The anti-sandbag law:
"if a swimmer enters an event with a time significantly slower or faster than that swimmer's recorded time in the past two years, the meet director may, after a discussion with the swimmer, change the seeded time to a realistic time" (104.5.5.A(10)).
Concerning my Auburn nationals entry, I confess, when faced with a 7 hour 2 stop flight and 3:45 nonstop at an earlier time, I did what any warm-blooded middle-aged American swimmer with low self-esteem would do--sandbag my entry so I could catch the earlier flight, thus diminishing the possible time spent sitting next to a 400 pound Alabama slammer with sleep apnea wearing nothing but overalls and body odor. Of course, I was caught in my bold fabrication and my time was "fixed."
USMS seems to have an identity problem. Are we hard core with rigid qualifying times? It would seem not as 2 of my not-so-speedy family members were allowed to swim four events last year in Puerto Rico. If we are not hard core, why does anybody care that I sandbag? More to the point, why can one person enter a crappy time and another cannot? Just wondering.:)
Parents
Former Member
Is this the new tech suit thread? I totally missed out on that endlessly repetitive argument based on meaningless drivel the last eight times around but I am on board for this one.
For those of you who actually compete enough to have reasonable approximations of what times you will go, good for you! Remind me to pat you on the head the next time I see you.
For those of you who expect heats to be reasonably competitive, dial back your expectations. This is masters swimming, the person next to you on the blocks is there just as likely from a made up time that is too fast as a made up time that is too slow. We don't have a SWIMS database to verify times against, nor do some (most?) of us compete enough that a SWIMS database/estimations would be all that meaningful.
At a championship meet where sandbagging could affect the timeline for the distance events and it becomes a logistical problem for finishing the meet in a timely fashion, the number of entrants could be capped or a qualification time could be required, either would allow for an estimated timeline. Shockingly, one or both of these solutions is already used by most meets with time constraints.
For the events that are below a 400, do a timeline analysis of a random seed compared to circle seeding, throw in the actual seeding and timeline for good measure. I would love to see it published how many minutes could be saved.
For those of you who want more competitive competition, look no further! http://www.usaswimming.org/
Is this the new tech suit thread? I totally missed out on that endlessly repetitive argument based on meaningless drivel the last eight times around but I am on board for this one.
For those of you who actually compete enough to have reasonable approximations of what times you will go, good for you! Remind me to pat you on the head the next time I see you.
For those of you who expect heats to be reasonably competitive, dial back your expectations. This is masters swimming, the person next to you on the blocks is there just as likely from a made up time that is too fast as a made up time that is too slow. We don't have a SWIMS database to verify times against, nor do some (most?) of us compete enough that a SWIMS database/estimations would be all that meaningful.
At a championship meet where sandbagging could affect the timeline for the distance events and it becomes a logistical problem for finishing the meet in a timely fashion, the number of entrants could be capped or a qualification time could be required, either would allow for an estimated timeline. Shockingly, one or both of these solutions is already used by most meets with time constraints.
For the events that are below a 400, do a timeline analysis of a random seed compared to circle seeding, throw in the actual seeding and timeline for good measure. I would love to see it published how many minutes could be saved.
For those of you who want more competitive competition, look no further! http://www.usaswimming.org/
