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.:)
Thank you Geek! The editor does read the Forums-- and it is always a good place to find disagreements. We actually did sandbagging in the May-June 2010 issue, and Rick Osterberg wrote against the practice.
At the time, we couldn't find anyone to write in favor of it, so we pulled together a list of reasons why swimmers do it, including quotes from Forum posts, and attributed them to "The Unknown Sandbagger." (For the photo, we used a USMS staffer in a brown paper bag with eyeholes cut out.)
As always, we welcome any ideas for BSLL topics. Topics can be informative, entertaining or both. They also do not necessarily have to be an argument. In the upcoming Jul-Aug 2011 issue, guest authors are presenting two different types of tapers: The drop (dead) taper and the gradual (three-week) taper.
Thanks to all the Forum members who have contributed so far to BSLL. And if you have not, please consider doing so-- readers of SWIMMER can learn a lot from you. Topics I would like to explore include the ideal pool water temperature for practice and the use of smilies on the Forums.
(:)Just kidding on that last one)
Thank you Geek! The editor does read the Forums-- and it is always a good place to find disagreements. We actually did sandbagging in the May-June 2010 issue, and Rick Osterberg wrote against the practice.
At the time, we couldn't find anyone to write in favor of it, so we pulled together a list of reasons why swimmers do it, including quotes from Forum posts, and attributed them to "The Unknown Sandbagger." (For the photo, we used a USMS staffer in a brown paper bag with eyeholes cut out.)
As always, we welcome any ideas for BSLL topics. Topics can be informative, entertaining or both. They also do not necessarily have to be an argument. In the upcoming Jul-Aug 2011 issue, guest authors are presenting two different types of tapers: The drop (dead) taper and the gradual (three-week) taper.
Thanks to all the Forum members who have contributed so far to BSLL. And if you have not, please consider doing so-- readers of SWIMMER can learn a lot from you. Topics I would like to explore include the ideal pool water temperature for practice and the use of smilies on the Forums.
(:)Just kidding on that last one)
