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
The best way is, for a given meet, to come up with one or two "alternate" orders of events. Then submit those to the meet director, with a request to rotate among them in future years.
For your Colonies Zone meet, I would assume that you could ask someone to submit them at the next Zone meeting.
Here is the order of events from the most recent Colonies Zone meet. What would be your preferred order of events?
Friday
1000 Free
1650 Free
Saturday
400 Mixed Free Relay
200 Mixed Medley Relay
100 Free
200 Back
50 Fly
200 IM
500 Free
100 ***
200 Fly
50 Back
800 Free Relay
400 Medley Relay
200 Free Relay
Sunday
800 Mixed Free Relay
400 Mixed Medley Relay
200 Mixed Free Relay
200 Free
100 IM
200 ***
100 Fly
400 IM
100 Back
50 ***
50 Free
400 Free Relay
200 Medley Relay
I'm sure there are others here on this forum who could offer some proposals, too.
The best way is, for a given meet, to come up with one or two "alternate" orders of events. Then submit those to the meet director, with a request to rotate among them in future years.
For your Colonies Zone meet, I would assume that you could ask someone to submit them at the next Zone meeting.
Here is the order of events from the most recent Colonies Zone meet. What would be your preferred order of events?
Friday
1000 Free
1650 Free
Saturday
400 Mixed Free Relay
200 Mixed Medley Relay
100 Free
200 Back
50 Fly
200 IM
500 Free
100 ***
200 Fly
50 Back
800 Free Relay
400 Medley Relay
200 Free Relay
Sunday
800 Mixed Free Relay
400 Mixed Medley Relay
200 Mixed Free Relay
200 Free
100 IM
200 ***
100 Fly
400 IM
100 Back
50 ***
50 Free
400 Free Relay
200 Medley Relay
I'm sure there are others here on this forum who could offer some proposals, too.