Several swim meets in Texas, in order to save time, will the swim the 200’s as “choice”. You pick to swim either fly, back, *** or IM and the heats can have different swimmers doing different strokes. When SCY Top Ten came out, I had two swims that weren’t listed. It turns out that the meet wasn’t submitted (a different issue). But in the course of my e-mails with TT, I learned that “choice” swims are not permissible for inclusion.
Are others aware of this rule? I checked the USMS Rule Book and, at a quick scan, could find nothing referring to this. I’ve never seen a meet entry that stated that 200s conducted in this manner are not TT eligible so I’m suspecting that some meet directors don’t know about it either.
Seems a bit weird. As a backstroker, I can guarantee that no advantage is gained having swimmers diving in next to you on the start or having the adjacent lane swimming fly. The swimmer is still swimming a verified time in a measured course. The only rationale I could come up with is the stroke and turn judges having difficulty keeping track of different types of swims.
Not worried about the TT times. They’re not the first, and probably not the last, that won’t get counted. And I guess you can always learn something new. I’m been racing USMS over 20 years and never knew about the “choice” event exclusion. But it would be interesting if someone could shed some light on this. I do know I won’t opt for a “choice” event again if I’m trying for a TT time.
Are "choice" events common at meets elsewhere? Any insights on this exclusion rule?
Ah... this also has me remembering one of the things we have done at our New England SCY Championships. We have a big meet (700-800 swimmers), with lots of relays. For the scored relays, we have about 15 heats of relays for each event. We do offer the 800 free relay (women, men, and mixed), but we only offer it as an unscored event. So it's on the meet program as an official event. We usually get 2-3 teams looking to set a record, and we can swim them all together to save time and space. But the events needed to be officially listed so that the times could count for records, top ten, etc.
And Rob is correct... there could be a difference between "choice" and "freestyle". Freestyle is defined by the rule book. (Basically, any way of getting from one end to the other without illegal aids.) Choice and non-conforming events could be interpreted to allow fins, pull buoys, paddles, or almost anything... as long as it is "safe".
Flipping through the rule book, and my recollection, is that USMS does not permit a "time trial" in the USA Swimming/NCAA spirit of the definition. You're only allowed to swim the events that are listed in the published order of events. However, there are creative ways around this, if you want. I don't think there is a prohibition to offering an event more than once during a meet. So you could technically post an order of events that is:
#1: Mixed 50 free
#2: Mixed 50 back
#3: Mixed 50 fly
#4: Mixed 50 ***
#5: Mixed 50 free
#6: Mixed 50 back
#7: Mixed 50 fly
...etc... looping many times, and for all distances. I also don't see (on quick skim) a rule that says you can only swim a stroke and distance once per day. So you could, I think, swim the 50 free three times in a day if it were offered three times.
-Rick
Ah... this also has me remembering one of the things we have done at our New England SCY Championships. We have a big meet (700-800 swimmers), with lots of relays. For the scored relays, we have about 15 heats of relays for each event. We do offer the 800 free relay (women, men, and mixed), but we only offer it as an unscored event. So it's on the meet program as an official event. We usually get 2-3 teams looking to set a record, and we can swim them all together to save time and space. But the events needed to be officially listed so that the times could count for records, top ten, etc.
And Rob is correct... there could be a difference between "choice" and "freestyle". Freestyle is defined by the rule book. (Basically, any way of getting from one end to the other without illegal aids.) Choice and non-conforming events could be interpreted to allow fins, pull buoys, paddles, or almost anything... as long as it is "safe".
Flipping through the rule book, and my recollection, is that USMS does not permit a "time trial" in the USA Swimming/NCAA spirit of the definition. You're only allowed to swim the events that are listed in the published order of events. However, there are creative ways around this, if you want. I don't think there is a prohibition to offering an event more than once during a meet. So you could technically post an order of events that is:
#1: Mixed 50 free
#2: Mixed 50 back
#3: Mixed 50 fly
#4: Mixed 50 ***
#5: Mixed 50 free
#6: Mixed 50 back
#7: Mixed 50 fly
...etc... looping many times, and for all distances. I also don't see (on quick skim) a rule that says you can only swim a stroke and distance once per day. So you could, I think, swim the 50 free three times in a day if it were offered three times.
-Rick
