Psych Sheet out for PVS Open Champs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:faster cut times and smaller overall numbers would help as would eliminating bonus events and cutting down the number of finalists

I think slightly faster qualifying times to around 15-16 A times would help. But I don't like eliminating the bonus events for the 50Y/100Y events as that gives swimmers that only qualify for a few events some other events to swim after they swim their primary events. This is the lowest level championship meet and a lot of these swimmers need the experience swimming in these type of meets.

I think PVS (and PAC) did a great job running the meet overall. My only complaints were:

1. Not letting parents into seating "until enough timers volunteered" was annoying, especially when the officials were volunteering.
2. Clubs not swimming more relays. Relays are fun and the swimmers mostly get excited. But I think this is where PVS has a problem where we don't see the club vs club completion when 50% of the meet are two clubs. I don't know what PVS can do to promote this more, but it could change the atmosphere.
3. Not playing louder music during the events. I think this can energize the crowd and make it feel bigger. It's hard to pull off running two pools at once and requires some seriously skilled announcers. I've been to another LSC championship meets where they played "Call Me Maybe" and the officials could not start the heat because after they stopped playing the music 90% of the swimmers were still screaming the lyrics.
4. Asking volunteers to pay for sessions they were not working. I volunteered for most of the sessions, but still had to pay for the one session where I couldn't volunteer. If you work 3+ sessions, you shouldn't have to pay for other ones.
5. The UMD staff checking in swimmers were kind of rude and giving the kids who didn't show their bag tags a hard time getting in.

The UMD staff is always rude. Every meet at UMD they act like they don't want to be there and they certainly do not have time for you. Parents often confuse the UMD staff for whoever is running the meet.

[Anonymous]

Setting aside how childish and entitled many of these complaints are, there seems to be a strong collective opinion that a good way to make this event (and club swimming) better is to gatekeep it for only the most elite swimmers. Somehow, giving the kids who don’t have a future with the Auburn sprint group a meet to aspire to is some type of community welfare. You do realize there are NFT meets for the even slower kids at the end of SC and LC seasons. Yes, even the great unwashed deserve something to look forward to at the end of their seasons. Maybe you all should take a step back and look at the state of swimming in this country. Now’s not the time to make the tent smaller.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The starter on the mens side on Saturday morning was terrible.

You better be a certified PVS (or higher) starter. Otherwise get bent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:faster cut times and smaller overall numbers would help as would eliminating bonus events and cutting down the number of finalists

I think slightly faster qualifying times to around 15-16 A times would help. But I don't like eliminating the bonus events for the 50Y/100Y events as that gives swimmers that only qualify for a few events some other events to swim after they swim their primary events. This is the lowest level championship meet and a lot of these swimmers need the experience swimming in these type of meets.

I think PVS (and PAC) did a great job running the meet overall. My only complaints were:

1. Not letting parents into seating "until enough timers volunteered" was annoying, especially when the officials were volunteering.
2. Clubs not swimming more relays. Relays are fun and the swimmers mostly get excited. But I think this is where PVS has a problem where we don't see the club vs club completion when 50% of the meet are two clubs. I don't know what PVS can do to promote this more, but it could change the atmosphere.
3. Not playing louder music during the events. I think this can energize the crowd and make it feel bigger. It's hard to pull off running two pools at once and requires some seriously skilled announcers. I've been to another LSC championship meets where they played "Call Me Maybe" and the officials could not start the heat because after they stopped playing the music 90% of the swimmers were still screaming the lyrics.
4. Asking volunteers to pay for sessions they were not working. I volunteered for most of the sessions, but still had to pay for the one session where I couldn't volunteer. If you work 3+ sessions, you shouldn't have to pay for other ones.
5. The UMD staff checking in swimmers were kind of rude and giving the kids who didn't show their bag tags a hard time getting in.

My biggest issue with this meet was the sign-up.

they assigned teams spots but didn't have specific jobs (timer, marshal, runner). I think this made it confusing and was why they ended up without enough timers or all timers and no marshals. It was a weird way to set it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:faster cut times and smaller overall numbers would help as would eliminating bonus events and cutting down the number of finalists

I think slightly faster qualifying times to around 15-16 A times would help. But I don't like eliminating the bonus events for the 50Y/100Y events as that gives swimmers that only qualify for a few events some other events to swim after they swim their primary events. This is the lowest level championship meet and a lot of these swimmers need the experience swimming in these type of meets.

I think PVS (and PAC) did a great job running the meet overall. My only complaints were:

1. Not letting parents into seating "until enough timers volunteered" was annoying, especially when the officials were volunteering.
2. Clubs not swimming more relays. Relays are fun and the swimmers mostly get excited. But I think this is where PVS has a problem where we don't see the club vs club completion when 50% of the meet are two clubs. I don't know what PVS can do to promote this more, but it could change the atmosphere.
3. Not playing louder music during the events. I think this can energize the crowd and make it feel bigger. It's hard to pull off running two pools at once and requires some seriously skilled announcers. I've been to another LSC championship meets where they played "Call Me Maybe" and the officials could not start the heat because after they stopped playing the music 90% of the swimmers were still screaming the lyrics.
4. Asking volunteers to pay for sessions they were not working. I volunteered for most of the sessions, but still had to pay for the one session where I couldn't volunteer. If you work 3+ sessions, you shouldn't have to pay for other ones.
5. The UMD staff checking in swimmers were kind of rude and giving the kids who didn't show their bag tags a hard time getting in.

I wasn’t even there and I know exactly who you are talking about. That person is notoriously nasty- both to the swimmers and to the volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Obviously they have to pay for the facility so an easy way to do that is to have more swimmers paying to attend.

And UMd definitely staffs the doors and so on with no nonsense people. You can't put pushovers in those roles.

Well run meet overall.

[Anonymous]

I love the lady who checks in officials and swimmers. She is so friendly and we always have a conversation once things slow down (usually in between kid check in and officials being permitted inside).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously they have to pay for the facility so an easy way to do that is to have more swimmers paying to attend.

And UMd definitely staffs the doors and so on with no nonsense people. You can't put pushovers in those roles.

Well run meet overall.

Well, now we can disregard all of your opinions because we understand you either weren’t there or do not understand how to evaluate effective staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:faster cut times and smaller overall numbers would help as would eliminating bonus events and cutting down the number of finalists

I think slightly faster qualifying times to around 15-16 A times would help. But I don't like eliminating the bonus events for the 50Y/100Y events as that gives swimmers that only qualify for a few events some other events to swim after they swim their primary events. This is the lowest level championship meet and a lot of these swimmers need the experience swimming in these type of meets.

I think PVS (and PAC) did a great job running the meet overall. My only complaints were:

1. Not letting parents into seating "until enough timers volunteered" was annoying, especially when the officials were volunteering.
2. Clubs not swimming more relays. Relays are fun and the swimmers mostly get excited. But I think this is where PVS has a problem where we don't see the club vs club completion when 50% of the meet are two clubs. I don't know what PVS can do to promote this more, but it could change the atmosphere.
3. Not playing louder music during the events. I think this can energize the crowd and make it feel bigger. It's hard to pull off running two pools at once and requires some seriously skilled announcers. I've been to another LSC championship meets where they played "Call Me Maybe" and the officials could not start the heat because after they stopped playing the music 90% of the swimmers were still screaming the lyrics.
4. Asking volunteers to pay for sessions they were not working. I volunteered for most of the sessions, but still had to pay for the one session where I couldn't volunteer. If you work 3+ sessions, you shouldn't have to pay for other ones.
5. The UMD staff checking in swimmers were kind of rude and giving the kids who didn't show their bag tags a hard time getting in.

I wasn’t even there and I know exactly who you are talking about. That person is notoriously nasty- both to the swimmers and to the volunteers.

+1

The lady up in the stands that checks purses, etc is actually fairly pleasant. A bit no nonsense but not horrible like the one checking in swimmers and controlling parents going in to time. She prevented my husband from going in to time so a teammate had to time them. It was ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the lady who checks in officials and swimmers. She is so friendly and we always have a conversation once things slow down (usually in between kid check in and officials being permitted inside).

I completely disagree with you. I’ve found her to be completely unreasonable and disrespectful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The starter on the mens side on Saturday morning was terrible.

You better be a certified PVS (or higher) starter. Otherwise get bent.

Why’s that? Can’t judge a teacher or doctor unless you’re one of those? Or a chef, hairdresser, manicurist, tailor, or swim official unless you’re one of them? Pls clarify

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The starter on the mens side on Saturday morning was terrible.

You better be a certified PVS (or higher) starter. Otherwise get bent.

Why’s that? Can’t judge a teacher or doctor unless you’re one of those? Or a chef, hairdresser, manicurist, tailor, or swim official unless you’re one of them? Pls clarify

Well, not all of those things are the same, are they? You’re certainly in no position to judge a doctor unless you are one. That’s why you need a testifying expert in a med mal case. Obviously not the same thing, but if you don’t know what it takes to be a starter, you have no idea what was going on that might have caused what you perceived to be poor performance. Easy to complain when you just sit your ass in the stands and don’t put the significant time and effort into helping these kids get splashes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The starter on the mens side on Saturday morning was terrible.

What was the issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The starter on the mens side on Saturday morning was terrible.

What was the issue?

Delays before buzzer - repeated and significant
Take your mark….stand many times

Several boys dove in when they were not supposed to.

Several times they were signaled to get on the block and then a wait.

10 strangers around me all discussed it. That’s one tiny area.

Yeah, I can judge that. Just like I can judge a doctor’s bedside manner, missed tests ordered, rushed appointments, failure to obtain an adequate background history, etc.

Is the PP suggesting next time people all around me are discussing this I should shush them?

It was very unfair to the athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The starter on the mens side on Saturday morning was terrible.

What was the issue?

Delays before buzzer - repeated and significant
Take your mark….stand many times

Several boys dove in when they were not supposed to.

Several times they were signaled to get on the block and then a wait.

10 strangers around me all discussed it. That’s one tiny area.

Yeah, I can judge that. Just like I can judge a doctor’s bedside manner, missed tests ordered, rushed appointments, failure to obtain an adequate background history, etc.

Is the PP suggesting next time people all around me are discussing this I should shush them?

It was very unfair to the athletes.

DP
Starters are trained to be intentionally inconsistent between “take your mark” and starting the race. Not sure what qualifies as a “delay” in your expert opinion. And if they called “stand”, it meant they were doing their job diligently.
And all the starters held people on the blocks throughout the weekend. They were coordinating with the other pool and trying to ensure kids didn’t accidentally dive in when the other pool started a heat.
Unlike all the other positions you mentioned, this one is volunteer-based. So I think PP was saying that unless you want to step up and train and forfeit your time to be a starter, maybe lay off a little. I’d argue that’s probably the hardest volunteer job; be grateful someone is doing it at all.