Swimming Blogs - Garrett McCaffrey

Time to Reload

August 27, 2008

I made it back to the States yesterday. It was the best experience of my life, and I hope that you guys enjoyed the coverage. The next couple weeks are a pretty slow time in the swimming community. But it's not time to rest. We need to start formulating some ideas, here's where I suggest we start.

Swimming is cool. So cool that NBC has stepped in and bought rights to The World Championships in Rome. Thanks to the greatest Olympic performance in history, the top end of our sport is in a pretty good place. What about the lower levels? Is anyone else more pumped than ever for the college season? I plan on making it to as many DI, DII, DIII and High School meets as possible. But I can't make it to all of them. As the home site for the swimming community, I'm reaching out for help. We need some people willing to take on some of the work. Example: conference coverages, if any of you are in a position where you can get to and cover a couple conference duel meets, it would be a great way to promote yourself, those teams, and that conference. There are ways we can get help with the finances but before we explore those options I need people who have the time and passion. The same goes for high school.

Club meets are the best way to promote the most swimmers and they are the heart and soul of our sport. Don't forget that, because sometimes I worry that the people in positions of power do. We need to make these meet videos available for everyone to watch. Whether its a college coach or a distant relative, people want to see those races. The days of the results page are history. We have the technology to cover and put up any meet, and all we need is permission and people to do it.

Race videos. I think that's the starting point. Let's talk about other ideas, and ways that we can make it happen. In the last 12 months swimming has taken huge steps. Time to re-load and figure out how we can keep this wave rolling.

Post a Comment

	Anonymous Coward posted October 30 at 8:37pm. Lets see some Mike Bottom practices at Michigan!!!
	Garrett McCaffrey posted September 2 at 3:19pm. I am going to be posting a how-to video for uploading race coverages within a week... Stay tuned and thanks for all your response, it looks like we'll have a bunch of meets finally getting some exposure.
	Video Hints posted September 1 at 2:54pm. Hey Garrett, do you have a video or anything posted on what sort of equipment and software is needed and "how to shoot a good meet video"? Also, how you approach people to get permission.
	Holy Cow posted August 29 at 5:26pm. Try the holy war, Utah vs BYU - february 6... standing room only and a much improved Utah team should make for an amazing college meet.
	Wow posted August 29 at 2:39pm. you're so awesome garrett. how do you do it all...
	Garrett McCaffrey posted August 29 at 10:43am. Hey everyone, thank you so much for all your support and feedback. This can be a discussion about other ways to help, but I am specifically asking for people who can film meets in the coming year. I am going through all this stuff, and I'll be responding to everyone who has messaged me or responded here as soon as possible. Thanks
	Me posted August 29 at 9:17am. Am I missing something here, or is Garrett looking for help with the actual work? I didn't read the article and find it to be a call for ideas. Asking Garrett to come out and film your meet and promote your favorite programs isn't really help. I read it and found it to be a call for people to get out there and film some stuff to put on the site. Am I missing something here?
	Anonymous Coward posted August 29 at 6:34am. how about some mike bottom practices at michigan?
	Idea's? posted August 28 at 8:19pm. This is def not a slow time in swimming. You need to take a nation wide road trip and travel to different schools doing what everybody loves to see...and that is training video's. We would love to see how college swimmers come back to school. We would also like to see other schools...besides the one's that everyone knows about. This is a swimming website that is great, we should try and use it to our advantage and use it to take a look at smaller schools to see what most of American college swimmers are doing.
	Anonymous Coward posted August 28 at 8:03pm. You should check out the Williams College vs. Amherst College duel meet. Its held in January most years and its a great meet between two schools that have an old rivalry with LOTS of spirit and tradition! The 2 schools are not only the two top ranked liberal arts colleges in the country but also two top D3 swimmings schools (2nd and 5th at 2008 NCAA's on the womens side). They have some impressive top end talent and the swimmers always muster some special swims at this meet!
	Former Swimmer posted August 28 at 5:18pm. I would totally buy a floswimming shirt....and am willing to help...but I'm not really technologically versed.
	Straub posted August 28 at 1:14pm. If you sell us the shirts we will be walking advertisements for your site and you can get some extra dough think about it that way.
	Journalism 101 posted August 28 at 12:10pm. I think the key thing to read here is "As the home site for the swimming community, I'm reaching out for help." To parody the great John F. Kennedy quote-"Don't ask what the swimming community can do for you, ask what you can do for the swimming community". Garrett is one guy, and for one guy I think he has certainly shown what he is willing and able to do for the community. Now it is time for the rest of us to step up and help. Jason M. gives some very constructive input (below) and I think Sean (below) is the first one to offer help and not just ask for more. I have to believe Garrett deals with all these permission issues from afar and could really use some local help especially from coaches or ranking swimming officials. I think this is particularly true at the High School level where many of the powers to be- believe it or not- have probably never heard of Floswimming. If any of these officials just watched Garrett's coverage of the Ohio High School State Championship how could they possibly not want coverage for their meet? On a closing note, I absolutely marvel at how Garrett films, commentates, interviews, edits and posts his 3-4 day meet coverages all by himself. I know a little about this work and it is hard to do with a whole crew. Maybe a good start to learn how to do what he does is by volunteering to help at meets that we know he is covering. (Be ready to commit to long days because that is what it takes).
	Bob Button posted August 28 at 12:06pm. i think what people like best about floswimming is the way it shows our sport as it really is. unrehearsed interviews. video shot outside a studio. workout sets that we can watch now (instead of hearing about in two years at a clinic in east cupcake). emotion and candor that's often lacking in other coverage. in short, it's got what swimming people want. i'd like y'all to just keep doing what you're doing. ymca kids and masters adults loved getting the same type of coverage our olympic trials swimmers got. high school, d-2, d-3, njcaa, & naia swimmers will love having that too.
	Contact posted August 28 at 11:52am. whats the best way to contact you garrett? what is your email? or phone number...
	Jason Marsteller posted August 28 at 10:28am. Some people have been asking about who to get permission from, that's a tough call. Pretty much every single event out there has someone who holds the broadcast rights. For HS state meets, you would need the permission of the HS state association. The meet director has nothing to do with it. For ALL college meets, be they dual, intrasquad, or whatever, you would need to work with the coach to talk to the sports information departments of the host college to get permission. For club meets, it comes down to which association is the overall owner of the event. If it is a USA Swimming event, they get to make the call on who broadcasts what. If if is a local club event, then that club owns it to a point. Club gets pretty shaky. Basically, you can't just show up and ask the coaches to film a meet to then upload. Coaches rarely ever have the final call on this stuff.
	Sean posted August 28 at 9:48am. How about more D 3 coverage. I live near several good d 3 teams. I would love to help.
	EWag001 posted August 28 at 12:35am. i agree with byoung. super cereal, it's a good way to raise funds and awareness. haha byoung.
	BYoung001 posted August 28 at 12:23am. The first thing I'd do is start selling floswimming.com t-shirts. This will raise some funds while also gaining a bigger audience. Next, use the audience to attract sponsors and use the sponsorship money to fund major travel expenses. A college gameday feature would be a great goal. Broadcast every 1 v 2 meet in college swimming and try to get as much coverage of championship meets as possible. Your best feature is your interviews. You've done a much better job than NBC. I want that shirt!
	AnaMOUSE posted August 27 at 10:23pm. Film Mansfield Aquatic Club MAC workouts!
	Jason Bourne posted August 27 at 10:11pm. indeed ...you are close to Aggieland ...get some rest but then get up there ...some video of the Dixie Chicken would be cool
	Crimson Tide posted August 27 at 10:09pm. great coach's clinic first weekend of October at Orange Beach, Alabama ...I think Rowdy Gaines will be there...don't let that deter you
	Caleb Appleton posted August 27 at 9:52pm. You should come film another a&m women's practice. They are looking great, and should have an awesome season. The Rec Center also got a little makeover with record boards, and a new UV chlorination system.
	Joe posted August 27 at 9:08pm. I think the point is that he is looking for folks to film the meets and upload the videos. I have the time to film AZ HS States, but lack the right equipment or the funds to purchase the camera. Any thoughts on that?
	elixirnova posted August 27 at 9:05pm. NAIA national meet could use some publicity before NAIA swimming dwindles any more! It is pretty fast and getting deeper every year! It also showcases some Canadian teams! I'll be the x'th to note that WWW are awesome and cannot wait to see some more! A workout from a FAST mens highschool program would be very interesting. Maybe catch up with some more of the top coaches/swimmers workouts. They sure won't be around forever! Soni, Coughlin, Righi, Cal Berkley, Trojan, Randal Bal (lactate tolerance sets?!) swim workouts all come to mind!
	Yeah! posted August 27 at 8:39pm. a lezak workout would be awesome...he's self-coached, right? it would be really cool to see him beat himself up like nobody's business.
	Why Not posted August 27 at 8:22pm. yeah Florida high school state championship would be really cool if you covered it and it would be really cool if we got some Lezak and Phelps workouts on the website and get the www back
	Ma posted August 27 at 8:14pm. how about some coverage of the coaching clinics coming up in the fall. also, you can't miss PIAA states in March. it isn't happy valley, but the meet is still awesome
	Cooldood posted August 27 at 8:08pm. yea definately check out florida highschool state champs all of the state classes have some pretty impressive talents
	Superdude posted August 27 at 8:00pm. More workouts from our favorite swimmers!!! You should go check out how Mike Bottom is handling Michigan, and how about some Georgia workouts. Thank you for all your hard work Garrett, you've really changed how a lot of people look at swimming!
	Lindenwood posted August 27 at 7:58pm. You forgot to mention NAIA.
	J.Ziegler posted August 27 at 7:40pm. State Championships in Orlando November 15
	Stpeteaquatics posted August 27 at 7:10pm. come down and cover the florida high school state meets!!!!
	Rob Halivar posted August 27 at 6:09pm. you should film more club meets in texas. there are some fast swimmers there.
	Anonymous Coward posted August 27 at 5:55pm. Do you just ask the meet director if you can film and that's all there is to it?
	Anonymous Coward posted August 27 at 5:19pm. I really enjoyed the Workout Videos. If you could also post some of them that would be cool. Keep the WWW going!
	Bo Wullings posted August 27 at 1:00pm. your coming to stanford vs. UNo???