Scratchers v. Sandbaggers

Meet directors should really make the effort to change the order of events every year so the pain is spread around. See: www.meetresults.com/.../faq.shtml Q: I don't like the order of events. I never like the order of events! A: We're sorry. We realize that we can't make everyone happy all of the time. Every year, the order of events is changed. We try to put different events on different days each year. We try to change which events are on the same day each year. We almost never have the same two events back-to-back. The order of events follows some basic rules to keep things evenly distributed: * 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) We hope that if you don't like the order of events this year, then hopefully you will like the order of events next year better.

More meet directors should follow your lead, Rick! Maybe one of these years I'll get to your meet instead of CZ.

Scratching versus being a No-Show. Scratching is courteous even if they do not rearrange their events accordingly. Being a no-show means that some Starters, will (might) hold back the event, ten, twenty seconds or maybe even a bit longer, waiting for a swimmer (who may be in the bathroom or who may be realizing a bit late that he should have been on deck) but who will NOT be showing up. It is frustrating for everybody.

Well, since I'm the self annointed Sandbag Police... ..............It is after all, masters swimming. How important are those records anyway? A new swimmer being blown out of the water because a superstar feels the need to have another ribbon on his star studded warm-up jacket isn't inclusive. I don't know about US Masters swimming but in Canada's Masters all events are timed-finals. You results are posted according to the time you did in whatever heat you were in and ranked among your age group. Therefore if a Super (but not Super-duper) Star sandbags, putting down a 38" for a 50m free and does a 27", he will NOT win first place if someone in his age group (a real SuperDuperStar) does a 26"59 in their heat. The reason a lot of people sandbag (apart from the rest/recovery strategists) is "To Show Off In Front Of The Gallery". So that some spectators who are there for a family member or a friend and who do not know that Masters is timed-finals will be impressed with his swim when he emerges from the water having beaten the other six or five people in his heat by two or three (or more) body lengths. :bliss:

Every meet that I run, we have a check-in deadline, and then we seed the heats. Scratching is fine, and encouraged. I define scratching as removing yourself from the event _before_ it is seeded. When you scratch, you allow the heats to be condensed, and empty lanes to be filled, and the meet moves more quickly. No-showing is bad. You should have scratched. No-showing is when you didn't scratch your event, and you were seeded into the heat, and then you just don't show up. If you no-show, you're using a lane that we could have filled. We might have been able to eliminate a whole heat. At any meet I run, when there's an empty lane, we stop for a few seconds to make sure you aren't daydreaming behind the blocks. So we'll probably stop and call for you. That's an extra 10 seconds between heats. That time adds up. I know there are some meets that are fully pre-seeded, where there is no opportunity to scratch, and every "scratch" is like a no-show... i.e., empty lane. Still, in those cases, notify the referee or clerk of course table, so that they know your lane will be empty, and nobody looks for you. Sandbagging is among the worst evils. Sandbagging is entering an event with a seed time that is significantly slower than the time you expect to swim. There are many different motivations. Some do it so they have more rest between events. Some do it because they want the smooth water. Some do it because they get a rush out of blowing everyone else in their heat out of the water. They think they look more talented because they beat everyone in their heat by so much. "Daddy won by so much!" When you sandbag, you are showing (a) selfishness and (b) no respect for the principles of organized competition. Sandbagging slows down the meet. There are other posts where I have gone into minute detail about how and why, so I won't repeat it here. It slows down the meet. Everyone else at the meet is paying their entry fees for the opportunity to race against people their speed. You may not care if you're racing against the people who are your speed. However, the other people your speed are expecting to race against _you_. That's why they came to the meet in the first place, was to race against _you_. If you sandbag, you are denying them that opportunity. When you blow away your heat by 2 bodylengths, you may feel good about yourself. However, the person in the next lane may have done a lifetime best swim, but feels lousy about it because they just got blown away by you. If the seeding by time isn't very important, then what if we ran USMS Nationals such that nobody had a seed time, and we seeded everyone completely randomly. So you ended up in heats with people of completely random speeds. You'd almost never race against someone your speed. Would you go to a meet like that? Not very likely. Because you go to those meets to race. So you decide to sandbag one event, because it's important to you. Selfish. But if everyone else did it, it wouldn't work well. Double-standard anyone? The order of events gets published well ahead of time. If you don't want to swim events back-to-back, then don't enter two back-to-back events. Simple. Don't put your own requirements above those of the other 500 people in the meet. (When I say "you" in this soapbox-statement, I'm not addressing any one person in particular.) -Rick

However, the other people your speed are expecting to race against _you_. That's why they came to the meet in the first place, was to race against _you_. If you sandbag, you are denying them that opportunity. Hey Rick, I don't necessarily think this is true. There was a thread on this subject -- are you racing yourself or the competition? -- awhile ago. Plenty of people were purely racing against themselves and sometimes paying no attention whatsoever to people in adjacent lanes. Lots of people like to gridge and race. Others are purely internal and focused on their own times and their own race. I rarely hear people say, "I can't wait to race against x person in my heat" or "I came to this meet to race against x." Sometimes the times within a given heat at a non-championship meet are pretty far apart anyway. So "racing" is secondary to getting your own times, measuring your own progress or lack thereof, or just getting experience in an event. Rick, how do you feel about the getting "splits" phenomenon? Lots of people swimming longer races for a 50 or 100 time and then just cruising the rest of the race.

Swim meets are much more fun for me if I get to race somebody in my age group in the same heat that has a similar time. If you aren't getting to race people head-to-head, everybody might as well stay at home, race in their own pool, and we can have a competition over the internet. I have noticed that over the last 13 years attendance at swim meets other than Nationals has really been dropping. One meet I went to starting in 1993 would normally have 400 and now it is down to around 150. We tried to figure out why and have decided that people prefer competing in 5ks and triathlons now. I can understand why. You are actually racing head-to-head in those races. Swim meets are becoming more like online competitions. Somehow, I don't think Michael Phelps would have done the time he did in the 100 fly Beijing had he not had a certain somebody in the lane next to him. For many, it makes a difference to have your competition in the same heat.

you can also be penalized in prelim final meets if you make the final but don't scratch in advance if you're not planning to swim it The penalty for this should be getting kicked out for the rest of the meet. I remember finishing in the dreaded "first alternate" position many times in age group swimming and would have loved having the opportunity to swim at night due to a scratch. I think the really fast swimmers often forget that just making finals is an achievement for others.

Hey Rick, I don't necessarily think this is true. There was a thread on this subject -- are you racing yourself or the competition? -- awhile ago. Plenty of people were purely racing against themselves and sometimes paying no attention whatsoever to people in adjacent lanes. Then why come to the meet in the first place? Just get up on the blocks at your next practice, and get a time. If the other people in the heat make absolutely no difference, then why pay that money in the first place? Seems like a waste. And I think it's complete hogwash that people aren't racing the people next to them. No matter what people say they are trying to do... people are naturally competitive. If you're right next to someone, you're going to try to beat them. It's human instinct. Also, I'm not necessarily saying that people are looking to race a specific person. But they are looking to race the people who are their speed. If you're their speed, then they want to race you. Not specifically, but generally. How disappointed would you be if you decided you did want to race people, and it then turned out that every single person who is within 5 seconds of you speed, decided to sandbag? You wanted a race, but nobody else was there for you. Rick, how do you feel about the getting "splits" phenomenon? Lots of people swimming longer races for a 50 or 100 time and then just cruising the rest of the race. I'm not a big fan of that. At the _very_ least, you need to notify the referee, so it can be announced at the start of the race, so your heat-mates don't chase you on the way out. -Rick

Last year he was seeded next to a guy with a 1:59. (It turned out to be a sanbagger in disguise.) Unwittingly he assumed they should be traveling at the same speed so he hitched his wagon to this fellow's pace, not being fully aware of what was about to happen. That's painful. Another example of a sandbagger being selfish, and having a negative affect on other swimmers in the heat. -Rick