I have been thinking about an issue Jeff Commings brought up after the SCY Nationals. Jeff pointed out that he might have gone faster if he had been seeded by time rather than by age. I though the same thing as I watched others, including Dennis Baker, Gary Marshall, Rich Abraham, and others decimate their age group competition. How cool would it have been to see heats of the best of the best go head to head? And the competition would likely lead to faster times, at least for those swimmers who like to be pushed as opposed to swimming in clear water.
But for most of us mid-pack folks, it's a whole lot more exciting racing against our competition than a random assortment of folks who happened to have the same seed time. And often those seed times are wildly inaccurate anyway.
I have a couple of thoughts, neither of which are probably workable, but which might be food for thought. One method might involve culling out the top 24 (or some other number) men and top 24 women seeds from each event and swimming them in separate heats. To prevent gaming the seeds, the race staff would compare seeds to actual times within the past year. The remaining swimmers would swim seeded by age. This would be extra work for the race committee, but probably would not increase the length of the meet a whole bunch, if at all, because these folks would be swimming anyway.
Another suggestion might be a prelim/final format, with the top 24 times from each event swimming it again later. There are rest issues and length of meet issues with this one, but how fun would that be? The rock stars would have to figure out just how hard to go in their age group heat to advance, and the finals would be an all-out blast.
Just thinking out loud . . .
I am for seeding by time for all events at all meets, including nationals. Continue medals by age group. I do want to know how I faired against swimmers in my age group.
I don't want trials and finals. Talk about a long day although you'll only have 3 total competitors in the 200 Fly for the entire meet much less age group. So maybe it will balance out. :joker:
With seeding only by time:
1) The meet will run faster and be more exciting. It will cut down the total heats and it will group multiple slower swimmers in the first heats which will reduce meet length.
2) More swimmers will compete with swimmers of similar speed. When I'm in the water, I could care less how old you are, I want to swim my fastest time and beat you.
At a meet, how many people think well since swimmer "A" on my left is 5 years younger than me and swimmers "B" on my right is my age, I'm only going to race swimmer "B". Most swimmers will race the person they think they can beat that is FASTER not the same age.
Besides, it's also a good way to meet swimmers that you might not get to know otherwise.
3) The only solution to getting all swimmers to enter accurate seed times would require USMS having one single end to end online, integrated meet management system that every meet uses and all national entry times are verified against it. That's not going to happen in the near future. This is Masters not the Olympics.
I am for seeding by time for all events at all meets, including nationals. Continue medals by age group. I do want to know how I faired against swimmers in my age group.
I don't want trials and finals. Talk about a long day although you'll only have 3 total competitors in the 200 Fly for the entire meet much less age group. So maybe it will balance out. :joker:
With seeding only by time:
1) The meet will run faster and be more exciting. It will cut down the total heats and it will group multiple slower swimmers in the first heats which will reduce meet length.
2) More swimmers will compete with swimmers of similar speed. When I'm in the water, I could care less how old you are, I want to swim my fastest time and beat you.
At a meet, how many people think well since swimmer "A" on my left is 5 years younger than me and swimmers "B" on my right is my age, I'm only going to race swimmer "B". Most swimmers will race the person they think they can beat that is FASTER not the same age.
Besides, it's also a good way to meet swimmers that you might not get to know otherwise.
3) The only solution to getting all swimmers to enter accurate seed times would require USMS having one single end to end online, integrated meet management system that every meet uses and all national entry times are verified against it. That's not going to happen in the near future. This is Masters not the Olympics.
