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
Not sure what you are looking for, you asked the exact same question a year ago and got several answers. But here are a few more thoughts.
- HS swimming is not the pinnacle of the sport, USA Swimming is. My girls don't even do it. If they did, one of them would be the fastest on the team in every event but the 100Fly (ironically, her best event - but there's a Sr. who is a ringer in that one). Perhaps the coach in question has an agreement wiht said swimmer to let him/her swim certain events in order to participate.
- Dual meets aren't really all that important compared to State or whatever other meets. Said coach may have been trying to get as many kids to qualify for the State meet as possible.
- HS swimming is a club sport in a lot of places, certainly here. There may be rules in place that every swimmer has to be allowed to swim a certain amount, and that is how the coach dealt with it.
- Coach may be dealing with whiny parents. Again, club sport, and sometimes parents make the hiring decisions (either indirectly or directly).
- Coach may be more concerned about making things fair and fun - again, club sport and not the pinnacle - for as many people as he could and set up the events for that reason. Maybe coach is a parent volunteer and doesn't know as much.
- Event order. Those meets often go by pretty quickly. Maybe there wasn't enough time for the swimmer to rest between teh 100 and 200.
There could be a great many reasons. But since you seem to have such a hangup on this, and you have a connection wiht at least one local coach, why don't you ask him?
Not sure what you are looking for, you asked the exact same question a year ago and got several answers. But here are a few more thoughts.
- HS swimming is not the pinnacle of the sport, USA Swimming is. My girls don't even do it. If they did, one of them would be the fastest on the team in every event but the 100Fly (ironically, her best event - but there's a Sr. who is a ringer in that one). Perhaps the coach in question has an agreement wiht said swimmer to let him/her swim certain events in order to participate.
- Dual meets aren't really all that important compared to State or whatever other meets. Said coach may have been trying to get as many kids to qualify for the State meet as possible.
- HS swimming is a club sport in a lot of places, certainly here. There may be rules in place that every swimmer has to be allowed to swim a certain amount, and that is how the coach dealt with it.
- Coach may be dealing with whiny parents. Again, club sport, and sometimes parents make the hiring decisions (either indirectly or directly).
- Coach may be more concerned about making things fair and fun - again, club sport and not the pinnacle - for as many people as he could and set up the events for that reason. Maybe coach is a parent volunteer and doesn't know as much.
- Event order. Those meets often go by pretty quickly. Maybe there wasn't enough time for the swimmer to rest between teh 100 and 200.
There could be a great many reasons. But since you seem to have such a hangup on this, and you have a connection wiht at least one local coach, why don't you ask him?
