Relays at these meets are such a waste. Tires your kid out for their individual events.

You won’t find a consistent answer between coaches. My kid’s coach is fastest seed time no matter what (can be bumped by fastest swim but won’t pull a kid who has a lot of events or is having an off meet). Others are different so would have to check with your club/coach.

There is also different strategies on order of swimming slowest to fastest for free relays that I find interesting. Lots of different approaches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some teams lock in their relays ahead of the meet, regardless of what someone does during the meet. Some teams have what the relays would be, but will change people out if a during the meet a swimmer beats out someone pre-seeded into the relay.

What if swimmer 5 beats swimmer 4 in the head-to-head individual event but neither of them gets a personal best that day? Chaos!

It is top seed time in swim so a head to head win means nothing. It is who has the best time in the books.

This means times are good because of touchpads, plungers and timers. Really makes you realize how arbitrary summer times can be in relation.

Coaches’ call. I’ve had a kid bumped in this situation bc “swimmer 5” was just having a faster, more consistent meet. On paper, my kid was faster, but not on this particular weekend.

For all the 12&u events at Turkey Claus, the free relays come before the 50 free individual events. That means the kids in those free relays aren’t really at risk of being bumped. Some of the medley events are before the medley relays some are after.

I think most clubs have a rough idea of their relay teams prior to the meet but would imagine almost all make day of decisions on the actual team.

I think the kids get that and are good with it. It isn’t like favorites are being played. They are going by times. The kids are all very much aware of one another’s times and they know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some teams lock in their relays ahead of the meet, regardless of what someone does during the meet. Some teams have what the relays would be, but will change people out if a during the meet a swimmer beats out someone pre-seeded into the relay.

What if swimmer 5 beats swimmer 4 in the head-to-head individual event but neither of them gets a personal best that day? Chaos!

It is top seed time in swim so a head to head win means nothing. It is who has the best time in the books.

This means times are good because of touchpads, plungers and timers. Really makes you realize how arbitrary summer times can be in relation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some teams lock in their relays ahead of the meet, regardless of what someone does during the meet. Some teams have what the relays would be, but will change people out if a during the meet a swimmer beats out someone pre-seeded into the relay.

What if swimmer 5 beats swimmer 4 in the head-to-head individual event but neither of them gets a personal best that day? Chaos!

Lol, our club always goes by personal bests for the relays so in that scenario swimmer 4 is still on the relay.

Anonymous wrote:Some teams lock in their relays ahead of the meet, regardless of what someone does during the meet. Some teams have what the relays would be, but will change people out if a during the meet a swimmer beats out someone pre-seeded into the relay.

What if swimmer 5 beats swimmer 4 in the head-to-head individual event but neither of them gets a personal best that day? Chaos!

Some teams lock in their relays ahead of the meet, regardless of what someone does during the meet. Some teams have what the relays would be, but will change people out if a during the meet a swimmer beats out someone pre-seeded into the relay.

Our club decides day of, sometimes if a kid will make lots of finals that night, they will pull them (with the kids ok) from the relay so they aren't exhausted.

But we never know until the meet has started who on relays that day

Our club will bump kids if a kid swims faster in an event. They did it last year where my kid was not on the relay but dropped a lot of time and bumped the A relay kid to the B relay team and the B relay kid that was bumped did not swim.

Anonymous wrote:They will bump kids from relays if someone beats their time while swimming this weekend. They have to take the fastest kids.

There's no rule that says they have to and they don't always.

They will bump kids from relays if someone beats their time while swimming this weekend. They have to take the fastest kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Our club is in Turkey Claus this weekend and the coach told us that the relay teams were picked/finalized the day of the meet. But then they also sent out a relay team list of the A and B swimmers for the teams. Will those teams change the day of the meet? Is this what all clubs do or just certain clubs?

The e-mail indicates coaches have a plan going into the meet. Coaches usually give the caveat you mentioned in case someone doesn't show up or perhaps in a more competitive meet in case someone else further down the "ladder" improves their time during the meet and "bumps" one of the original foursome from a relay.

Our club is in Turkey Claus this weekend and the coach told us that the relay teams were picked/finalized the day of the meet. But then they also sent out a relay team list of the A and B swimmers for the teams. Will those teams change the day of the meet? Is this what all clubs do or just certain clubs?