With cameras clicked on and eyes laser-focused for day 1’s prelims at the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix, something really stood out, something that was quite disheartening.
It’s nothing new in swimming, in fact it’s written into the rules as allowed. Maybe it’s getting extra attention because of the hype surrounding Michael Phelps’ return from an 18-month retirement, but it was a little unnerving just how many scratches there were in the prelims session.
We’re not talking about pre-session, post-psych sheet scratches. We’re talking about post-heat-sheet, ‘I just didn’t feel like swimming,’ or ‘I wasn’t feeling that race’ scratches. The kinds of scratches that leave droves of empty lanes in preliminary sessions.
Now, we get it. Just about everyone who works at SwimSwam is a coach or a swimmer or a swim parent, and understands that there are perfectly legitimate reasons to scratch. Further, we understand that when it comes down to it, coaches are always thinking along the lines of what’s best for their swimmers.
And that’s fine at the local level. That’s fine at meets that are not televised, and are not designed to be a competitive outlet for professional swimmers.
However, when the cameras flip on, when NBC is there, when Universal Sports are doing live look-ins, and when journalists and fans from every corner of the globe are watching, we need to do better.
By our count, there were 7 scratches in the women’s 100 free prelim and 16 in the men’s 100 free prelims. That’s a heat in the women’s and two heats in the men’s that could have been saved. Cutting out those heats would cut a few minutes out of the session, and cut out some of the tedium of seeing “15 heats” on the heat sheets. It would cut out some of the deflation of getting into the circle-seeded heats and seeing the pool half-empty.
And those swims come in the very first event of the day, where there’s no real surprises that should have come up to create scratches. There’s no “I tweaked a shoulder in an earlier swim.” Of course, sometimes those things really will happen, but more-often-than-not, these are ‘just in case’ entries.
No one group is more responsible than another, so here’s our case to both coaches of the amateur athletes who use these grand prixs as developmental events, and the pro athletes, who use it to make their living.
To the Amateur swimmers – remember that your competitor swimmers, the pros, the high-level college athletes who will become pros one day, are counting on these meets being exciting and interesting and drawing huge crowds. If those things don’t happen, then the professional swimmers will find a way to make their own meet and you won’t be invited. When USA Swimming organizes meets, they have a vested interest in bringing the high school swimmers to compete for revenue reasons in both the short term and the long term. If pros can get together the organization to host their own meets, they won’t have those same motivations, so keep these elite grand prix events elite and professional-looking by filling up the lanes in races your committed to.
To the Pro swimmers – It hasn’t always been this way; in the past, simply showing up and smiling for the camera has been enough, because the target swimming audience has been age group swimmers. But for swimming to become a sport where there’s a true, deep, and wealthy, professional class of athletes, there needs to be more than this. You have to attract fans who want to see you race, who want to see your results, who have actual expectations to see you give your best, and empty lanes disappoint them. Empty lanes won’t make sense to them. Empty lanes will bore them. Keep your fans interested and happy, and your fans will keep you happy.
Will the rules ever change? Will there ever be legislation that changes the rules for ‘Declared False Starts’ at meets of a certain level and stature? Not a chance. There’s too many coaches who like the supreme flexibility that these last-minute scratches offer, who don’t like to be tied down to a certain number of events or entries, or have to make decisions an earlier than they have to.
That means that the onus is on, and will continue to be on, the individual athletes and coaches to make this change. Let’s keep these major meets special, let’s keep them humming with excitement, and let’s create an atmosphere that will sell out grand prixs regardless of whether Michael Phelps is there or not. Swimming has a long way to go to capture the every-meet excitement of baseball, football, or basketball, but this is one small thing that we can all do to help the cause.
Thanks for your consideration,
SwimSwam
I could care less about Kevin Cordes, but what happened to BJ Johnson? (who actually did swim)
I wish there was a way to tell why a swimmer was DQed.
Could there be come kind of DQ code in the results? Like DQ1, DQ2, whatever… and then at the bottom it says 1 – false start, 2 – dolphin kick, 3… (how many ways to DQ are there)
It wouldn’t be a mystery forever. Is that too much to ask?
I can’t speak to the Omega results, but it is as simple as setting a parameter in Hy-Tek results to show the reason for DQ. Assuming that the DQ reason is entered into the Meet Manager file. In my experience you don’t see it set that way very often.
I completely agree with Braden. Empty lanes broadcast apathy, or worse. When I see a track meet on Universal Sports with a bunch of empty lanes it’s totally deflating, like watching an exhibition that no one really takes seriously. Bush league.
The reason coaches do it is because the rules encourage the practice. If you can buy a plane ticket with open dates for the same price as fixed dates, why not take advantage of the flexibility, even if you don’t need it? But you know what? You can’t! Those flexible tickets cost a king’s ransom for a reason. When the rules allow unlimited entries, the meet structure is based on the certainty of lots of pick-and-choose scratches. I don’t… Read more »
This meet is fairly slow, but there were editorials on that aspect over the past few weeks and it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Early long course season training stage for most of the swimmers (some recovering still from NCAAs and Spring Break), with them showing up primarily to see what they need to do over the next couple of months to be in good shape by the critical meets in August.
I only watch prelims if there is a specific swimmer I want to see that I am pretty certain will not make finals. Beyond that, prelims are an inherently boring format. No one outside of the sport (and few inside) is going to tune in.
I think that is exactly the issue that needs to be addressed. Prelims do not have to be boring. If things are done the right way, they will be much more interesting, easier to follow, and informative.
I watched some of the prelims during my lunch break and was completely and utterly bored with the meet atmosphere, announcer (Sam), and the slow as molasses times overall. The web feed was decent but as one blogger said, USA Swimming has to do a better job clearly identifying lanes and swimmers during these races for a proper video.
Sure it’s early in the LCM season for good times (Unless your name is Magnussen), and swimming and track prelims will never get much attention, I get that. But at least SHOW UP and unless you are injured give it your best. To those swimmers way off their seed times, and the ones not saving themselves for finals, hope you have… Read more »
We really should do away with the DFS rule. It’s a stupid rule that makes a mockery of the sport. If you’re entered, you swim, period.
Isn’t that what smart phones and tablets are for?
Seriously. Aren’t we at the point where we don’t need scads of printed heat sheets? Post a couple around the facility, a few for coaches and you should be covered.
We’re almost there technologically to reseed these heats right up to the last moment as long as coaches/swimmers/spectators are willing to forego printed heat sheets. The biggest bottleneck from reseeding heats at the last minute is printing out the heat sheets and then distributing them to the parties.