Major 1650 sandbagging by a forum member

Any swimmer whose final time varies from his seed time by more than 6.626% shall be disqualified. Dang...now I'm going to have to swim slower than I wanted to at Nationals! ;) I was going to beat my times by at least 7%, but not now... :D

To clarify, I prefer to swim in a heat against other swimmers who are actually swimming that event AND have entered a seed time that they believe approximates what their actual time will be.As the forum sandbagger in question, that is absolutely what I did. I actually swam the whole 1650 and actually entered the time I thought I was going to do. For the record, I was slower than I expected because I found out the hard way that you die really hard when you take a 1650 out in 53-high.

I did not even hint that I get annoyed or bothered by splits requests. Why attack me personally about needing to get a life when I was posing a philosophical question? I wasn't using the word "you" specifically to refer to you personally. Sorry, I didn't write that very well. I find it tiresome that people harp on split requests on bogus "ethical" grounds. Constant theme over the years on this forum ... Kirk's point is exactly right --- let people swim and get times. That's what we're going to meets for. I sympathize with Gull's point to a degree, but race conditions are rarely perfect. I have only used one split request (100 free split in 200 free last Dec.) other than relay leadoffs in over a year, so I have nothing particularly to be defensive about. I just don't like the moralizing.

(Article 104 is specifically for nationals.) "the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer," key word - MAY which is in our Glossary on page XIV (i know i just was going over this page) and says May -- permissive, not mandatory. key word again - NOT now also might i point out that Kurt Dickson (jab jab) told me he got moved into a faster heat of the 400m free at auburn without being discussed with. Kurt's main reason for wanting an earlier heat was his high possibility of missing his flight from Birmingham. now granted i dont think thats a valid reason for sandbagging his time, but clearly the rules were not followed in that case. p.s. btw good find on the rule!

"the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer," key word - MAY which is in our Glossary on page XIV (i know i just was going over this page) and says May -- permissive, not mandatory. key word again - NOT now also might i point out that Kurt Dickson (jab jab) told me he got moved into a faster heat of the 400m free at auburn without being discussed with. Kurt's main reason for wanting an earlier heat was his high possibility of missing his flight from Birmingham. now granted i dont think thats a valid reason for sandbagging his time, but clearly the rules were not followed in that case. p.s. btw good find on the rule! I suppose in Kurt's case the discussion was "not mandatory" either. :-)

And I don't think all split requests are created equal. Let's say a meet has the 500 as the first event and someone puts in a split request for the 100. They enter with something like 10:00 and proceed to rocket out to a sub 50 second 100, probably darn near lapping everyone else in the heat because the actual 100 free event is a couple hours later and they don't want to wait. OK, go for it if you want, but that seems a lot more questionable than someone doing a split request because the event they'd like to swim is a couple DAYS later like the example Rich gave of Paul Smith at Nationals.

Absolutely ridiculous. I just had a friend do a split request next to me in the 100 fly last weekend. She set a national record doing so. I was thrilled for her and wasn't bothered one iota by it. If you get annoyed by someone putting in a split request, you "fundamentally" need to get a life, stop sweating the small stuff and learn how to swim your own race. Split requests give swimmers more chances to get times, which is a positive thing. I did not even hint that I get annoyed or bothered by splits requests. Why attack me personally about needing to get a life when I was posing a philosophical question?

I think split requests are great for masters. We've all got busy lives outside the pool and can't always attend every meet or every day at the meets we do attend. Now there's a valid point without throwing some defensive emotional baggage into it.

i dont think thats a valid reason for sandbagging his time Unruh, I have never seen my name used so much in vain. I thought you would understand my unreasonable fear of being stuck in Birmingham, given your extensive time in the Texas penitentiary system:). Sandbagging is indeed low-brow and I am ashamed when I do it. If somebody beat me from an earlier heat by sandbagging, I would call them a "turd" (behind their back of course), and move on. I will never understand why this gets some people's underwear in such a bundle when more important issues exist like innocent people getting blown up and administrations that can't put two words like "islamic terrorist" together....peace.

I was simply stating my preference. A perfect race is a rare thing. Henceforth I will stop using the term "sandbagger" if others will refrain from saying that "it's only Masters." I don't believe that you can use that expression if you have ever: shaved for a meet, spent $200 or more for a suit, worried about your taper, checked the event rankings, or sandbagged a seed time in one event to give yourself more rest for another.