Why do we continue to lead off the 2nd,3rd and 4th days of the meet each year with a distance event? I can think of NOTHING more deadening to the atmosphere of a swim meet than dozens of heats of 400IM and 500 free. We need to start the meet with the 50 freestyle and get the place rockin' !! Stick the long events at the end of the meet each day after the relay and give the majority of participants the opportunity to spend less time at the pool.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
1. Women 1000 Freestyle 2. Men 1000 Freestyle
3. Women 1650 Freestyle 4. Men 1650 Freestyle
Friday, May 2, 2008
5. Women 400 Individual Medley 6. Men 400 Individual Medley
7. Women 50 Butterfly 8. Men 50 Butterfly
9. Women 200 Backstroke 10. Men 200 Backstroke
11. Women 100 Breaststroke 12. Men 100 Breaststroke
13. Women 50 Freestyle 14. Men 50 Freestyle
15. Mixed 200 Freestyle Relay
Saturday, May 3, 2008
17. Women 500 Freestyle
19. Women 100 Individual Medley 20. Men 100 Individual Medley
21. Women 200 Butterfly 22. Men 200 Butterfly
23. Women 100 Backstroke 24. Men 100 Backstroke
25. Women 50 Breaststroke 26. Men 50 Breaststroke
27. Women 200 Freestyle 28. Men 200 Freestyle
29. Mixed 200 Medley Relay
31. Women 200 Freestyle Relay 32. Men 200 Freestyle Relay
Sunday, May 4, 2008
34. Men 500 Freestyle
35. Women 200 Breaststroke 36. Men 200 Breaststroke
37. Women 100 Butterfly 38. Men 100 Butterfly
39. Women 50 Backstroke 40. Men 50 Backstroke
41. Women 200 Individual Medley 42. Men 200 Individual Medley
43. Women 100 Freestyle 44. Men 100 Freestyle
45. Women 200 Medley Relay 46. Men 200 Medley Relay
As a meet director for a large annual masters meet (NE LMSC SCY Champs with 700-800 swimmers), all of the reasons listed here are very very valuable.
Our meets follow the general pattern of the USMS nationals, with a 1000/1650 day, then the other three days have the distance event(s) first, followed by everything else.
It's very useful for meet staff to have things start off a bit slowly. This goes for officials, the check-in table, the timing table, the announcer, the timers, etc.
There aren't a whole lot of meets where teams meet at the bar in the morning _before_ the meet. We set things up so that a relay is always last, which keeps people around, and has most people on deck at the end of the day. That presents a good opportunity for teams, etc., to all head out to dinner together, etc. If we did distance events last, then you'd have meet staff and distance swimmers stuck at the pool for 2-3 more hours, and they'd miss those social opportunities.
Let's face it, distance events are not terribly exciting, generally. Starting with the distance events creates a crescendo of events through the day. If you have the distance event last, then you have a session where there is high energy for a lot of the day, and then *poof*, the balloon deflates for the distance event. With distance first, it's all part of a gradual build-up.
Similar to nationals, we also have a warmup session after the distance session. So if you're not swimming the distance event, then your event _is_ first, just in the second session. Your session starts around noon, that's all. Enjoy your extra sleep!
And travel. Especially on Friday, it allows more people to get into town without having to get there the night before.
We follow similar event order rules as the national meet... coming up with orders of events is hard:
* The 1000 free and 1650 free switch order each year
* The women's and men's 500 free, and the 400 IM switch days each year
* The 100 IM, 200 IM, and 400 IM are each on different days (one IM event each day)
* The 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free are each on different days
* For the stroke events (back, ***, fly), the 50, 100 and 200 of each stroke are on different days. Also, each day has a 50 of one stroke, a 100 of another stroke, and a 200 of the third stroke.
* The 50 free, 200 free relay, and 200 medley relay are on different days (so there are three different days to swim a 50 free)
* The 100 free, 400 free relay, and 400 medley relay are on different days (so there are three different days to swim a 100 free)
* The 200 free and 800 free relay are on different days (so there are two different days to swim a 200 free)
* No stroke is done back-to-back
* No distance is done back-to-back
-Rick
As a meet director for a large annual masters meet (NE LMSC SCY Champs with 700-800 swimmers), all of the reasons listed here are very very valuable.
Our meets follow the general pattern of the USMS nationals, with a 1000/1650 day, then the other three days have the distance event(s) first, followed by everything else.
It's very useful for meet staff to have things start off a bit slowly. This goes for officials, the check-in table, the timing table, the announcer, the timers, etc.
There aren't a whole lot of meets where teams meet at the bar in the morning _before_ the meet. We set things up so that a relay is always last, which keeps people around, and has most people on deck at the end of the day. That presents a good opportunity for teams, etc., to all head out to dinner together, etc. If we did distance events last, then you'd have meet staff and distance swimmers stuck at the pool for 2-3 more hours, and they'd miss those social opportunities.
Let's face it, distance events are not terribly exciting, generally. Starting with the distance events creates a crescendo of events through the day. If you have the distance event last, then you have a session where there is high energy for a lot of the day, and then *poof*, the balloon deflates for the distance event. With distance first, it's all part of a gradual build-up.
Similar to nationals, we also have a warmup session after the distance session. So if you're not swimming the distance event, then your event _is_ first, just in the second session. Your session starts around noon, that's all. Enjoy your extra sleep!
And travel. Especially on Friday, it allows more people to get into town without having to get there the night before.
We follow similar event order rules as the national meet... coming up with orders of events is hard:
* The 1000 free and 1650 free switch order each year
* The women's and men's 500 free, and the 400 IM switch days each year
* The 100 IM, 200 IM, and 400 IM are each on different days (one IM event each day)
* The 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free are each on different days
* For the stroke events (back, ***, fly), the 50, 100 and 200 of each stroke are on different days. Also, each day has a 50 of one stroke, a 100 of another stroke, and a 200 of the third stroke.
* The 50 free, 200 free relay, and 200 medley relay are on different days (so there are three different days to swim a 50 free)
* The 100 free, 400 free relay, and 400 medley relay are on different days (so there are three different days to swim a 100 free)
* The 200 free and 800 free relay are on different days (so there are two different days to swim a 200 free)
* No stroke is done back-to-back
* No distance is done back-to-back
-Rick
