Eek!!

Katherine may be in the minority, but not a great one. At a recent High School meet I would estimate that over 50% of the girls and over a third of the boys did gutter grab starts. This was a 7 team invitational, with the top 2 boys going around 55 seconds in the 100 back, so these were some fairly decent swimmers. Also at a couple of recent college meets, I recall some of the ladies and a few men starting out of the gutter. With the current rules requiring toes under the water it is very difficult to launch out and over the water if you are holding onto the starting block grips, unless you are a larger than average size person. And even the big folks run the increased risk of foot slippage as they try to elevate their tail out of the water.

Originally posted by Seagurl51 p.s. knelson~Men and Women are seeded together at this meet? But they are still seeded by times right? Yes, so you will have the opportunity to beat a guy if you swim well :)

Originally posted by knelson Sort of a moot point since it sounds like she isn't swimming back-to-back events now, but I'm fairly certain at this meet there are not separate events for men and women--everyone is seeded together. Indeed I'm not swimming back to back events at this meet, but that's good to know for later meets(of which I hope there are many more!)! ~Kyra p.s. knelson~Men and Women are seeded together at this meet? But they are still seeded by times right?

Originally posted by knelson Yes, so you will have the opportunity to beat a guy if you swim well :) No pressure, no pressure! ~Kyra

Originally posted by Guvnah There are multiple heats in each, and there are separate events (usually) for men and women, so you'd probably have about 10 minutes to recover. Sort of a moot point since it sounds like she isn't swimming back-to-back events now, but I'm fairly certain at this meet there are not separate events for men and women--everyone is seeded together.

Originally posted by Rob Copeland With the current rules requiring toes under the water it is very difficult to launch out and over the water if you are holding onto the starting block grips, unless you are a larger than average size person. And even the big folks run the increased risk of foot slippage as they try to elevate their tail out of the water. For a while I was having problems with my feet slipping using the blocks on my backstroke starts. I hope I can explain this but there is away to get a good start off the block. First you need to keep one foot above the other. As you leave the block you need to have the lower foot kind of anchor yourself. Your feet don't leave the wall until your hands and arms are up over your head. This is the best I can explain it. When I was told this it really help with my backstroke start. Kyra- good luck on your first meet. You'll do great.

I just wanted to add this in about the back starts... starting from the wall instead of the block is fine... I had to do that in college once my shoulder started to bug me a lot. Stagger your feet like the previous post mentioned. I have done that since high school ever since I slipped on my start at state (having both feet together)... You'll enter the water faster w/ the track start anyways... I don't think anyone mentioned this, though.... Once your hands leave the gutter/block, throw your arms out to the side and then continue to swing them around up to your head into streamline (think of a graceful swan dive). A lot of people automatically throw their arms straight back up to their head, but that slams you down into the water. If you were looking down on yourself in the pool, imagine your hands drawing a line off the start, they would almost make a circle once they get back around to your head. When you swing your arms out to the side, you will have more time to arch your back and enter the water cleanly.... I hope that made sense. OH yes, I remember the out of water start in HS... I got to do those my senior year... THOSE ROCKED!!!!

The meet that I am going to is in a meter pool (25m), but the pool that I swim in is yards. So when I sending in my seed times, so they know where to put me, should I add a few seconds to my yard times? Or should I swim a little farther than the actual race and get my times that way, so for like a 50 free, swim a lap and a half to get the extra distance and use that time? Or should I just indicate that the times I sent in are in yards? Thanx!! ~Kyra p.s. There are no meter pools in my town where I could swim and just get my times that way.

Re: Conversions: Easiest thing is just to add 10% when going from yards to meters. Result is pretty close to the formula knelson gave, but much easier. If you do a 1:20, (or 80 seconds) then just add 8 seconds and give a seed time of 1:28. Your other option is to give your seed times in yards and let the meet officials do the math. Just make it clear that it's in meters. Most meet officials can do that. It just adds some burden on them. (Or you risk the possibility that they don't do the conversion and you end up in a heat where everyone is 10% faster than you are!)

Just divide all your times by 0.9144 (1 yard = .9144 meter). So say you have a 1:20 100 yard free. For your seed time use 80/.9144 = 87.5 = 1:27.5 There are time converters around, including one on swiminfo.com, but for SCY to SCM you can use the straight conversion since the number of turns is the same. Don't sweat the seed times. Just a ballpark is fine. You just want to make sure you are in a heat with swimmers of similar speed.