I am thinking of participating a swim meet, just to experience it once in my life. I had a lot of reservations about signing up for a meet. But after reading some of the threads in the forums, my fears have subsided.
1. I can't do flip turns very well. It seems I can do open turns instead.
2. I fear my goggles will pop off during my dive. Looks like I can start in the water which I am more comfortable with anyways.
But there are a few things that I'm still wondering about.
1. I'm pretty slow. I've read somewhere that most meets have a "slow heat"? What does that mean really? So you could have multiple people being #1 for the same age group? And how can you tell if a meet has several heats?
2. Why is it when I view some of the past event results, some events have rankings for the top 3 swimmers and some have only 1? I am attaching a screenshot of what I am talking about. Does that mean there was only 1 person swimming in that event?
3. How does one finish off for freestyle? Do you have to press a buzzer?
Good for you willing trying it.
1. Heats are usually broken down from slowest to fastest from the swimmer's seed time. That seed time is entered by the swimmer at the time of (swim meet) registration and it should be what they think they will swim. Sometimes if it's unknown (first time swimmer, or a swimmer back from a break\injury) then they may allow you to enter "NT" or No Time. Then that swimmer will be automatically placed in the slowest heat. Some meets will not allow a "NT" so a best guess is requested\required.
More on the heats... if there are 18 swimmers for a particular event, the slowest 6 swimmers will be in heat 1, the next 6 will be in heat 2 and the fastest 6 will be in heat 3.
2. As for the results of the meet, events are broken down into age groups (and also male\female), every 5 years (20-24, 25-29, 30-34, etc...). So it's possible there may be more in one age group than another. Also regardless of the heat, the fastest time in that age group will be ranked #1.
3. As for the finish. Most of the time there is an electronic touch pad. It's attached to the wall underneath the starting blocks at the water line and extending down a couple of feet. You just need to touch it. However if there are no touch pads (unlikely) then there will be timers with stop watches and you just need to touch the wall.
Me too. I've got my eyes on one Jan 21st in Schenectady, NY. Haven't registered yet, but it's about a 90% certainty now. I have had the same questions and people assure me I won't make a complete fool of myself. As for speed, I have none. As runner for 40 years, racing anything short of a mile was a waste of time. I have no pool times other than training workouts.
My quandary is which event to enter. 50y (best 54) or 100y (best 2:10)? But I swim a casual 1k-2k yds 3-4 days a week and am most comfortable at 500 yds. I worry that my 12 minutes or so will hold up the whole show and tick people off.
3. Enter every event you'd like to try.
But not all at the same meet, I hope :)
Personally I usually limit myself to three races per day to make sure I've got adequate recovery time. Also avoid entering back-to-back events. Many local meets will only have a few heats per event, so you'll want to spread your events out.
We will welcome you at any of our meets! Good for you to give it a try. On the finish - don't just grab the top of the touch/finish pad --- push the FRONT to stop the clock. The top does not have the ability to stop the timer. Just have fun & don't worry where you finish.
You are faster than anyone that is on the couch !!
I worry that my 12 minutes or so will hold up the whole show and tick people off.
As a newer swimmer having competed in only two meets myself so far, I can tell you this will simply not be the case. Masters events are full of people excited to swim and perform for themselves and their team. They are not judgmental, and in fact, if you are a first time swimmer getting involved in a longer, harder swim, then you should be getting nothing but kudos.
Here are my suggestions for you:
1. Absolutely go to a meet.
2. Enter times of "NT", or just something incredibly slow for your time. This will ensure you're with peers and not the Ledecky heat.
3. Enter every event you'd like to try. This is the critical thing to remember...for the next 18-24 months, every meet you enter is going to be practice. You shouldn't even worry about your times, because ya know wha? Every time you post at your first meet is a personal best. Those PBs will help you establish goals, and over time you'll understand what you want to swim more of.
4. Open turns are fine. At my first meet I swam open turns for all my events, and was really proud of what I put on the board in the end. Do learn flip turns after the meet, though. Don't feel pressured to do it at any time, but know that you'll get more satisfaction from competitive swimming if your physically capable of flip turns.
5. A double cap configuration can help you with goggle woes. Latex on head, then goggles, then silicon. Bada bing, bada boom. Snug as a bug in a rug.
6. Make sure to warm up and warm down, don't be nervous about either. Remember, you're already slow (me too)...doing a healthy, injury-preventing warm up isn't going to slow you down more. A warm down is necessary for the same reason.
7. Make sure to maintain your nutrition habits, don't change your diet for the meet and make sure you hydrate (you know this from running)
8. Have no fear.
9. Have no fear.
10. Just swim.
No; swim the event in practice and then enter that time. You'll almost certainly swim faster in the meet, but a practice time trial at least will get you in the right range for your first race.
Agree.
2. Enter times of "NT", or just something incredibly slow for your time. This will ensure you're with peers and not the Ledecky heat.
No; swim the event in practice and then enter that time. You'll almost certainly swim faster in the meet, but a practice time trial at least will get you in the right range for your first race.
But not all at the same meet, I hope :)
Personally I usually limit myself to three races per day to make sure I've got adequate recovery time. Also avoid entering back-to-back events. Many local meets will only have a few heats per event, so you'll want to spread your events out.
I actually did a back to back 50 and 500--I can't remember now which one came first, but I think it was the 500, which allowed me to warm up for the 50. I wasn't fast in either, but I didn't die. :)
OK, I'm in. Just registered for the Adirondack LMSC meet in Rotterdam, NY, Jan. 21. I signed up for the 50y-free and 200y-free. I might have tried the 500y but it is only two events after the 50y.
