There's a trend in this state (Rhode Island) that disappoints me. From time to time, in certain meets, they will do away with the 500 freestyle. And (when my daughter was on the HS team) I personally witnessed that it's sometimes because the coaches can't entice anyone to swim it. Lame! Sometimes it's because the team is so small that they don't have enough swimmers. OK...maybe! First, if I were the coach, and I have plenty of swimmers on my team, I pick a kid and tell him/her to get up on the blocks and swim the race!!! But...if the rules are going to be bent by not conducting an event...when a team is truly shorthanded...why not bend the rules differently? Instead of scratching an event, let certain swimmers compete in an extra event so that ALL the scheduled events can be competed?
Dan
I'm a high school coach. We almost always have the three boys and three girls to enter into the 500. Most of the time our 3rd swimmer is someone who is doing it as a first time. We have swum against that are such small teams that they can only put a person or two in. We have combined boys and girls before. I would not like to see them change the rules and allow swimmers to swim more events. Believe it or not there is quite a bit of strategy to setting up a meet sheet. Allowing schools to enter kids in extra events gives schools with a couple of really good studs a much bigger advantage than a team like mine with some solid depth. Also I wouldn't consider it "bending the rules" by not running an event.
We will also not put a person in the 500 if that person could score us points somewhere else.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
I'm a high school coach. We almost always have the three boys and three girls to enter into the 500. Most of the time our 3rd swimmer is someone who is doing it as a first time. We have swum against that are such small teams that they can only put a person or two in. We have combined boys and girls before. I would not like to see them change the rules and allow swimmers to swim more events. Believe it or not there is quite a bit of strategy to setting up a meet sheet. Allowing schools to enter kids in extra events gives schools with a couple of really good studs a much bigger advantage than a team like mine with some solid depth. Also I wouldn't consider it "bending the rules" by not running an event.
We will also not put a person in the 500 if that person could score us points somewhere else.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
