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.
I do agree that it is nice to know your heat and lane even days before your race, but I will continue to contend that checking in the day of the meet, having a program with all of the entered times, and then posting the heat sheets at the pool before the event is efficient.
While it may be comforting to have it on your doorstep when you wake up, it shouldn't matter what heat and lane you're in. Hopefully, you've prepped your race well ahead of time...
Math question: Connie you said that even if it took a 1/4 of a second to look at 500 names that it would be over 2 hours? My math puts that at around 3 minutes. But then again, I teach English!
I've done this check-in procedure at our meets and it isn't difficult at all. We actually have two people doing it at the same time, one following the other to check for boo-boos. Haven't messed up yet :)
I do agree that it is nice to know your heat and lane even days before your race, but I will continue to contend that checking in the day of the meet, having a program with all of the entered times, and then posting the heat sheets at the pool before the event is efficient.
While it may be comforting to have it on your doorstep when you wake up, it shouldn't matter what heat and lane you're in. Hopefully, you've prepped your race well ahead of time...
Math question: Connie you said that even if it took a 1/4 of a second to look at 500 names that it would be over 2 hours? My math puts that at around 3 minutes. But then again, I teach English!
I've done this check-in procedure at our meets and it isn't difficult at all. We actually have two people doing it at the same time, one following the other to check for boo-boos. Haven't messed up yet :)
