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.
Worried about not having a heat sheet and missing a friend's swim if it is a deck-seeded event? Get a world-class announcer and have him or her announce the swimmers before each heat. Do it in the time it takes the previous heat's swimmers to get out of the pool.
Or ... ask the swimmer or swimmers who you want to see what heat they're in and write it on a sheet of paper. If it's someone you don't know and want to watch them ... well, watch the entire event and listen for the announcer.
Problem solved. Of course the announcer might be real hoarse by the end of the day announcing about 10,000 names!
Worried about not having a heat sheet and missing a friend's swim if it is a deck-seeded event? Get a world-class announcer and have him or her announce the swimmers before each heat. Do it in the time it takes the previous heat's swimmers to get out of the pool.
Or ... ask the swimmer or swimmers who you want to see what heat they're in and write it on a sheet of paper. If it's someone you don't know and want to watch them ... well, watch the entire event and listen for the announcer.
Problem solved. Of course the announcer might be real hoarse by the end of the day announcing about 10,000 names!
