:dunno: I recently registered for my first swim meet and I have a few questions:
1. I signed up for the 1000yd and 500yd free events. I am wondering how many times will I have to swim those distances in the meet? Once or twice?
2. As this is my first meet, I do not have any prior race times. I filled out the event sheet with my estimated times for each event. Was that correct or should I have left the times blank?
Thanks in advance.
:dunno: I recently registered for my first swim meet and I have a few questions:
1. I signed up for the 1000yd and 500yd free events. I am wondering how many times will I have to swim those distances in the meet? Once or twice?
2. As this is my first meet, I do not have any prior race times. I filled out the event sheet with my estimated times for each event. Was that correct or should I have left the times blank?
Thanks in advance.
Congratulations, Jamie for taking the plunge and signing up for your first swim meet!
1. USMS meets do not have prelims and finals, so you will only have to swim each race once.
2. Providing an estimated time was fine. This will help the meet organizers place you in a heat with swimmers of similar speed. You could have also put "NT" (no time) down, since you have never raced in a meet, but it's no big deal either way. Don't think another thing about it, and just go to the meet and have a blast!
Good luck! :cheerleader:
P.S. Welcome to U.S.M.S., and welcome to the Forums! :welcome:
Given the events you've chosen, you will have to swim the 500 three times. :D
In the future, even if you do have times for a specific event, I think it is ok to adjust your seed time and provide your best estimate of the time you think you will swim at the date of the meet. It's a kind of honor system, but I think the meet director has the right to change it if you are sandbagging. The seeding rules for national meet entries may be stricter.
The first few meets as a master are always a guess as to seeding, but you will soon find it easier. Time drops (big and small) will come, as will a desire to sign up for the next meet! Let us know how the experience goes for you
Not that I would do it, but is there some advantage to sandbagging by providing slow times? You would think fast swimmers would want to swim against other fast swimmers to push them to a better time.
I know swimmers who have sandbagged their times to get into an earlier heat in order to get a longer rest between events.
In addition to what Mark wrote, people sometimes sandbag to get "clean water" to swim in. The general topic of sandbagging comes up from time-to-time. I've never been fast enough that it might have mattered (go from heat 3 of 17 to heat 2, whoop-dee-doo), but some people, yes.
Not that I would do it, but is there some advantage to sandbagging by providing slow times? You would think fast swimmers would want to swim against other fast swimmers to push them to a better time.
Wanted to jump in on this.
I had done meets before but never a 500 free, and signed up with a time. The problem was that I signed up (early) thinking I was slow, had other races that day and wouldn't improve much. I practiced like a banshee and did it almost 4 minutes faster. I would have been perfect for the 2nd heat.
I felt stupid. I apologized. Before you assume someone might be sandbagging, please ask the person because they may not have known, learned to swim as an adult, and could probably benefit from your experience next time. LOL. ROFL.
