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.:)
My view on sandbagging is a bit variable, like my view on the respective rights and responsibilities of car drivers and bicyclists sharing the same road.
When I am a car driver, and I am forced to slow down because a cyclist refuses to stay where he belongs, i.e., near the curb, I am outraged!
When I am a cyclist and some yahoo in a car acts like he owns the road just because he is burning gas, I am outraged!
I have, in other words, accused both species of being total dicks. It is all in the eye of the judger.
The same is the case with sandbagging.
When I have sandbagged in the past--usually not by huge amounts, but still...--I can easily justify it by telling myself I haven't been feeling well in practice, my shoulder is a bit sore, etc. etc. I have occasionally negative sandbagged, too, that is, putting in a near world record time to guarantee I will get a good lane (I once entered a 42 in the 100 free, though it is possible I entered a 52, and the meet official just read this wrong.) I may feel a twinge of guilt, but I certainly don't feel anything that would send me off to the confessional booth.
On the other hand, when I have been sandbagged in the past, it usually doesn't bother me too terribly much. There was one notable exception. A fellow at CZ a few years back entered a 54+ in the 100 freestyle and was next to me. I had entered a relatively realistic 53 and was, on paper, the favorite in the heat.
I looked at this fellow's other times and noticed he had also entered a low 24 in the 50 butterfly. This was my first clue that he was sandbagging.
To make a long story short, he swam a 48. Not only did I think I was going incredibly slow, but his wake off the second turn was so tsunamic that I inhaled a mouthful of water and spent my third length coughing underwater.
I honestly don't think I would have minded his sandbagging all that much were it not for the inhalation problem. I think when you put down an honest time and, by luck of the seeding process, get the "fast" lane in a heat, it's kind of a little perk of smooth water that you deserve. When somebody gets this smooth water via sandbagging deception--and turbulates it extremely, causing frail types like me to asphyxiate--then I think they deserve what is coming to them.
In this case, what is coming to him is to have his name turned in perpetuity to a verb.
As in: To Hiddabiddle (verb, transitive)--shamelessly and unapologetically sandbag an elder, swamping his lungs with your wake.
Note: I may have not spelled Steve Hiddabiddle's last name exactly right here, but he knows who he is!
I have been trying to entrench the verb Hiddabiddle into the Masters Swimming lexicon for several years now. Please help the cause by using it in a sentence at every meet you go to in the future.
Example: Boy, did you see Mr. X hiddabiddle that sap in lane 3!
www.usms.org/.../showthread.php
PS If you do hiddabiddle someone, either positively or negatively, I personally believe you owe it to your adjacent lane swimmers to fess up before the start of the race so they won't be thoroughly discombobulated.
For instance, when I entered the 42 in the 100 freestyle, I told the guys on the left and the right of me that there was a reasonable chance I wouldn't be swimming quite that fast.
They just looked at me dumbfounded.
My view on sandbagging is a bit variable, like my view on the respective rights and responsibilities of car drivers and bicyclists sharing the same road.
When I am a car driver, and I am forced to slow down because a cyclist refuses to stay where he belongs, i.e., near the curb, I am outraged!
When I am a cyclist and some yahoo in a car acts like he owns the road just because he is burning gas, I am outraged!
I have, in other words, accused both species of being total dicks. It is all in the eye of the judger.
The same is the case with sandbagging.
When I have sandbagged in the past--usually not by huge amounts, but still...--I can easily justify it by telling myself I haven't been feeling well in practice, my shoulder is a bit sore, etc. etc. I have occasionally negative sandbagged, too, that is, putting in a near world record time to guarantee I will get a good lane (I once entered a 42 in the 100 free, though it is possible I entered a 52, and the meet official just read this wrong.) I may feel a twinge of guilt, but I certainly don't feel anything that would send me off to the confessional booth.
On the other hand, when I have been sandbagged in the past, it usually doesn't bother me too terribly much. There was one notable exception. A fellow at CZ a few years back entered a 54+ in the 100 freestyle and was next to me. I had entered a relatively realistic 53 and was, on paper, the favorite in the heat.
I looked at this fellow's other times and noticed he had also entered a low 24 in the 50 butterfly. This was my first clue that he was sandbagging.
To make a long story short, he swam a 48. Not only did I think I was going incredibly slow, but his wake off the second turn was so tsunamic that I inhaled a mouthful of water and spent my third length coughing underwater.
I honestly don't think I would have minded his sandbagging all that much were it not for the inhalation problem. I think when you put down an honest time and, by luck of the seeding process, get the "fast" lane in a heat, it's kind of a little perk of smooth water that you deserve. When somebody gets this smooth water via sandbagging deception--and turbulates it extremely, causing frail types like me to asphyxiate--then I think they deserve what is coming to them.
In this case, what is coming to him is to have his name turned in perpetuity to a verb.
As in: To Hiddabiddle (verb, transitive)--shamelessly and unapologetically sandbag an elder, swamping his lungs with your wake.
Note: I may have not spelled Steve Hiddabiddle's last name exactly right here, but he knows who he is!
I have been trying to entrench the verb Hiddabiddle into the Masters Swimming lexicon for several years now. Please help the cause by using it in a sentence at every meet you go to in the future.
Example: Boy, did you see Mr. X hiddabiddle that sap in lane 3!
www.usms.org/.../showthread.php
PS If you do hiddabiddle someone, either positively or negatively, I personally believe you owe it to your adjacent lane swimmers to fess up before the start of the race so they won't be thoroughly discombobulated.
For instance, when I entered the 42 in the 100 freestyle, I told the guys on the left and the right of me that there was a reasonable chance I wouldn't be swimming quite that fast.
They just looked at me dumbfounded.
