I was very happy with ASUs change to deck seeding procedures at this years nationals. Allowing check in the day before and having heat sheets ready the next morning made for a much better meet (in my opinion). I spoke to quite a few others that liked it as well, anyone else have a different experience?
I thought the deck seeding procedure, as well as the frequent announcements about it before and during the meet, was very helpful and the ASU folks should be commended for their efforts. To not have to race to a posting site 20 minutes before the race start (as in previous Nats), instead having the daily heat sheets in hand upon entrace each day, was extremely helpful in planning the time constraints as well as warmup requirements - leading all of us to better choose which course in which to warmup.
The only comment concerning the actual procedure I'd make is that the Powers That Be choose a format and stick with it. At the beginning of the meet, the checkin task was to circle or X out the event number across from your name. This later switched to a blank line/bar that had to be initialed for each event (basically replacing the event number digits on the checkin sheet with underscores).
I personally preferred the circle/X to the blank line approach. Why the switch? Perhaps the ASU folks can shed some light on this as well as "lessons learned" via the entire process?
A teammate of mine (and a competitor of yours, Tall Paul) missed out on a 100 free opportunity due to the event line disappearing underneath his ruler when he was marking his final day's check-in, and hence, he didn't properly complete the check-in for that event. Ultimately it was his mistake - but he was surprised and then very disappointed when he saw the seedings for the event and realized that he wouldn't be able to swim that race.
I thought the deck seeding procedure, as well as the frequent announcements about it before and during the meet, was very helpful and the ASU folks should be commended for their efforts. To not have to race to a posting site 20 minutes before the race start (as in previous Nats), instead having the daily heat sheets in hand upon entrace each day, was extremely helpful in planning the time constraints as well as warmup requirements - leading all of us to better choose which course in which to warmup.
The only comment concerning the actual procedure I'd make is that the Powers That Be choose a format and stick with it. At the beginning of the meet, the checkin task was to circle or X out the event number across from your name. This later switched to a blank line/bar that had to be initialed for each event (basically replacing the event number digits on the checkin sheet with underscores).
I personally preferred the circle/X to the blank line approach. Why the switch? Perhaps the ASU folks can shed some light on this as well as "lessons learned" via the entire process?
A teammate of mine (and a competitor of yours, Tall Paul) missed out on a 100 free opportunity due to the event line disappearing underneath his ruler when he was marking his final day's check-in, and hence, he didn't properly complete the check-in for that event. Ultimately it was his mistake - but he was surprised and then very disappointed when he saw the seedings for the event and realized that he wouldn't be able to swim that race.
