Mission Viejo had very good facilities, great weather, superb organization, and the best hosts. Overall a great meet.
However, as commented in another thread, there were lots of no shows. In four of five events I had an empty lane next to me. This is not the best racing environment, and it makes the meet last longer than necessary. I am not critical of the people that did not show up -- I was one of them on Thursday, as an emergency at work made me arrive a day late.
On deck seeding would be a simple and easy solution.
Evidently some people like to know a day or days in advance who will swim in their heat. However, the way it worked for me, I found out as I walked up to the block who would *not* be swimming. *That's* lots of opportunity to get psyched! (not)
I don't think the way this meet was seeded (check in for distance events, advanced seeding for the other events) was a very good compromise. This was my first non-deck seeded masters meet, and I did not enjoy that aspect of it.
As I was the individual who remarked upon the scratch rate at Nats in another thread, I thought I should weigh in on this discussion.
I have been to a lot of nationals, both Canadian & American, sc & lc (& one worlds) since 1985, less lately & have been one of those swimmers who loves to grab the heat sheet upon registration & race off to plan out the meet. But...I've come to the view that anything that makes life easier for the hordes of volunteer officials & timers at our meets should be of prime consideration. There have been some good concepts bounced around here, some already in use, but I have faith that the pace of technological progress & innovation will continue to make deck, or late-onset seeding practicable.
A couple of small notions occur to me: it has been mentioned that upon occasion people have waited in lineups to checkin each day- why not issue with registration 'positive checkin cards' for each event a swimmer has entered? They (or coach or friend) drop the appropriate card in the clearly labelled 'event-specific drop box', rather than lining up. If that card could be scannable as to event & swimmer registration #, then handling them could be quite straightforward.
Also, perhaps we could also cater to those who absolutely, positively do not want to bother with even that inconvenience, They could check a box in the original registration process labelled 'positive check-in declined' & pay, say, twice the fee per event that they would have.
Whay do you think?
As I was the individual who remarked upon the scratch rate at Nats in another thread, I thought I should weigh in on this discussion.
I have been to a lot of nationals, both Canadian & American, sc & lc (& one worlds) since 1985, less lately & have been one of those swimmers who loves to grab the heat sheet upon registration & race off to plan out the meet. But...I've come to the view that anything that makes life easier for the hordes of volunteer officials & timers at our meets should be of prime consideration. There have been some good concepts bounced around here, some already in use, but I have faith that the pace of technological progress & innovation will continue to make deck, or late-onset seeding practicable.
A couple of small notions occur to me: it has been mentioned that upon occasion people have waited in lineups to checkin each day- why not issue with registration 'positive checkin cards' for each event a swimmer has entered? They (or coach or friend) drop the appropriate card in the clearly labelled 'event-specific drop box', rather than lining up. If that card could be scannable as to event & swimmer registration #, then handling them could be quite straightforward.
Also, perhaps we could also cater to those who absolutely, positively do not want to bother with even that inconvenience, They could check a box in the original registration process labelled 'positive check-in declined' & pay, say, twice the fee per event that they would have.
Whay do you think?
