I propose a rule change for the championship committee. If someone misses their heat at USMS Nationals due to general stupidity and day dreaming, they should be allowed to swim in an open lane in that same event.
John Smith
(2006 psuedo champion, 50yd back)
As to the issue of Rowdy's leadoff split not counting because the relay card didn't designate him as the leadoff swimmer, here's what the rules say:
102.9.4—On the relay card, relay teams must list the name of the club, the full name (as it appears on the USMS membership card), the age and for mixed relays the gender of each relay member. The name of the leadoff swimmer must be clearly designated.
102.9.5—First and last names of eligible relay swimmers, their ages and order of swimming shall be submitted on a relay entry form or card to the clerk of course (if used) or to the head lane timer. Any changes in names of the competing swimmers or their order of swimming must be declared to the head lane timer prior to the start of the relay heat in which such team is entered. No changes will be permitted thereafter.
So that's the rule. I will say, though, that when I am a meet director, I tell all the teams they can change people on their relays, switch order, whatever they want (as long as the age group doesn't change), but please mark the cards. Then after the meet is over I compare the cards with the preliminary results and make changes accordingly to the final results. It's too hectic to deal with at the meet -- and I'm talking about a meet with 130 swimmers, not a national championship with 1000+ swimmers. My philosophy while running the meet is to do whatever I can that's not against the rules, and that benefits the swimmers. I also let swimmers who have missed their heat swim in open lanes in subsequent heats if there are open lanes. If there are no open lanes, the swimmer is out of luck. I missed my heat of the 100 IM at Mark Gill's meet in Louisville in February (I was watching a friend swim the 200 fly, forgot that the men and women had been combined, and there wasn't a men's heat following the women's heat) and even though there were no empty lanes in the women's event, there were in the first heat of the men's, so Mark let me swim with the boys. But of course there was a price. Mark announced over the loudspeaker that I was making a "special appearance," and when people started clapping he told them to hold their applause because it was because I'd missed my heat! This sort of thing is possible in a local meet, but probably not at nationals. At a local meet the computer operators are right there on the deck and can make adjustments on the fly. Not always the case at Nationals, and for short course they're dealing with two courses running simultaneously.
One more observation: allowing people to swim in an empty lane should be policy, not a rule. The championship section of the rule book is already 10 pages long and crammed with a lot of minutia.
Originally posted by Matt S
No, this is NOT the same as the two U.S. sprinters who missed their preliminary heat in the 72 Olympics because their coach gave them bad info. This is Masters. We're doing this for fun and missing one or another race is not the end of the world.
Matt
Point taken... in that case, while the sprinters could blame their coach, John hasn't a coach to pin his lapse on... and here I was trying to point out that he wasn't alone in his plight. However... hold on... maybe there's a way for John to pin this one on his coach and thereby once more find himself in distinguished company--if he doesn't mind being tied in with runners. ;)
(I think that really I should have included a "smiley" in the original post, but lately my posts are such that I thought I might better signal with an emoticon on those rare occasions when I'm entirely serious.)
Bill, the missed event rule is on the Championship meet information. The rules Meg are citing about relays are from the rule book, and not on the Championship information. When looking at different situations, officials look at meet how the meet information is worded, and the rule book is worded. Those are the two sources that govern how to make rulings.
I am the opposite of Meg. The meets I run generally have about 400 swimmers. Since I am required to send the final results to Illinois Swimming the Monday after the meet, I prefer to make sure changes such as relay names happen as we are processing the information. So when I print the results, what is posted on the wall is results is as accurate as I can get it. Any inaccuracies(such as Suzy jumping into Betty's lane, so Betty ends up getting Suzy's time) are usually then caught by a parent or swimmer checking the results. The protocol is the parent tells the coach, the coach comes and gets the information corrected. As far as relay name switches, most of the coaches that come to our meets know me because I have been running them for 10 years. They know how my table operates, and are good about getting the name changes to me.
At Masters, you don't always have that coach to be the go between.
Craig, this discussion was based on rules at the National Championship meet. Local meets tend to be a bit looser. At Bloomington they are not using MM, and are entering times into a spreadsheet, and don't have some of these issues.
We had a visiting ref come in to our meet last winter and lay down the law saying if a swimmer missed an event, the 1, would not get to swim it, and 2, according to USA handbook, got scratched out of their next event. I raised my eyebrow at both of these as we always have a significant amount of newbies at our meets, and while I realize that is the rules, we are not running a championship, and have always tended to be a bit friendlier than that and make sure the kids got their swim in, if we possibly could. So I went over and told the coaches to try and make sure their kids reported. The first day, the ref adhered and was strict. By the end of the evening, he realized he needed to be a little looser, realized that we would stay within our timeline if he did allow the missed swims. He adapted to the situation and all worked out well. I think his big concern was we were on a tight timeline, doing fly-overs to make it, and he did not want to put us in a situation of getting fined. Once he realized that our club as a group could efficiently handle these situations he was OK.
Dorothy,
This may sound like semantics to you, but what's printed in the host's meet information is policy, not rules (although some of their policy is restating USMS rules). Only what appears in the USMS rule book is a rule. The reason this distinction is relevant is that the procedure for changing a rule is different than for changing a policy. To change a rule, your LMSC or a USMS committee submits an amendment to the Rules Committee. To change a policy, you lobby the Championship Committee. There is no USMS rule forbidding swimmers who miss their heat from swimming in an open lane in a later heat. But the Championship Committee can set whatever policies it sees fit for a particular national championship, as long as it states them in advance and applies them fairly.
At the local meets I've been involved in, it's been no big deal to let people swim in open lanes. I can imagine it would be much harder (maybe impossible) to do the same thing at Nationals.
Bill, you'd have to ask someone from Championship if they have a written policy manual. If such exists, I'd love to see it posted online. Probably contains much more information than the average USMS member would want to know, but for some of us, it would be a great resource!
What about local meets? At the Illinois Central Spring mmeet at Bloomington, IL, I wasn't paying any attention and misseed the 200 free.
In high school once the person announcing what event was next said the wrong one. We were so confused.
Originally posted by MegSmath
...allowing people to swim in an empty lane should be policy, not a rule.
Does the Championship Committee maintain a policy manual? If so, is it available to the general membership?
I've been looking for this so-called "rule" in the Rule Book, but I haven't found it. Could be it already is a policy.
By the way, I have jumped into empty lanes at local meets in the past. But I don't just jump in. First, I find the referee, state the problem and ask if I can stand by for an empty lane. Understanding the potential for administrative complications, I then offer to help inform the computer operator to make sure the results are correct. Referees usually appreciate that I understand how much I could foul things up with my request, and I've been allowed to swim if there's an empty lane. I try to remain calm, see the humor in the situation and get in the Referee's good graces. I also thank them more than once for trying to help.
I haven't tried this stunt at Nationals, though.
SB
In 2006 at Il. state sc. I missed my heat for the 500 free?. Overnight they had changed heats on me. The ref let me go as soon as there was any empty lane.
I guess what it boils down to is how you view Masters Swimming. If you're more serious about it, you tend to take the position that "if you snooze.... you lose". If you're more casual about the whole concept of masters swimming, you feel its not a big deal to hop in an open lane in the same event and just swim to get a time for the event.
Not surprisingly, I tend to view masters swimming as more of a "social event" in the end. Note, at the time, I was pretty embarassed and pissed off at myself when I looked over at my heat with no one swimming lane 4. Hell, at the very least, I lost about $65 bucks in that heat (i.e. 10 events divided into $650 for expenses for flight, hotel, rental car etc........ :-)
I guess you can run USMS Nationals strictly by the rules, but its just different than a "real" meet where USS competitors are TRULY dead serious about their careers and performances in the sport.
Rob....... as for your comment about asking the volunteer meet officials to break the rules. I agree with you. It's my issue with the rule book not theirs in the end. This is why I half jokingly proposed a rule change for this situation in this thread.
I don't know........ it seems like you can run a meet with some more "flexibility" with regard to the rules as Meg and others have indicated. My only consolation is that the Evil Paul Smith's 50 backstroke was almost as bad as my no show..... :-)
Mr. Gill..... next Masters Nationals, I am highlighting my name all over your heat sheet so you can help remind me to get up for the event..... :-)
John Smith
