Does your team have trouble keeping B meet partners (NVSL)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are part of a long-standing B meet "league" and still only have three B meets per summer - and that's if none get stormed out. I honestly feel like this contributes to our lack of a 'pipeline' of swimmers - kids who aren't the fastest get too few chances to feel like part of the team (or improve their position on the ladder). Our junior coaches don't even lead cheers at B meets

Only three B meets? That would work if you have a small team that most swim in the A meets, but if you have a large team it locks in A meet swimmers because B meet swimmers don't get the opportunities to drop time. I will say that we have 5 B meets and an IM Carnival and then the NVSL meets, so lots of swims for the whole team.

Why don't they offer more teams into your league? I feel like you should be talking to your team leadership and maybe offer to help out. That would benefit the whole team.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, if you are consistently losing B meet partners, some introspection is in order. We tend to add/drop a b meet partner every couple years. Some reasons we drop partners,;
1. They don't reserve their parking lot for the visiting team, and give us a crappy team area.
2. They are an extremely large team and their coach is obnoxious and difficult to work with.
3. Not wanting to 'waste' a meet on a yards pool.
4. The reps are difficult to work with.
5. One of our reps has a personal relationship with another pool rep and wants to get them into our rotation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

We pre-seed mixed age (9-12, 13 and up) and mixed gender to speed up B meets. We are usually bigger than the team we are swimming, so they are very grateful! We can finish B meets in 2-2.5 hours even with IM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

We pre-seed mixed age (9-12, 13 and up) and mixed gender to speed up B meets. We are usually bigger than the team we are swimming, so they are very grateful! We can finish B meets in 2-2.5 hours even with IM.

I wish the coaches at are pool would scrutinize the sign ups a bit more for kids that aren’t even remotely close to legal for BR and FLY, but the parents sign them up anyway. Probably would save at least 15min cause of the time it takes them to complete the 25/50 and then processing the DQ. I’m totally supportive of kids who are borderline there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

We pre-seed mixed age (9-12, 13 and up) and mixed gender to speed up B meets. We are usually bigger than the team we are swimming, so they are very grateful! We can finish B meets in 2-2.5 hours even with IM.

I wish the coaches at are pool would scrutinize the sign ups a bit more for kids that aren’t even remotely close to legal for BR and FLY, but the parents sign them up anyway. Probably would save at least 15min cause of the time it takes them to complete the 25/50 and then processing the DQ. I’m totally supportive of kids who are borderline there.

Yes, and 8& under IMs where the kid had no legal breast or fly time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We pre-seed mixed age (9-12, 13 and up) and mixed gender to speed up B meets. We are usually bigger than the team we are swimming, so they are very grateful! We can finish B meets in 2-2.5 hours even with IM.

Our B meet league started seeding the meets and doing mixed gender heats a few years ago and it’s phenomenal! It goes WAY faster + the competition is better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

DP but we preseed and clerk of course will always combine heats so as not to have empty lanes. Seems it would be slow to have the coach do that when they should not be at clerk of course and watching the swimmers.

Also
With preseeded lanes the coaches know who is in what lane and can jot notes for feedback. I have actually seen other teams not even pay attention to B meet Britney can't tell who was swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We pre-seed mixed age (9-12, 13 and up) and mixed gender to speed up B meets. We are usually bigger than the team we are swimming, so they are very grateful! We can finish B meets in 2-2.5 hours even with IM.

Our B meet league started seeding the meets and doing mixed gender heats a few years ago and it’s phenomenal! It goes WAY faster + the competition is better.

Yep. And there are still teams that refuse to do it. We won't swim against them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

This was my post. I really appreciate all the responses but I haven't heard what makes it faster. Do you not have kids not showing up and therefore empty lanes that are going unfilled because of the preseeding? Are you turning kids away who didnt sign up in time and therefore don't have unseeded extra swimmers, which may result in extra heats? Is clerk of course making adjustments on the fly to fill lanes (and if so, isn't that closer to what we do with assigning lanes in clerk of course)?

As for coaches in clerk of course, this is usually an assistant coach assisting the head clerk of course with seeding. We've never had a delay getting kids to the start, and we have plenty of other coaches to watch every kid swim and take notes so that hasn't been an issue. We also combine ages and genders when we can, especially for older kids. It works for us so far, but I'd like to know if we can do it better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

This was my post. I really appreciate all the responses but I haven't heard what makes it faster. Do you not have kids not showing up and therefore empty lanes that are going unfilled because of the preseeding? Are you turning kids away who didnt sign up in time and therefore don't have unseeded extra swimmers, which may result in extra heats? Is clerk of course making adjustments on the fly to fill lanes (and if so, isn't that closer to what we do with assigning lanes in clerk of course)?

As for coaches in clerk of course, this is usually an assistant coach assisting the head clerk of course with seeding. We've never had a delay getting kids to the start, and we have plenty of other coaches to watch every kid swim and take notes so that hasn't been an issue. We also combine ages and genders when we can, especially for older kids. It works for us so far, but I'd like to know if we can do it better.

— Child can’t swim in B meet unless signed up by [some specific time]. Then we run the meet sheet. I don’t remember the last time we had an empty lane in a B meet.
— Meet sheet is just like A meets but with combined genders and ages.
— No cards for kids to take to lanes
— Also, we have 4 S&T judges and 2 chief judges to sub out when the S&T judges have to get caught up on DQs. We rarely pause the meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

This was my post. I really appreciate all the responses but I haven't heard what makes it faster. Do you not have kids not showing up and therefore empty lanes that are going unfilled because of the preseeding? Are you turning kids away who didnt sign up in time and therefore don't have unseeded extra swimmers, which may result in extra heats? Is clerk of course making adjustments on the fly to fill lanes (and if so, isn't that closer to what we do with assigning lanes in clerk of course)?

As for coaches in clerk of course, this is usually an assistant coach assisting the head clerk of course with seeding. We've never had a delay getting kids to the start, and we have plenty of other coaches to watch every kid swim and take notes so that hasn't been an issue. We also combine ages and genders when we can, especially for older kids. It works for us so far, but I'd like to know if we can do it better.

— Child can’t swim in B meet unless signed up by [some specific time]. Then we run the meet sheet. I don’t remember the last time we had an empty lane in a B meet.
— Meet sheet is just like A meets but with combined genders and ages.
— No cards for kids to take to lanes
— Also, we have 4 S&T judges and 2 chief judges to sub out when the S&T judges have to get caught up on DQs. We rarely pause the meets.

That is awesome! I’ve been advocating for this for years but alas, we still have 3.5 + hr long B meets. Also, agree with PP about making sure kids are legal or close to. Unfortunately we don’t do that and it’s a painful - we’ve never had a season without having to rescue 2-3 kids who can’t finish.

All our B meets are with lower division pools and it just runs sooo much slower than A meets because of the DQs and not preseeding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would a team change to use meet maestro unless it was all agreed to for the entire group of B meet teams first? Sounds like the person who proposed this change was the person making the most work for everyone.

NP. Most of the B meet leagues have been using Meet Maestro for years. Our team is not in a B meet league but when we moved to Swimtopia years ago the first B meet of the season the other team that was hosting asked us if we would use it to run the meet. Generally you try and defer as much as you can to the host team, so we said sure, we will give it a shot. Not only can you seed your heats (yay) it sped up the meet (double yay) and the system is incredibly easy to use - we were sold. We then had the same discussion with our partners and that season all B meets were done in Swimtopia and have been now for years. A good portion of the league wanted A meets to start using it and are thrilled that is the case this year.

If you are not in a league, the rules vary from B meet to meet, depending on the host,

Genuinely curious, how does it speed up the meet? We used to pre-seed all our heats but we found with no shows or unanticipated shows, that we had empty lanes or added extra heats. We started having coaches seed heats at clerk of course to ensure as few empty lanes as possible, while grouping kids together either by ability or even with their friends at the other pool. It took a little bit of extra work, but with significant returns. Our meets are super fast now. It does require good communication between reps and coaches, but it isn't disorganized and absolutely worth it the last few years.

This was my post. I really appreciate all the responses but I haven't heard what makes it faster. Do you not have kids not showing up and therefore empty lanes that are going unfilled because of the preseeding? Are you turning kids away who didnt sign up in time and therefore don't have unseeded extra swimmers, which may result in extra heats? Is clerk of course making adjustments on the fly to fill lanes (and if so, isn't that closer to what we do with assigning lanes in clerk of course)?

As for coaches in clerk of course, this is usually an assistant coach assisting the head clerk of course with seeding. We've never had a delay getting kids to the start, and we have plenty of other coaches to watch every kid swim and take notes so that hasn't been an issue. We also combine ages and genders when we can, especially for older kids. It works for us so far, but I'd like to know if we can do it better.

— Child can’t swim in B meet unless signed up by [some specific time]. Then we run the meet sheet. I don’t remember the last time we had an empty lane in a B meet.
— Meet sheet is just like A meets but with combined genders and ages.
— No cards for kids to take to lanes
— Also, we have 4 S&T judges and 2 chief judges to sub out when the S&T judges have to get caught up on DQs. We rarely pause the meets.

That is awesome! I’ve been advocating for this for years but alas, we still have 3.5 + hr long B meets. Also, agree with PP about making sure kids are legal or close to. Unfortunately we don’t do that and it’s a painful - we’ve never had a season without having to rescue 2-3 kids who can’t finish.

All our B meets are with lower division pools and it just runs sooo much slower than A meets because of the DQs and not preseeding.

That’s very fair. I agree about stroke legality. It’s dangerous for the swimmers and increases pool liability. We have a race right before the B meet starts for almost-legal swimmers and we have coaches in each lane. Maybe that’s what your team should do? Having the 6 S&T judges on deck, with 2 serving as chief judges, really speeds up B meets, but we are a top division team so we have more officials. I imagine smaller teams and lower division teams could not necessary supply the personnel. However, we are a big team and we swim mid- to top-division teams in B meets, so there are a lot of swimmers compared with what a lower division team may have, so it could come out in the wash.

[Anonymous]

As for keeping B meet partners, without knowing the cause of the un-partnering, maybe your team should investigate joining a pre-existing B meet league, find out the terms of the league (ie, supplying officials, pre-seeding meets, cut off times for registering, team areas, parking in pool lot, etc), and see if a league might take your team on provisionally for the 2027 season.

[Anonymous]

Join a league for b meets