No shows for A meets?

[Anonymous]

We have several kids not show up for the 7/5 A meet. It resulted in swimming empty lanes. How do teams handle this? They were younger kids so it is not necessarily their fault.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have several kids not show up for the 7/5 A meet. It resulted in swimming empty lanes. How do teams handle this? They were younger kids so it is not necessarily their fault.

If it's freestyle, and especially Heat 1 (slower), no one really cares. It's the other strokes that matter more because fewer swimmers are allowed in those events.

[Anonymous]

This rarely happens to us, but we had this happen with one family this past weekend. kid was older so not sure what happened- they selected that yes they were available-were put in meet and never showed up.

Only way to avoid is to email after entries are out to have families confirm they will be there. I wonder if people forget they selected yes?

We send out entries, tell families to check and let us know if they are no longer available, but even then, like this past weekend, we have a no show.

It is definitely frustrating.

[Anonymous]

It happens. Kids get sick. We never had an issue swapping in a new swimmer to fill the empty lane. It has to be handled before meet starts by the clerks of course. No one cared since the swapped in swimmers were not as fast as the no show swimmer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It happens. Kids get sick. We never had an issue swapping in a new swimmer to fill the empty lane. It has to be handled before meet starts by the clerks of course. No one cared since the swapped in swimmers were not as fast as the no show swimmer.

+1

[Anonymous]

Are you saying they didn't tell anyone they couldn't make it? That's pretty rude.

[Anonymous]

Our team asks us to reconfirm our swimmers' availability after the meet is seeded. I would imagine this catches the occasional no show. If someone still doesn't show up by warm ups, the reps are calling the family to inquire. If they can't come, they call the next swimmer on the ladder to hopefully scratch in. Worst case, we've had younger siblings jump into a lane because they're already there.

[Anonymous]

Team rep here. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve been on the phone trying to find parents who haven’t shown up. They’re usually late.

I really hate no shows. It’s not even about winning or losing … it’s about the kid the coach couldn’t pick for the meet who really wanted to be there.

[Anonymous]

^ PP. This isn’t about a sick kid or an emergency … just a kid who doesn’t show up without an explanation.

[Anonymous]

If there are new swim families, and if the kids are not regular Saturday (A meet) swimmers, check your communication protocols. With so many emails, parents may not be reading everything. Consider having team reps ask for affirmative response (kind of like positive check in the night before).

[Anonymous]

We seem to have that happen a lot the past couple of years and also those who cancel the night before. For something like Relay Carnival particularly it’s kind of lousy for those who are there and their teammates don’t show. We had a lot of no-shows.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s stupid to have regular A meets when July 4 falls on or right before or after a weekend. So many people go out of town. We were out of town and it looked like everyone who was in town added a bunch of time because they were probably all exhausted from staying up late the night before. I’m sure some will say oh it’s great because it gives some kids a chance to swim who don’t normally get to. If the leagues around here weren’t set up to exclude so many kids from Sat meets in the first place that wouldn’t be an issue. It makes a lot more sense to have an IM meet or some other special fun opt-in meet on the July 4 weekend so people who enjoy going to a meet can do that, while others can enjoy their holiday weekend. That’s what my league did growing up and it worked for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Team rep here. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve been on the phone trying to find parents who haven’t shown up. They’re usually late.

I really hate no shows. It’s not even about winning or losing … it’s about the kid the coach couldn’t pick for the meet who really wanted to be there.

This is my issue too!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Team rep here. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve been on the phone trying to find parents who haven’t shown up. They’re usually late.

I really hate no shows. It’s not even about winning or losing … it’s about the kid the coach couldn’t pick for the meet who really wanted to be there.

In regular sports (particularly high school), if you don't show up to practice (much less a game), you don't get playing time. If I were a swim coach and one of my A meet swimmers had confirmed attendance and then no showed without explanation, they would be out of consideration for the next A meet. This would need to be made clear to the parents at the beginning of the season and in every lineup email, but it would need to be enforced to have any teeth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Team rep here. It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve been on the phone trying to find parents who haven’t shown up. They’re usually late.

I really hate no shows. It’s not even about winning or losing … it’s about the kid the coach couldn’t pick for the meet who really wanted to be there.

In regular sports (particularly high school), if you don't show up to practice (much less a game), you don't get playing time. If I were a swim coach and one of my A meet swimmers had confirmed attendance and then no showed without explanation, they would be out of consideration for the next A meet. This would need to be made clear to the parents at the beginning of the season and in every lineup email, but it would need to be enforced to have any teeth.

Basketball is different though. The days before the game you practice things that you'll do in the game. If kids aren't there, they won't know what the team is doing, it just doesn't work. It's not like a punishment. It just doesn't work. We have some AAU teams where the starters don't go to practice, but they are part of the "in group" with the coaches' kids so they start anyway. It's awful they don't run the plays or line up, makes everything confusing for all the kids trying to run the plays. Swimming it doesn't matter, you'll still get seeded by that one great time early in the season. Our A-meet kids usually only go to their club team practices and skip most of the summer league practices then go to the time trial and A-meet.