There is a Master's meet in Atlanta this Sunday which starts at 10 AM. I haven't been to one before so I was wondering how long they last and is there a certain order to the events.
In NE, we've debated having "requirements" of seeding with best times.
I'm against this. I understand that big meets need to be run efficiently and everyone should make a good faith effort to do their part. But this is masters swimming, not USA swimming. It doesn't need to be run like the military and doing so could discourage participation. The vagaries of life can effect masters swimmers and their seed times. I don't think we should have to write letters begging for slower times b/c of injury, illness, etc. We are all adults and should be able to write in our own seed times. The scurilous egomaniacs are very few, at least I hope.
And what would be next? Punishment for NS or scratching an event? Doesn't that effect the timeline too? Banning all deck entries at local meets to speed things along? Yes, the meet will run faster, but with less participants. The last meet I attended, there was a couple significant delays from re-seeding the breaststroke events due to deck entries. This did not bother me. More people swam. I chatted with my teammates.
As to the issue of of the ethics of fudging a bit on an event like imspoiled, Jeff and I have done, that's overblown. Yes, the order of events is part of the "game." But I think individual aspirations and inspiration should not be ignored either. Let's encourage people to swim and try to improve, not berate them for trying to swim more. I don't think flexibility is a bad thing. It's the inflexible attitudes that annoy me, i.e, "fins have no place in competitive swimming," "all shoulder injuries are due to poor technique," "sprinters are whimps" or "all triathletes are evil." We all have to train and swim in a way that suits our own life and ability to train.
In NE, we've debated having "requirements" of seeding with best times.
I'm against this. I understand that big meets need to be run efficiently and everyone should make a good faith effort to do their part. But this is masters swimming, not USA swimming. It doesn't need to be run like the military and doing so could discourage participation. The vagaries of life can effect masters swimmers and their seed times. I don't think we should have to write letters begging for slower times b/c of injury, illness, etc. We are all adults and should be able to write in our own seed times. The scurilous egomaniacs are very few, at least I hope.
And what would be next? Punishment for NS or scratching an event? Doesn't that effect the timeline too? Banning all deck entries at local meets to speed things along? Yes, the meet will run faster, but with less participants. The last meet I attended, there was a couple significant delays from re-seeding the breaststroke events due to deck entries. This did not bother me. More people swam. I chatted with my teammates.
As to the issue of of the ethics of fudging a bit on an event like imspoiled, Jeff and I have done, that's overblown. Yes, the order of events is part of the "game." But I think individual aspirations and inspiration should not be ignored either. Let's encourage people to swim and try to improve, not berate them for trying to swim more. I don't think flexibility is a bad thing. It's the inflexible attitudes that annoy me, i.e, "fins have no place in competitive swimming," "all shoulder injuries are due to poor technique," "sprinters are whimps" or "all triathletes are evil." We all have to train and swim in a way that suits our own life and ability to train.
