Don't want to start a screamfest, but the controversial issue of "getting enough rest" between events led me to wonder --- how do you get an order of events that is somewhat uniformly fair?
Since I'm apparently challenging John Smith for most annoying masters swimmer, I'll just say that I have been aggravated by the order of events in most of my recent meets. As a fly-backer-er, somewhat odd, it seems that those events are always close together. I guess the fly-*** or fly-free or all free combos are much more common. I have basically given up swimming the 100 IM and haven't swum the 100 back in SCY in 2 years. My last meet, the 100 fly and 100 back were within minutes of each other, and unlike Chris Stevenson and Jeff Roddin, I admittedly didn't have the chops to do both. At my Dec. taper meet, all my best events were on Saturday. At anther meet, all the 200s were in the first half of the meet and all the sprints in the second half, annoying almost everyone and causing a lot of scratches. I have also noticed the inequity between rest for freestylers and strokers. Folks entering the 5 pack freestyle (50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 or 1650), very common set of entries, always have adequate rest because these events are always spaced out pretty well. So it's pretty easy for freestylers to think others are whiney, since they never experience the rest problem.
So how do you fix these inequities and get a fair lineup of events? At a minimum, can't meet directors change the order of events each year to attempt to provide some equity? Or have a 15 minute break scheduled somewhere? This would probably reduce whining and the apparently repugnant practice of sandbagging to get more rest. Since I only swim 5 meets a year or so, it'd be nice to attempt to swim reasonably well. Swimming more meets is just not an option. There's obviously no way to make everyone happy all the time, but it seems like the system could be improved.
Parents
Former Member
Fortress, I feel your pain, but on a totally different level. For people who enjoy swimming a variety of strokes things are just as frustrating.
Take, for example, our recent Colonies Zone meet (yes, it is the Colonies zone, not the Colony zone). On Sunday the meet ended with back-to-back 50 yd events. Why were the 50s not more evenly distributed?
On a side note, why can sprinters swim up to six sprint events at nationals (three on the same day if they so choose), but swimmers who like both the 1000 & the 1650 (or 800 & 1500) can only swim one of these events even though they have them on a separate day as to not bore the sprinters? Talk about unfair!
Clearly, meet directors are biased against distance swimmers, or sprinters, or fly-backers, or whatever it is we as individuals want to swim but can't due to the order of events. I agree with your point and changing the order from year to year could help the situation. Unfortunately, what's a great line-up for you (or me), will certainly stink for someone else.
You want a really bad order of events, try this one:
50 back
50 fly
50 free
50 ***
200 IM
100 back
100 fly
100 free
100 ***
200 back
200 fly
200 free
200 ***
That's the approximate line up (the stroke order may be different, but all the same distances are grouped together) for the only LCM meet held in my local area. After complaining to the meet director the first time they did it this way, my solution to hating the line up is to skip the meet. Maybe poor attendance will cause them to shake things up in the future.
Fortress, I feel your pain, but on a totally different level. For people who enjoy swimming a variety of strokes things are just as frustrating.
Take, for example, our recent Colonies Zone meet (yes, it is the Colonies zone, not the Colony zone). On Sunday the meet ended with back-to-back 50 yd events. Why were the 50s not more evenly distributed?
On a side note, why can sprinters swim up to six sprint events at nationals (three on the same day if they so choose), but swimmers who like both the 1000 & the 1650 (or 800 & 1500) can only swim one of these events even though they have them on a separate day as to not bore the sprinters? Talk about unfair!
Clearly, meet directors are biased against distance swimmers, or sprinters, or fly-backers, or whatever it is we as individuals want to swim but can't due to the order of events. I agree with your point and changing the order from year to year could help the situation. Unfortunately, what's a great line-up for you (or me), will certainly stink for someone else.
You want a really bad order of events, try this one:
50 back
50 fly
50 free
50 ***
200 IM
100 back
100 fly
100 free
100 ***
200 back
200 fly
200 free
200 ***
That's the approximate line up (the stroke order may be different, but all the same distances are grouped together) for the only LCM meet held in my local area. After complaining to the meet director the first time they did it this way, my solution to hating the line up is to skip the meet. Maybe poor attendance will cause them to shake things up in the future.
