This is a bit of a rant, and I'm reluctant to post it here because I always get politely chastised when I suggest ideas like this. But there was another example of it in today's h.s. swim meet results in the newspaper. I was a track and CC runner in h.s. I began swimming for fitness decades ago after h.s., but have never been on an organized, competitive team. So, I never really gained an understanding of how meets are conducted, nor coaching philosophy. That changed when my now adult daughter joined the h.s. swim team. To better support her, I studied up and figured much of it out. Even to the point where the coach coerced into being a "meet day on-deck assistant" during daughter's h.s. years. So, to this day, I still peruse the sports pages for local h.s. swim meet results. But, one thing that I just can't understand is why coaches (seemingly) don't set their race assignments for maximum points. Specifically, I frequently see results wherein the winner of the 500 free will swim a faster pace than the winning times in the 100 free and 200 free (and now and then even the 50 free). I see this on almost a weekly basis. Instead of being spent winning the 500 free, and getting points in just one event, that one swimmer (presumably) could have gotten twice the points and won both the 100 and 200...and his/her team won the meet instead of losing by two points. I get it that there are team dynamics I may not be aware of; you can only compete in x# events per meet; that the coach may be building for the future; wanted swimmers to get experience in other events; a swimmer had a bad day; etc etc. And, maybe it's stubbornness on my part as a runner at my core, thinking that swim training, competing, and coaching ought to be done the way it is on the track. I know...it's a completely different sport. To many of you I know that sounds crazy. I guess I just can't grasp the swim team coaching and competing mentality. Maybe there are paradigms. I just wish I could witness a swim coach take that approach and see what the outcome would be.
Dan
Dan,
A couple of comments:
My coaches (and then me as a head coach) always posted a meet line-up the day before the meet. Kids knew in advance what they were swimming and why. If a swimmer was not going to impact the results, I would not put them in an event they hated - that is just mean. During the meet, the copy of the line-up had spots where I could keep score and I would confirm after every 3-4 events.
As for the pool environment, the odor you are experiencing is most likely not from over-chlorination. You are likely smelling "chloramines" which are the by-product of not enough chlorine to react/bind with the organic material in the pool (sweat, urine, etc..) coupled with an HVAC system not designed to expel the air (or was properly designed, but the damper was closed so the school did not have to heat the cold air coming in).
Dan,
A couple of comments:
My coaches (and then me as a head coach) always posted a meet line-up the day before the meet. Kids knew in advance what they were swimming and why. If a swimmer was not going to impact the results, I would not put them in an event they hated - that is just mean. During the meet, the copy of the line-up had spots where I could keep score and I would confirm after every 3-4 events.
As for the pool environment, the odor you are experiencing is most likely not from over-chlorination. You are likely smelling "chloramines" which are the by-product of not enough chlorine to react/bind with the organic material in the pool (sweat, urine, etc..) coupled with an HVAC system not designed to expel the air (or was properly designed, but the damper was closed so the school did not have to heat the cold air coming in).
