OK...Here comes a thread for all of you wannabe odds-makers.
Post your thoughts for establishing handicaps for personal challenge races.
Here are a couple of mine:
1. Age credit: basic idea.....the older of the two gets a handicap. (as in chaos vs. muppet) the handicap goes to yours truly.
2. Wetsuit penalty: self explanatory....I heard 10% is a good rule of thumb for this one.
3. Personal bests (within 2 years).....swimmers are handicapped based on their best recent performances. (this could make geek vs. gull II a real nail-biter)
ok bait taken.
my whole thought on this handicapped thing is that it is a bunch of crap. when I did that 400im 200 fly 500 free (w/o swimming the 500) bet, we tried to get another guy on our team involved. He's 46 and would probably have destroyed us depending on how his back held up. But he wanted some sort of age handicap. We said no.
I ended up winning (they conceded w/o swimming the 500), and sure the other guys could claim i am young and vibrant still (26, compared to 34 and 38). BUT, and here's where i find the handicap thing a bunch of hewey - they swam NCAA. I, however, did not. I didn't even swim USS. Somewhere most other people have a long base of top-notch pool training, even if it was decades ago. I want a handicap for that!
:drink:
There is some truth in this. That's why Heather suggested counter handicaps for AAU/USS youth experience or college experience. But how long does that benefit last? Do you think the benefit really lasts "decades?" I'm not sure. For myself, I guess things came back more quickly than for a non-swimmer. But I had to re-learn everything. Fly and *** were completely different strokes. All the turns were different. But still, there were remnants of past experience. I think the real thing which made my "comeback" somewhat easier is something Paul alluded to on another thread: I stayed pretty fit during my hiatus.
Now, as to wetsuits, they seem utterly unnecessary most of the time. But aren't there lots of nasty jellyfish in the Bay? Yuck.
I can't wait to see the Barra vs. Muppet battles at zones. Are you doing the same fly and free events though?
Speaking of D1 experience, here's an old photo someone told me about. Does everyone know which one is Evil Smith?
www.texassports.com/index.php
ok bait taken.
my whole thought on this handicapped thing is that it is a bunch of crap. when I did that 400im 200 fly 500 free (w/o swimming the 500) bet, we tried to get another guy on our team involved. He's 46 and would probably have destroyed us depending on how his back held up. But he wanted some sort of age handicap. We said no.
I ended up winning (they conceded w/o swimming the 500), and sure the other guys could claim i am young and vibrant still (26, compared to 34 and 38). BUT, and here's where i find the handicap thing a bunch of hewey - they swam NCAA. I, however, did not. I didn't even swim USS. Somewhere most other people have a long base of top-notch pool training, even if it was decades ago. I want a handicap for that!
:drink:
There is some truth in this. That's why Heather suggested counter handicaps for AAU/USS youth experience or college experience. But how long does that benefit last? Do you think the benefit really lasts "decades?" I'm not sure. For myself, I guess things came back more quickly than for a non-swimmer. But I had to re-learn everything. Fly and *** were completely different strokes. All the turns were different. But still, there were remnants of past experience. I think the real thing which made my "comeback" somewhat easier is something Paul alluded to on another thread: I stayed pretty fit during my hiatus.
Now, as to wetsuits, they seem utterly unnecessary most of the time. But aren't there lots of nasty jellyfish in the Bay? Yuck.
I can't wait to see the Barra vs. Muppet battles at zones. Are you doing the same fly and free events though?
Speaking of D1 experience, here's an old photo someone told me about. Does everyone know which one is Evil Smith?
www.texassports.com/index.php
