, soccer, etc) is that Swimming is essentially an individual sport, not a team effort. Of course relay events do create more of a team atmosphere, and the introduction of mixed relays was probably the most interesting innovation in competition in recent years. I think it will always be hard to capture a lot of interest from the general public, outside of the Olympics, but I like the idea of an elimination bracket for NCAA swimming, with perhaps more focus on swimming primarily relay events, which tend to be more exciting than say the 1500 free.

[@AntGasowski]

I think just adding some kind of duel meet tournament towards the end of the season (I was thinking every conference champion that wins each year) can really hype up the competitiveness of this sport

[@Ndndbdbbttt]

Love how Kyle is back in the KZbin grind

[@IEJ32]

Swimming needs an equivalent of the Diamond League series that athletics has. A calendar of 15 international swim meets across the year, which can be held all over the world (Australia, USA, Europe, China, Japan, Middle East...). Each type of swim event would have its own season ranking, and at the end of season a champion is crowned in that event, meaning wins and losses matter with a points tally to track all season long results. Hopefully, this can generate more interest in the sport globally from both new fans and broadcasters, in turn generating more revenue and prize money for swimmers. Another idea would also be to organize a swimming World Cup meet (not like the World Cup we already have which generates little fan interest). Countries would go head to head in a team competition format, with a points system that awards a winner at the end of the meet. So many stories to tell with the different international rivalries, USA vs Australia, China trying to beat them both, and GB, Canada, France and Hungary as dark horses. This would hopefully also make great entertainment for TV and media, and make more money for everyone.

[@rileyzayasD3]

Just a thought, but what if we designated 4 invites every year as the qualifying meets for an 8 team "Team Championship" in the spring? Those invites are done well ahead of conference and NCAAs, so that's not an issue, and swimmers already go to those meets to swim fast. Almost everyone suits up and tapers as well. Why not take advantage of that? The Top 2 teams out of each of those invites would advance to a bracket, with two quad meets determining the 2 teams who would meet for the national championship dual meet. A national championship between 2 teams is super important IMO. Easier to follow, and along the lines of team sports that most people enjoy watching, like football. And the length of the national championship meet could be reduced as well, with it being a head-to-head thing. And last thought under this hypothetical system: No B Finals...I understand the purpose, but I think it's generally confusing for the non-die hard swim fan...and makes big meets run much longer.

[@isaacbragg-gardiner2456]

I've been saying this for a while: I want a "stroke title" where you get points for placings in each *individual* stroke - screw the 200 IM I want to see who is THE champion across breast-stroke from 50 to 400m (hell maybe add an 800 super-marathon) And that also I think we'd see a LOT of world records cracked switching to this system as folks like Adam Peaty would just stop swimming other strokes and start learning breast fast and slow and everything between.

[@SergioRodriguez-cf4np]

We have to do the same structure as the ISL but in a college way . And bring back the ISL too 😪

[@moellerbaben]

Athletes were not getting payed, so they probably went bankrupt or the rich guys disappeared

[@SquiggyWigginz]

Been 47.6 in 100 yard IM in freshman year at UK. SEC. Bring me back to 1988 if the 100 yard IM comes back. But I was a water polo sprinter, so I digress.

[@HENRYMADFUT]

Should do a tournament format where people have to compete 1v1 to get to the next round would be super fun to watch

[@Unsung_Heroes_of_History]

Put adds on the suits and caps, doesn't have to be gaudy like NASCAR, but classy like F1. You could also put the flashing adds around the pool like on the soccer pitch.

[@finbochu]

One of the things I like about swimming is that it is individual and you can’t be brought down by others and if you don’t do good that’s you loss but if you do good and others get full of them selfs for qualifying for something that they barley had to work for it’s just not fair so I think keeping anything important as individual would be better

[@espinasse1984]

If only we could find a way to make the ISL type events work.

[@brandonnoffze4595]

Total swimming noob here. What if we eliminated heats from the NCAA Championships? Top 8 times in dual meets or conference championships get an automatic bid to the NCAA final. Or you could do top 6 times, with heats deciding only the last 2 spots in the final. Or are heats a necessary part of a swimmers routine in a meet? I just feel like then there would at least be something on the line for dual meets and it would also maximize the excitement of NCAAs.

[@upsidedownwaffle161]

add the 100 corkscrew

[@BSPowerCats]

I'm just a simple HS/USA Swimming Coach, but you nailed it! We should figure out a similar system for HS swimming (I feel like it'd be easier to first implement on a smaller scale).

[@ecurb2279]

Right now I see swimmers maxing out their short course performance at NCAAs. Don’t see that at the Olympics. Why not re-visit the proximity of the Trials to the Games? In the past, this was dismissed with “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” The double-taper required to make the team and to perform at the highest level at the Olympics is clearly not working. An earlier selection process is needed so that a full taper maximizes performance when it counts the most!

[@MrTakin00]

Worked for Australia this year.

[@peenhead9938]

@@MrTakin00 australia didnt swim great

[@GraysonSchindhelm]

My swim team practices and occasionally competes at our local high school pool, the only pool in our area that we are able to swim at. It's a pretty messed up swim team pool, with ceiling tiles falling down and leaks in roof that leak down onto the pool. Even worse, the pool will sometimes get way to cold or hot to the point that we can't stay in the water for more than ten minutes at a time and we have to change our practices. Despite this, the rest of the school has pretty nice facilities for the other sports, most of which were donations by people INTERESTED IN THE SPORT. We are getting ignored by the school board, and eventually, if this doesn't work, we will not have a team. So i wish that people who work in the swim world will acnowalge thi to help us continue our sport

[@carolinearmistead]

Literally I was talking to my sports psychologist about having a team “win” the Olympics by making it like an NCAA meet which I think would be awesome

[@fortitudo1409]

Ngl we gotta bring back the ISL

[@SwimmingGuru284]

Every regular season meet should be Quad Duals to add more W/L’s while also minimizing travel costs. This could be bracket style or a traditional quad dual format. There needs to be an actual regular season, with a Standings.

[@Rafaluigitop]

We need the ISL

[@Galacticann24]

I WANT THE 100 IM SO BAD ITS MY FAVORITE EVENT IT NEEDS TO BE IN THE OLYMPICS/NCAA … and YAYYYY your back

[@seaturtle4294]

100 IM longcourse would be crazy

[@addchannelname5408]

lmao im currently trying to imagine everyone flipping on their back halfway through the 50

[@ThatPastaLover11]

@@addchannelname5408 lol

[@MicklePickle-l4u]

It wouldn't work in the olympics, but it would be cool to have in ncaa.

[@Prororo]

Short course metre winter olympics would be crazy

[@NickTheSwimmer]

SHORTCOURSE IN WINTER OLYMPICS

[@queendumb]

That's a good idea! There is an International Ice Swimming Association with a World Championship

[@notdanhoward]

We need t-shirt relays, kickboard relays, feet-first swimming relays, sharks and minnows tournaments

[@BlossomyPen6275]

True, bring 50s into the Olympics. That would be interesting.

[@tanaygupta151]

nah then michael andrew might actually qualify

[@philnull]

@@tanaygupta151 I know what you mean, but I actually think he still might not or just barely

[@ezeqruls]

I don't like the 50's idea. I think it's stupid. Aesthetically, I don't even like watching the 50 free.

[@deuceb8472]

@@ezeqruls Same...I view it as more of a gimmick than anything.

[@tann_man]

I love 50s and I think it's probably a bad idea. Too many events. World's is fine but to the average viewer the Olympics already has a LOT of swimming events

[@Unsung_Heroes_of_History]

Don't add more dual meets, just increase engagement with the ones that happen. There's an average of about 7 dual meets per season, make it 6 even, but make them a big deal.

[@leveenntt]

Dual meets between countries would be so fun

[@file4318]

Add 1500m butterfly event!

[@gj1234567899999]

They can do the Olympics format but by colleges. So there’s a medal table and instead of different counties it’s different colleges.

[@orangedude000]

New potential structure: Every team gets 8-10 dual meets per year where schedules are set each year determined by either conference or geographic regions. In February you do dual meet tournaments within the conferences on a Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday (3 meets in 8 days) to determine conference champions. Then with some sort of college swimming committee you pick the best 8 or 16 teams in each division to be in the national tournament and do the same thing when we’d normally do ncaas. Teams are picked based off of dual meet records, strength of schedule, and conference championships similar to football. Then to keep some traditional swimming alive you leave mid season invites as is and let USA swimming take over what we now have as ncaas with like a College Championships in April where it’s the same format as current ncaas but all times had to be recorded during the dual meet based tournaments or the mid season invite. This way we still get the big taper meet and leave individual swimming to USA Swimming and we let NCAA be a pure team battle.

[@xrezzo8637]

I think that specific meets need to be promoted more even high school and dual meets, hell even your own locally meets that way the people in your town come to support it and it builds a reputation, there is so many small swim teams and summer league teams that people don't come to watch, they'll come watch a home football game or baseball game, but no one comes or cares about the swim meets unless there kids swim and even then sometimes not.

[@rockmanspiff8849]

Every step in the direction matters.

[@christopherstickle8820]

The 10k open water races at Olympics were quite entertaining. Why can't we in corporate more of that into college or US pro swimming? The big packs of 20-30 swimmers drafting off each other along with the pitstop feeds was really cool to watch. It's different, but that's the point. Finding a way to bring that kind of variety to the pool would be awesome!!

[@Ligerpride]

I think swimming is something that gets an enormous coverage for 1 week in every 4 year period. Outside of that there's next to no penetration in the eyes of the public. I think what would work best would be if swimming and athletics joined forces in terms of having their world championships on every 2 years, the odd numbered years. It could work like a mini olympics, without all the other events. Host it in the same city, week 1 swimming, week 2 is athletics, track and field. It can be managed separately if needs be but at least package them together to make it a bigger product. At present both swimming and athletics is suffering from a lack of mass market appeal.

[@brucegreen4172]

I assumed that every state did it like New Jersey, but I guess not. HS swim playoffs are dual meets and seeding is based on Power Points from the regular season dual meet schedule. The week after the team state championships is the Meet of Champions for individuals. It's really not that hard to do this at the NCAA level and it's a much better format (for viewership) than the 5 day meet where its nearly impossible for the home viewer to know who is winning the meet.

[@steve-from-toronto]

Add the 50s but reduce the underwater allowance. Can’t have a third of the race unseen and based heavily on the best dolphin.

[@KirkJohnson-d2r]

We could make swimming more of a team sport by having two sets of seven players with a goal at each end of the pool. Add a floating ball to the equation, cheerleaders and a ruckus band playing the Seven Nation Army riff throughout the game. Now that would be exciting!

[@peterguo2081]

Idea: Since we have so much variety in what we can swim, during the normal season we can have a sort of qualifying playoffs where dual meets give you a record of w-L, but we can somehow incorporate choosing events to swim so we have unique schedules, so we dont have to race 5 day meets like every week for a month. We can instead do a sort of alternatin "picking and banning" events that we do and dont swim, and you could change the number of events for the end of thf season bracket. Just a thought Edit: you can include more events like 50s and 100 im like kyle said but we can also test out new events during the "playoffs" so we see what events are surprisingly good and which ones we know dont attract interest

[@osamakhalid1914]

WHY DON'T THEY ADD 4×200 MEDLEY RELAY IT WOULD BE CRAZY LOL

[@juanjaviercabrero]

Cheerleaders perhaps? 🎉😂 Kidding. But absolutely agree. Swimming needs to evolve as a sport and learn how to create drama and put on a show. I think the presentation and venue at these last Olympics was a good example of how to put on a good show. Also, triathlons has hugely helped swimming getting other athletes interested in the water.

[@somerandomperson1825]

At least you have the NCAA. There’s nothing exciting in the UK

[@HENRYMADFUT]

I have to watch old national videos if I want to watch competeitve swimminv 😭

[@mainichibenkyou2964]

Add 25s as events in the NCAAs, allow people to train like McEvoy. Sell beer at the meets and allow people to gamble on the races. They should have entrances like the old PRIDE fighting championships for the finals at NCAAs.

[@paulalexander1414]

I agree that we, as a swimming community, need to make changes so the sport is more palatable to non-swimmers. I did not swim at the Division 1 level but after my freshman year I did not care about any meet other than nationals. I would get my cuts in December at our taper meet and train right through the rest of the meets. You addressed this in your video. There are swimmers like that at all levels of college swimming from NAIA to Division 1. You are correct that we need to find an incentive for the national level swimmers to care about the dual meet season. What would it take for them to sacrifice their performance at nationals so they can win a dual meet title, or win enough points to be declared the 100 breaststroke regular season champion but get 3rd at nationals? You mentioned March Madness and you are in University of Texas country. Go talk to the head coach of men's basketball. Ask him if he could choose one betwen the most regular season in conferance wins, winning the conference tournament or playing in the final four. He would sacrafice the regular season to play in the final four every year. I do agree with you, things need to change. We need to capitlize on an Olympic year to keep eyes on our sport. Adding events like 100 IM or even 25's sounds great! As swim nerds we love the events with strategy like the 1650 or 400 IM but average fans just see people going back and forth. You have talked about meets in Europe where they have walk outs with hype music, add that! But those changes are not enough. You are right, there has to be change and it has to be drastic. I am not sure the people who have been running swimming since Rowdy Gains was competing are capable of thinking far enough outside the box.

[@kngsuper5531]

my dad with 46 years of swimming experience including collegiate swimming says that they should take the top 8-12 teams from dual meet season to ncaa’s, and allow swimmers from those teams to get ncaa b cuts and compete for points. They should also allow other swimmers from teams that did not make the top 8-12 from dual meet season to still get ncaa A cuts and compete without scoring, but still go and swim at the meet and get times.

[@NoahNigri]

We need fantasy swimming like fantasy football

[@izzyfishie]

yay new kyle upload!!

[@PaisleyMCJ]

As a lifelong gymnastics fan who has just recently gotten into swimming this is an interesting discussion. There are a lot of similarities with NCAA gym. The wins and losses throughout season don’t really matter, it’s about the score. But over the years rivalries have built up where fans now care about the wins even though it doesn’t impact qualifications for championships. This started small with the Alabama Georgia rivalry in the late 80s but has expanded especially within the last 10 years and driven viewership to the sport. Marketing was really dependent on the coaches for a long time until very recently when the networks finally realized they could benefit from broadcasting these sell out meets. Sadly as women’s gym has grown, men’s gym has declined to the point it’s hanging on by a thread. I have been wondering how we can capture the fan base in the same way womens gym has for all the sports. How can we show people that love their college football team there are more ways to cheer on the team? In many cases the networks have made it so difficult to find ways to watch other sports. Even if just a few rivalry meets were marketed and easily accessible it would help. I love gymnastics and can barely find ways to watch men’s gym, no one who isn’t already searching will ever find it.

[@elijahpierce3468]

NCAA playoff idea: Make a rule for swimmers to be relatively untapered for the duration of the playoffs so we can have a mostly even playing field. And after the “championship showdown” you will have the normal ncaa championship swim meet.

[@lukedibley792]

Alright here’s my idea: 8 team “playoff” using the top 8 teams based off swimswam (or some other) power point index. 1 seed races 8 seed, 7 races 2, and so on. Meets take place at higher ranked team’s campus. Three separate weekends for this format. Thursday-Saturday using a condensed lineup each day to make the meet not drag out for so long. Winner of the “duel” meets advance to the next weekend until the top two meet on the final weekend in a “championship game”. Yes it’s a lot of racing but the entertainment value of a meet actually meaning something would draw huge crowds.

[@lukedibley792]

I know this doesn’t solve the dual meet not meaning anything question but it’s a start.

[@jonathanwesleybell]

What is the current path to get into the Natijnal Champs? Can any school just attend? Are there no preliminary or regional meets that are required beforehand?

[@passthetunaporfavor]

What about a relay with more than 4 racers? What about 8 x 100 , male, female , mixed. Make this a team effort. You'd see some darn good races.

[@matthewcollado5272]

MAKE SWIMMING FUN 🚀

[@snare97]

If every dual meet had the same hype as army v navy then the sport would be much different. They consistently set Patriot League records and half of the athletes would set their best times during the dual meet only to fall short from their best times at end of season.

[@zachbonte7762]

I think the problem and the solution are very much the same. The problem is Swimming at its core is an individual sport that we are making into a team aspect. Thus the solution is to basically have two different types of meets being run throughout the season. The team aspect needs to be the primary driver to get wide spread support. Make the sport more similar to the big four sports in America. 1 day events that are over in 3 hours max that prioritize team points , and then have your typical meets for individuals. This goes all the way up to a playoff style and championships, and then you have an individual championship following current format for NCAA championships/age group point system to crown the best individual swimmer

[@indigo_onion]

Its also a reason why many “non-swimmers” consider swim meets or just watching swimming boring. Its not appealing to the wider audience.

[@austinhanks7835]

There should be crazy relay championships as a team sport. (Hypoxic underwater, swim backwards)

[@whynotmike]

Open water swimming could be the answer. European swimmers are beginning to approach it as a team sport, similar to cycling. Races are much more variable than pool swims which makes it more exciting. Scenic locales boost TV appeal/sponsorship opportunities and provide unique environmental challenges. The sport suits a 'world series' format (like triathlon and cliff diving have seen big success with). There’s potential to introduce new strokes, sprints, and relays. Race times largely irrelevant, so results hinge on finishing place. Most top-ranked open water swimmers are also top-ranked lap swimmers, so open water already coexists well with lap swimming. The challenge lies in making open water suitable for more than just distance swimming, i.e. swimming shorter distances and different strokes, and emphasizing the team aspect (but these things are doable). Transforming highly individualistic pool swim meets into team sports feels unnatural for both audiences and swimmers; even the Tour de France struggles with this perception. The swimming community's focus on record-breaking is deeply ingrained... change is unlikely. Conversely, open water swimming already offers most of the desired excitement. The challenge is to encourage NCAA swimmers to participate and showcase their talents. Also, from watching the reaction of the addition of a mixed relay into the olympics, I'm not sure that adding new events will have all that much potential to bring increased excitement.

[@ADEN-g9j]

Hey Kyle maybe we can do a reverse 100 IM or 200 it would be painful

[@ashantiwynne6648]

honestly as a casual fan i just wish comps were more accessible. like idk maybe people would actually enjoy the sport more if watching it was made more convenient. lets be fr nobody wants to pay for some streaming service just to watch a single sport as a casual fan. maybe its just me but i like seeing the natural progression of athletes and watching rivalries grow organically. but there's literally no point in gettibg invested if there's so many barriers to watching the sport

[@kenrikmichael6239]

I want to see a duel meet where each team gets to put in 4 of their swimmers in one event versus 4 swimmers of the opposing team and have an updated score

[@NoahDodd-uf3ny]

3 seconds late to Kyle sockwells video 😢

[@giovannimoceri4387]

Could this be something partly solved by the team's venue/PA Announcing/ scoreboard? Like "If ___, gets under ___ seconds, there's 15% off concessions" or during "halftime", or have fans race a 50 for a $100 gift card, smg similar to a halfcourt shot at a basketball game

[@lukestrothenke5627]

Nothing more exciting in swimming than a swim off. Add 4 1v1 50s of stroke for 25 points and a 100 IM for 50 points to every meet. Call them silver and golden snitch events. Problem solved. Swimming to the moon.

[@AveryCoker13]

great speech

[@JMcLeodKC711]

Kyle, what is your opinion athletes that live and train in one country but represent another? Which nation should these athletes represent?

[@johnmcdonald736]

Americans are too scared of meters, if they just got rid of yards, the rest of the world would be way more on board with college swimming. Currently nobody outside of the US has any idea what a “yard” is

[@HENRYMADFUT]

Totally agree,would be more exciting for non swimming fans as there would be more actual swimming involved rather than just underwater a

[@MaineTrackXC]

This is the same problem Track and Field has as well.

[@GordoFabulous]

Dual meets should count like basketball in qualifying for a national tournament at the end of the season.

[@GordoFabulous]

16 teams. Each conference champion gets a spot, plus the at-large teams.

[@vgfjr505]

You can change things around the sport, like schedules, locations, accessibility, meet formats, etc. But swimming is an individual for the most part; ultimately, the individual accomplishments in the various events, not the collective of the team, is what matters. Track and Field is the same! So is boxing, and many of the olympic sports. That’s the difference between Team and Individual sports. The problem is that in the US, team sports draws more attention than individual sports even though the culture accentuates the individual. How about betting on swimming races for the masses? That could potentially draw the masses, but you still need viewership access. You don’t see it, it’s not there, no one pays attention to it. This is the biggest problem with swimming and other less televised sports. Our TV companies demand revenues for the least amount of cost so few sports get televised like they did back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Over time they figure this out for them, not us. ESPN stands for football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and maybe soccer. That’s it. So do the other sports networks. They feed us what they think makes more money for them, not what you may be interested in. That’s one reason why we have gone to televising fewer and fewer sports. Every four years it’s the same old story, why don’t we see this other sports on TV like in the Olympics? Look at the crowds and the excitement in these other sports around the world, people say here. Why can’t we have that. It’s called the ESPN revenue model. You want to draw attention to swimming and these other sports, you have got to figure out another sport broadcasting model that will break the monopoly of the ESPNs of this country, and their association with the same old sports. Frankly I am tired of the same old thing every year; it’s time for our younger generations to figure this out and break the cycle for the rest of us. You don’t think Michael Phelps would give up his association with the Ravens in exchange for one day seeing the masses so loud like France 2024 in the swimming stadium. In a second!!!

[@whotookbenj]

Top 4-8 USA Teams Each team gets 2 swimmers per event per age group, maxing out at 32 total per age group Bracket style elimination Hold 3 rounds of championship styled duel meets (In addition to normal Jo/sectional/nats setup) Another one: In YMCA league, split nationals into divisions based on # of swimmers Put top 32 into local groups of 4 and do playoffs similar to the World Cup Top 16 enter dual meet bracket until top 2 face off in 5 day championship Also: do more meets in lucas oil stadium

[@lowcc7602]

Yes. Asthma athletes collected golds in the past.

[@kenjii3258]

dual meet tour better come to uva tech

[@katharine1229]

Give ISL backkkkkk

[@nathanielthomas4437]

Petition to add the 50 free in jeans as an official event

[@samuelcharron9361]

the problem with swimming is that Americans think the sport is all about the NCAA. ISL needs to come back or find another similar formula.

[@alexplayzz7887]

what if we moved conference champ meets to november/december and moved those mid season meets to february

[@cheezeeeboi8699]

duel meet for nations is wild

[@seaturtle4294]

Didn’t the US and Australia have a duel meet?

[@cheezeeeboi8699]

@@seaturtle4294 actually yea ok but still, for the entire world to do it is wild

[@peenhead9938]

duel at the pool...

[@Unsung_Heroes_of_History]

Every college swim team needs to sell nice, race official, custom caps. All of the profits go to the team. The sport needs to generate its own revenue.

[@Straightsmilesolutions]

They are moaning that swimming is a non-revenue sport- why not make it interesting from a fan perspective- the 2024 olympics shows that americans WANT to watch swimming but they wait every 4 years to watch when the SAME star power are swimming every year collegiately

[@Unsung_Heroes_of_History]

Make dual meets cost 25 bucks to enter. Standardize it to 8 dual meets a year. Lets say 100 people come now and our goal is 500 (we'll do the math at 250 people). Each team gets half of the money. 50,000 dollars, that's a little extra money.