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.:)
There will always be uncertainty, but I can predict with some pretty decent accuracy (generally within a second) what my time in a 100 will be in a given meet.Well, one would think with my accumulated years of wisdom in the sport, I could do so, but I can pull up some great data on spectacular fails and surprises.
Are you saying now that you have NO earthly idea at all what you will do in a given meet?At times it seems like that. I had two experiences in the same finals session last week where my final times bore little resemblance to what I thought I would go based upon either my entry times or my times in the prelims swim. I thought I had cruised both morning swims, but then, in the evening, the 1st swim of the night was dramatically slower (~3 seconds) than my prelims cruise and my 2nd swim much later in the evening was faster (~1 second) than the prelims swim. All swims, however, were slower than my original entry times and expectations. On the flip side, my 200 fly, the event I expected to tank the most, got better each time I dove in and, in hindsight, my entry time looks like a sandbag time. My 50 fly, however, was a full second slower than a time I thought was an 'easy' time to hit. Go figure.
Sandbagging isn't a failure to nail your time exactly (or coming "reasonably" close). It is entering a time that you know is slower than you will be so that you can control the time of your swim or get more clear water or both.I know, Chris, and I'm also not judging here on the forum, but this rule is very judgmental, getting into these grey areas of
"how much is too much?"
how does that vary by person?
exactly how much prying into the lives and minds of our swimmers should the meet directors be doing?
I also think the rule that started this whole post will penalize guys like Kurt (or you!) who have such a robust set of historical time data.
There will always be uncertainty, but I can predict with some pretty decent accuracy (generally within a second) what my time in a 100 will be in a given meet.Well, one would think with my accumulated years of wisdom in the sport, I could do so, but I can pull up some great data on spectacular fails and surprises.
Are you saying now that you have NO earthly idea at all what you will do in a given meet?At times it seems like that. I had two experiences in the same finals session last week where my final times bore little resemblance to what I thought I would go based upon either my entry times or my times in the prelims swim. I thought I had cruised both morning swims, but then, in the evening, the 1st swim of the night was dramatically slower (~3 seconds) than my prelims cruise and my 2nd swim much later in the evening was faster (~1 second) than the prelims swim. All swims, however, were slower than my original entry times and expectations. On the flip side, my 200 fly, the event I expected to tank the most, got better each time I dove in and, in hindsight, my entry time looks like a sandbag time. My 50 fly, however, was a full second slower than a time I thought was an 'easy' time to hit. Go figure.
Sandbagging isn't a failure to nail your time exactly (or coming "reasonably" close). It is entering a time that you know is slower than you will be so that you can control the time of your swim or get more clear water or both.I know, Chris, and I'm also not judging here on the forum, but this rule is very judgmental, getting into these grey areas of
"how much is too much?"
how does that vary by person?
exactly how much prying into the lives and minds of our swimmers should the meet directors be doing?
I also think the rule that started this whole post will penalize guys like Kurt (or you!) who have such a robust set of historical time data.
