The World Championships will be a long meet spread over many days. I have a couple of free days between my races, as I am sure many others do too. Obviously we need to get in the water to practice/warm-up on these days. While at the USMS Nationals in Coral Springs I heard we will not be able to use the facilities at Avery Aquatic Center if we are not racing on that particular day. If that is true, where will we be able to swim (preferably in a LC pool) on our non-race days?
On competition days, I believe there will be some of the local pools available. Most will probably be short course yards, mainly (possibly) high school.
I'm sure when Mike comes up for a breath from dealing with entry issues, he'll chime in.
I, too, am of the understanding that if you're not competing on a given day, you are not granted access to the warmup facilities.
you are not granted access to the warmup facilities.
I should add that the "warmup facilities" I'm referring to are the warmup pools at Stanford, not the local area pools.
As per the meetbook mentions, there will be Training Provision:
"Tuesday, 1 August, 2006
noon to 5:00 pm
one of the 50 meter competition pools
Wednesday, 2 August and Thursday,
3 August, 2006
9:00 am to 6:00 pm
both 50 meter competition pools
Wednesday, 2 August to Thursday,
10 August, 2006
9:00 am to 8:00 pm
both 50 meter competition pools
Friday, 4 August to Thursday, 10 August, 2006
(competition days)
6:30 am to 7:45 am and one hour after the
end of the competition
both 50 meter competition pools"
:)
I'm appalled!We can't warm up at the swim center if we if we have an off day. I' understand there will be a lot of people,but thats just wrong!!! I don't know the area and I don't want to be driving hither and yon to find a pool. What about the people who don't have access to cars and were planning to use the shuttles,are they supposed to hitchhike?
Hotel pool, man!
I can see the reasoning behind this. With two competition pools in use warmup/warmdown space will be at a premium. The people competing that day need to have priority.
Can someone tell me in the meet information where it says you can't use the facilities if you aren't competing that day?
I looked through the book and it seems to indicate you can. It says that the 50 meter pools can be used before and one hour after the meet (also given as a time for open water training in the 50 meter pools) and the 25 meter stadium pool is for warm up.
So what does this mean if we are not swimming that day but have teamates that are and we want to be there and cheer for them? Or we simply want to hang out on deck with our friends......this seems like it culd be a real problem?
This started in Riccione. Your credential had your events printed on it and you couldn't get into the locker rooms without its being checked by a guard. You could only get to the pool from the locker room. The problem there was that there were no other pools in which we could train. In this case, there are. We can swim LC across the street, at Palo Alto HS, and also at another LC pool in the area. Close by is Rinconada Pool, a 25 yard facility. As someone else mentioned, there is a lot of lap time at Santa Clara and they swim LC much of the year.
I don't like this idea either, but it's tolerable if you have an option to train at another pool. Since there are well over 5,000 swimmers, on days you compete you might approciate a little more room. Also, on days you compete later in the day, it might be nice to warmup LC, off-site, rather than getting to the pool very early and swimming a lot later.
I've been to quite a few World Championships and our idea of warmup is clearly unique. Forget turns; many swimmers will be standing or hanging across the ends of the pool.
It's going to be a great event but we all have to give a little in our expectations. Many of us on the Local Organizing Committee have been to these events and we hope our experience will avoid some of the really bad pitfalls of other World Championships. This one is not popular with me either, but I understand the reasoning behind it and advocated for available training for those affected and there will be facilities available for those not competing on a particular day. Besides, we all know that when a Masters swimmer wants to swim, he or she will find a way. Been there, done that.
Nancy
