Looks like it is to gain 20 minutes of rest before doing the 400 IM.
What do you folks think? Fair play or not?
I say anyone attempting the 1650 and 400 IM back to back deserves some slack.
Which begs the question, why do we even bother seeding events? As I suggested on another thread, we could just allow swimmers to choose their heat and their lane like the airlines do for on line seat selection. And we could charge more for "prime" lanes and heats.
One reason is for time efficiency, I think a lot of people often DO enter reasonable approximations of the time they expect to do. Even Patrick! :-)
It is an interesting idea but personally I would hate to be at that meet. Swimming against others of approximately the same speed -- ie, racing -- is a good reason to attend a meet! Maybe this is less important in 50s when (ideally) you're not really supposed to look at others and calm water is more prized.
Sandbagging is not a respectful thing to do:bolt:
Sandbagging is purposely misrepresenting your time in order to thwart the meet director's seeding. So I can certainly understand why meet directors might want to discourage the practice. Participants may view it as a victimless/harmless thing, akin to dyeing your hair or fibbing about your weight; others think it more like cheating on your taxes or lying about your age to gain a competitive advantage. The truth is probably somewhere between.
Like I said before, personally I don't consider what PWB did as sandbagging since he seemed to put in a good-faith estimate of his time. But I recently remembered another race with a split request: Atlanta nationals in the 100 back, I was seeded next to Richie Hughey and was anticipating a good race. I thought about it during warmup, getting that nervous feeling you get; just before the starter whistled us to the blocks he thoughtfully told me and the person on his other side that he was actually going for a 50 split time -- trying for a national record -- and was going to cruise the rest of the race. I felt a little let down by the knowledge since there wasn't really anyone else in the heat to push me. The fact that he was going for MY record made me feel odd too, since I it felt weird to be "racing" someone yet not really being able to defend it. I can't say for sure that it affected my time or not but it changed the race for me.
Anyway, obviously what he did was perfectly legit and it was nice of him to let us know (although in an odd way I wish he hadn't, since maybe it would have lit a fire under me to see someone take it out so fast). But whether you like them or not -- and I'm not arguing against them now -- split requests do affect others, however small those effects may be. I go to meets partly to race, and split requests thwart that just a little bit too, similar to sandbagging.
Which begs the question, why do we even bother seeding events? As I suggested on another thread, we could just allow swimmers to choose their heat and their lane like the airlines do for on line seat selection. And we could charge more for "prime" lanes and heats.
One reason is for time efficiency, I think a lot of people often DO enter reasonable approximations of the time they expect to do. Even Patrick! :-)
It is an interesting idea but personally I would hate to be at that meet. Swimming against others of approximately the same speed -- ie, racing -- is a good reason to attend a meet! Maybe this is less important in 50s when (ideally) you're not really supposed to look at others and calm water is more prized.
Sandbagging is not a respectful thing to do:bolt:
Sandbagging is purposely misrepresenting your time in order to thwart the meet director's seeding. So I can certainly understand why meet directors might want to discourage the practice. Participants may view it as a victimless/harmless thing, akin to dyeing your hair or fibbing about your weight; others think it more like cheating on your taxes or lying about your age to gain a competitive advantage. The truth is probably somewhere between.
Like I said before, personally I don't consider what PWB did as sandbagging since he seemed to put in a good-faith estimate of his time. But I recently remembered another race with a split request: Atlanta nationals in the 100 back, I was seeded next to Richie Hughey and was anticipating a good race. I thought about it during warmup, getting that nervous feeling you get; just before the starter whistled us to the blocks he thoughtfully told me and the person on his other side that he was actually going for a 50 split time -- trying for a national record -- and was going to cruise the rest of the race. I felt a little let down by the knowledge since there wasn't really anyone else in the heat to push me. The fact that he was going for MY record made me feel odd too, since I it felt weird to be "racing" someone yet not really being able to defend it. I can't say for sure that it affected my time or not but it changed the race for me.
Anyway, obviously what he did was perfectly legit and it was nice of him to let us know (although in an odd way I wish he hadn't, since maybe it would have lit a fire under me to see someone take it out so fast). But whether you like them or not -- and I'm not arguing against them now -- split requests do affect others, however small those effects may be. I go to meets partly to race, and split requests thwart that just a little bit too, similar to sandbagging.
