Seeding - Seed Time vs Actual Time

search all you want, you will find no opinions on this esteemed forum about such trivial matters. for if there were any, the moderators might have to step in and have a word with some of us, or even hit us over the head with a sandbag. forsooth!

Who cares? I'd say we've rehashed this topic enough over the years to be confident in saying "lots of us."

Let swimmers do what is in their best interest to maximize their performance and fit their schedule and needs. A lane is a lane. Who cares? Let's just say I am glad not every swimmer at a meet like Nationals has this attitude. If they did, we'd never get out of there! Perhaps we should ask everybody their flight schedules, gather their sleep patterns, etc. and let everybody swim to what works best for them.

Every time I have seen someone enter an impossibly fast time it has been a mistake. Usually a typo or entering their 50m time in a 100m event for example. Once a very inexperienced swimmer on my team decided to swim the 200 free so they took their 50 free time and just multiplied it by 4. um, no. as a very vivid example let's say a person was ranked by FINA as oh say #2 in the world for 2011 in a certain event...for grins lets say the 200m free. that person enters the World Championships in Italy with that time and is very very shocked to see themselves seeded 6th. all the while knowing that the #1 guy is still sitting in his house in Houston. the top seed time at the WR. and that wasnt it just 1 event, it was in several. now i will say that Italy this summer was a real eye opener on many levels. at USMS Nats i mainly see defending national champions entering in times slower than what they went the year before. sometimes its their best time so far that year and sometimes it looks very made up.

Sometimes beginners don't know what their times are. Then they should do time trials in practice to find out. Anyway, we are not talking here about people who swam 5-20 seconds faster (or slower) than their seed times; we are talking about people who swam 5-20 minutes faster. A meet is not the place to find out whether or not you can finish an event at all. You can do that on your own time. A meet is a place to find out how fast you can finish an event. There's no discourtesy in being slow, but I am with those who believe it is extremely discourteous to seed yourself as if you are slow when you are not.

A lane is a lane. Who cares? because i like racing in the lane next to you Ande!

The NT heats are usually only 2 lanes deep, they could use more lane occupant s That's what NQT is used (above posts)

I don't want to go with best times swum because sometimes you know you aren't able to do those times due to life interfering.Some times weird stuff just happens.I have a friend who is one of the best butterflyers in her age group.At Nats she entered a very slow time,smoked her heat and won the event over all.Sandbagging?Not when you find out she had just finished treatment for *** cancer and was more stunned than anyone with her result. As I said,weird things happen.

I would guess that the precentage of athletes that enter seed times similar to Bill's post is very small at meets. I would also guess that the individuals in his example swam all three of those events (1500,800,400). Or at least two of them.

There's no discourtesy in being slow, but I am with those who believe it is extremely discourteous to seed yourself as if you are slow when you are not. Agreed. And I would imagine many of those who should legitimately be in the first heat or two don't want to be swamped by someone who's going to lap them in a 100.