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.
Dennis Baker had some good thoughts on this topic in our Oregon news letter a couple years back:
Greetings to all and I'm happy to be able to contribute to
my favorite group of people, the "Masters Swimmer. I will
be going over how to pick your events for Worlds or any
meet for that matter. Also, I will go over how to get ready
for the "big meet" as a masters swimmer.
The first question you have to ask yourself is what do I
want out of the meet I'm swimming in? Do you want best
times, or for the Masters Swimmer, that certain goal time?
Do you want to
train through this
meet and use it to
get in shape?
If your shooting
for those great
times I have one
thing to say,
DON'T SWIM
TOO MANY
RACES!! I feel
this is the most
important in having
a great meet.
Every year I have
so many swimmers
come to me
and they just
can't understand
why they are swimming poorly. Then I look at their event
schedule and quickly know why they aren't doing well. You
only have so much fuel in the tank for one day gang. The
response I hear most is" my events are all bunched together".
You must sacrifice some of those events and just go for
one or two a day. I know its a hard thing to do.
Also, don't enter too many relays. You must be smart about
that as well or before you know it you are swimming five
races a day. If you get involved in four or five races a day
you may never recover for the whole meet!! Many people
ask me why I only swim one or two events a day at
Masters Nationals. I can't recover fast enough to crank it
out the next day if I swim more. I also don't enjoy the trip
as much because of exhaustion. Now bear in mind that I
train 50,000 to 60,000 a week. Give yourself a chance folks
and just say NO to over racing. If your using the meet to
get in shape or as a social vacation then by all means go for
it and swim as much or whatever you want!!
Dennis Baker had some good thoughts on this topic in our Oregon news letter a couple years back:
Greetings to all and I'm happy to be able to contribute to
my favorite group of people, the "Masters Swimmer. I will
be going over how to pick your events for Worlds or any
meet for that matter. Also, I will go over how to get ready
for the "big meet" as a masters swimmer.
The first question you have to ask yourself is what do I
want out of the meet I'm swimming in? Do you want best
times, or for the Masters Swimmer, that certain goal time?
Do you want to
train through this
meet and use it to
get in shape?
If your shooting
for those great
times I have one
thing to say,
DON'T SWIM
TOO MANY
RACES!! I feel
this is the most
important in having
a great meet.
Every year I have
so many swimmers
come to me
and they just
can't understand
why they are swimming poorly. Then I look at their event
schedule and quickly know why they aren't doing well. You
only have so much fuel in the tank for one day gang. The
response I hear most is" my events are all bunched together".
You must sacrifice some of those events and just go for
one or two a day. I know its a hard thing to do.
Also, don't enter too many relays. You must be smart about
that as well or before you know it you are swimming five
races a day. If you get involved in four or five races a day
you may never recover for the whole meet!! Many people
ask me why I only swim one or two events a day at
Masters Nationals. I can't recover fast enough to crank it
out the next day if I swim more. I also don't enjoy the trip
as much because of exhaustion. Now bear in mind that I
train 50,000 to 60,000 a week. Give yourself a chance folks
and just say NO to over racing. If your using the meet to
get in shape or as a social vacation then by all means go for
it and swim as much or whatever you want!!
