For the whole season? So even if a kid drops multiple seconds and by early July is faster than the time trials times of other swimmers, they don’t get to swim A meets? We are NVSL mid-tier team and time trials are the baseline for the season. Ladder is updated after every A and B meet. |
Our pool uses time trials for the whole season or until the swimmer gets a faster time. |
I think pp meant that her pool uses all times, including time trials, in deciding who swims A meets. That’s what our pool does. Time trials, A and B meet times for the entire season are taken into consideration. |
Why would they use them for,the whole season? That is crazy. Our uses them for the first 2 A meets but that's it. After that's its best time used. |
It makes sense to me to include all times, including trials, when making those A meet decisions. That way a kid with a fast butterfly (for example) can still be chosen for butterfly in the third A meet even if he’s been limited to free and back at A meets up to that point. He may not have done butterfly at any meets after the trials, so using the trials time gives the coaches the option to put him in on fly as needed. |
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I’m a team rep. I’m betting, as others have said, you don’t know everyone’s times. For example:
- as people said, usually the best kids in a stroke from Saturday aren’t swimming those same strokes on Monday per the rules - if they swim a different stroke Monday it is unofficially (so their time is not formally posted or announced.). The time will count for seeding though. - usually the best times all season are used so if a kid has a best time from time trials or an unofficial b meet that is faster than your kid, our kid won’t swim. - a kid who got a great time at a single meet but can’t ever do that again will still beat your son in a spot even if you son is faster than this kid in every subsequent meet. A single time faster than your kid’s fastest time will boot you kid out of an a meet. |
Season best includes time trials for the whole season. |
| OP, did you ever figure out what is going on at your pool |
Ours doesn't allow this either. It is annoying because we'd like to use the B meet as practice. I've been told and read that it was an NVSL rule that doesn't allow the top 3 swimmers in a race to swim that same race in a B meet even for exhibition. |
Its not a NVSL rule- although I know our NVSL pool team handbook says it is. For B meets many of the NVSL pools are in leagues- like the McLean Area League, Vienna Area Dev League. Each of these groupings of pools sets their own rules about B meets- and the 'if you placed on Sat you can't swim it on Monday" is an extremely common league rule. I think it is a good rule- honestly, if you placed on Sat and you swim on Monday you will most likely win, the fact that you are 'only swimming for exhibition' isn't going to mean much to the swimmers who think they lost to you. |
This is the situation that is frustrating when it happens. I've been a volunteer timer, and while timers try there best, sometimes mistakes happen. When a child can never get close to a fast time again, but another child is very close to that time and also faster than the other child's more recent times, you can't help but think that it is possible that the timers made a mistake that one time. We've seen this happen on our neighborhood team and, unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it. |
There are always 3 timers per lane and they take the middle time. I can’t imagine a timer mistake making that big of a difference |
Our league has 3 timers per lane and I think this is a pretty good way to avoid a situation like mentioned above. Of the 3, the middle time is the one that's taken. I believe if there is a malfunction with 1 timer, 1) you can raise your hand and get the lead ref to finish timing in your lane, or 2) if the lead ref is not an option (because you didn't realize the malfunction until the end, for example), I am not 100% sure, but I believe they might take the average of the other two times. |
The bigger issue is when kids get a really fast time trials time because they should have been DQed but the stroke and turn judges often are new or rusty at time trials. Then the kid gets in A meets all season on that time trials time even though his actual legal time is slower. |
all of these errors could work for or against your kid. bet you wouldn't complain or be knocking other kids if it was your child who benefited from a timing error. It's not a perfect system, but it is what it is and, for the most part, it's pretty fair. |