Reply to How do I bring this up diplomatically without accusing coach of having racial biases?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Swim always goes by times, so this isn't racism.  Sure, it’s not necessarily "fair" but the other kid could be swimming with a year round group.[/quote]

What is unfair is picking a slower kid that is more “consistent”.  Maybe they’re more consistent because they get to swim the stroke more often!

Anyway, I don’t know why but this thread has me wondering if a law professor is having fun with a hypothetical.[/quote]

Seriously? Because that is not the way the sport works.  It’s all about times, not consistency.[/quote]

In which way are the kids more or less consistent? If by time, I agree, fastest time is fastest time. But if it’s dq’s, then I’m not defending this coach, but sometimes consistency trumps time. In a situation with points on the line in which a swimmer often dq’s, then yes, coaches on the club level will choose a more consistent swimmer to swim. It only really happens in a relay situation because there is no limitation on individual swimmers in club. And it’s usually a matter of a swimmers being shuffled around so that no one dq’s.

For example, for a medley relay, Abraham is very fast at free and is ok in backstroke. Bobby is very slow at free and is faster than Abraham in backstroke, but often dq’s. On paper, Bobby should swim back and Abraham should swim free. But club coaches will almost always start Abraham at back and Bobby in free to avoid the dq.

Since summer swim has limited entries and since coaches and parents are much more rabid about points, I can see kids being shuffled around to avoid being dq’d in individual races. But even in that case, I think it’s the wrong call. Dq’s are a good way to learn with consequences. One dq is worth a month of the coach saying “two hand touch” at practice. In relays, it’s understandable because the whole team is disappointed when one of the four gets all of them disqualified.

In most cases, the solution to problems like this is to ask for an equitable transparent process to be installed, rather than accuse individuals or create a whisper campaign. [/quote]

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