Purpose Ultimately, the Administrative Official is responsible for - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Purpose

Ultimately, the Administrative Official is responsible for

• the accuracy of the official times credited to each individual swimmer or

relay team;

• ensuring the seeding of each event is accurate;
• determining and publish accurate results and scores; and
• being responsible for personnel involved in achieving this purpose, including

computer operators, timing judges, clerks of course, entry chairs, etc. The Admin Official reports to the Meet Referee. Background: The Administrative Official position was created in September 2012 to ensure the times entered in the SWIMS database are accurate.

REQUIREMENTS:

The Administrative Official must be:

• a USA Swimming registered non-athlete member;
• Passed the Level II (2) Background Check;
• Passed the Athlete Protection Program requirements

Passed the four (4) required tests found on the USA Swimming website:

• Administrative
• Clerk of Course
• Timer
• Timing Judge

Attend a formal Administrative Official clinic given by an approved LSC instructor Demonstrate knowledge and competence in all components of Administrative Official by successfully completing four (4) apprentice sessions in the position.

Reports to Administrative Official once the meet begins, with position task examples:

• Entry Personnel*
• Deck Entries
• Registration Personnel*
• Accepting USAS Registration forms when the Meet Announcement allows for

Deck Registration at a meet, or Recon Report shows in registration missing

• Clerk of Course (CC)*
• Event check-in
• Accepting Scratches from prelims or finals, and possibly writing DQ slips for

Declared False Starts in prelims in a “Scratch-Box Meet”

• Timing Judge (TJ)*
• Reviews timing system results for each heat, along with watch times and order
• f finish sheets to determine whether adjustments are needed
• Timing System Operator (TO)*
• Operates the Colorado or Daktronics Timing Systems
• Computer Scoring Operator (CO)*
• Operates the scoring software, such as Hytek Meet Manager or TouchPad

* Can be a volunteer (not registered) when supervised by an Admin Official

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICIAL FORMS

Many of the forms necessary to help the Administrative Official and those volunteers assisting the AO, can be found on the Niagara Swimming website under Officials/Officials Forms. Forms specific to the current meet, such as Check-In sheets and Lane Timer sheets, will be found in Meet Manager under Reports. Relay Cards and Award Labels can be produced under Labels.

Meet Manager Software and Running a Meet

For more information on Setting Up a Meet and Running a Meet on HyTek’s Meet Manager, please refer to the manuals accompanying this Clinic, including Part I – Meet Manager Overview and Part 2 – Running a Meet. Also, please consider viewing the Tutorials found in the Meet Manager program (internet connection required).

TIPS & SUGGESTIONS

• Read and Re-Read the Meet Announcement. Highlight the sections that apply to

the Admin Official.

• Double-check the Seeding. Prelims/Finals formats require circle-seeding in
• Prelims. Order of Finals (A, B, C or C, B, A). Alternates are showing for Finals.
• Which events are running Fast-to-Slow vs. Slow-to-Fast (default order)?
• Are any events Alternating Female then Male?
• What time do Check-ins close? Who is handling check-ins?
• Is the meet using Odd/Even Heats in two pools or Chase Starts or Flighting?
• Are deck entries allowed? If so, when is that deadline?
• Are Relay Cards ready for distribution? Who’s passing them out?
• Are Lane Timer Sheets ready?
• Lane Timers will need a heat sheet for events alternating by gender.
• DO NOT RE-SEED A MEET ONCE THE HEAT SHEETS ARE PRODUCED!!!
• How does the Meet Referee want Timing Adjustments handled?
• Double-check the Timing System. Are the Events correctly installed in the Timer?

Are all pads and buttons working properly BEFORE the first heat of swimmers go

• ff the blocks?

DETERMINING OFFICIAL TIME

One of these Primary systems MUST be used AUTOMATIC (activated by starting device and stopped when Swimmers touch touchpads) with a Back-Up System of: Semi-Automatic Timing: Electronic Start, system stopped when 3, 2 or 1 buttons per lane each pushed by a separate Lane Timer at the finish touch of the Swimmer, and, Manual Timing: Manual watches (3, 2 or 1 per lane) each started and stopped by separate Lane Timers.

• r

SEMI-AUTOMATIC (activated by starting device and stopped by 3 or 2 buttons - 3 preferred

• each operated by separate Lane Timers), the Back-Up System must be:

Manual Timing: 3, 2 or 1 watches per lane each started and stopped by separate Lane Timers (can be the button operators).

• r

MANUAL - three (3) hand held battery operated watches per lane, each operated by a separate Lane Timer.

Note: At least one (1) watch is required as a backup up when any Automatic or Semi-automatic Primary System is used (unless the backup is by fully integrated, stationary, overhead, 100 frame per second video cameras).

POSSIBLE TIMING SYSTEM MALFUNCTIONS

• Timing System shows .30 second difference or greater between the Primary and

Secondary systems (i.e. pad to button time)

• Place Judges report a different Order of Finish (OOF) from the Timing System
• Reports of soft or missed touch by Swimmer

OTHER MALFUNCTIONS

• Electronic Failure – system doesn’t start or stop; system shutdown; pad or button

no longer sending electronic signal at finish

• Swimmer Error – misses pad on intermediate or final touch; soft touch doesn’t

trigger pad finish

• Timer Error – misses strobe flash at start (late watch); anticipates swimmer final

touch (early button and watch); misses final touch (no valid button or watch times); isn’t in position to get a clear view of the finish

The Administrative Official’s main purpose when a Timing System Malfunction occurs is not to prove the button or watch backup times are correct, but to

PROVE THE PAD TIME IS INCORRECT!

USA Swimming Rule 102.24.4A: Automatic Timing – When recorded by properly

• perating automatic equipment, the pad time shall be the official time.

To do this, the Admin Official must

INVESTIGATE

Evidence Needed:

• Button and Watch Times
• Order(s) of Finish

Ask Questions:

• Timers: Accurate buttons and watches; swimmer soft or missed pad touch
• OOF Judges: Accurate order
• Both: Anything peculiar about this situation

LANE MALFUNCTION .31 PAD-TO-BUTTON DIFFERENCE—Late Touch or Early Button?

INVESTIGATE: What is your proof the pad time is not accurate?

• How much difference is there between the pad and button time? What might have happened

with the timer in this race?

• What is the watch time? Does the time support the pad or the button?
• What is the order of finish? Does it support the pad or button times?
• Are there two watches/buttons? Was there a separate watch and button timer (two people –

remember USAS Rule 102.17.3)? Are you confident in the timers?

• Did the timer report a late or soft touch that would have prevented the pad from getting an
• fficial? Are they novice swimmers who may have been exhausted at the finish?

If you ascertain the pad time is correct, there is nothing else that needs to be done!

LANE MALFUNCTION .31 PAD-TO-BUTTON DIFFERENCE—Late Touch or Early Button?

If you determine the BUTTON time is accurate, click on CALC and ACCEPT ADJUSTED. In this case, MM calculates the average differential between pad and button times and uses that average to adjust the Button time. (USAS Rules 102.24.4E and Appendix 1-A). Double Check this calculation agrees with the Order of Finish! Note: Make sure that invalid differentials are not used in the adjustment calculations.

LANE MALFUNCTION .31 PAD-TO-BUTTON DIFFERENCE—Late Button?

An Official Backup Time that is 0.31 or more "slower" than a pad time is highlighted in blue and a "b" is displayed in the far right column of the Run Screen. These lanes default to being unchecked for use since these times often will not be adjusted. Note: Rules say a differential of approximately 0.30 seconds, or more, may indicate a “malfunction.”

LANE MALFUNCTION Check or Uncheck “USE” Box in CALC Screen??

If your investigation PROVES the pad time for a given lane is good, but the backups are not, uncheck the “Use “ box for that lane. Since a blue indicator means the backup is slower than the pad time (which usually means a late button), when the Time Adjustment window is displayed, the blue rows are not selected since in most cases this time should not be adjusted to the slower time. If you still want to use the adjusted backup (for example, in relays, sometimes a pad is activated early when a swimmer is exiting the pool), then click on the “Use” column for a given lane and MM will display the adjusted time.

LANE MALFUNCTION OTHER IMPORTANT TIMING INDICATORS

When there is a PAD time but no official BACKUP time, the pad entry is highlighted in blue indicating a WATCH time and Order of Finish should be checked to confirm the pad time is

• accurate. (Lanes 1 and 2 above.)

Any BACKUP time displayed in pink alerts the operator that backup is more than .30 different from the PAD time and should be investigated. (Lane 8 above.)

LANE MALFUNCTION OTHER IMPORTANT TIMING INDICATORS

If there are two backup times and one is within .30 to the pad time and one greater than .30 to the pad time, leading to the Official Back Up time (average of the two buttons) still greater than .30 to the pad time, the lane is highlighted in green. In the CALC screen that lane is unchecked in the “Use” box since these times would not be used due to the inaccuracy of the differences.

QUIZ #1

In Heat 3, Lane 6 of the 10 & Under 100 Backstroke, the Timing System didn’t record a pad

• r a button time for that lane. All I have is a watch time to use. I’m just going to hand-

enter that watch time into Lane 6 on the RUN menu…OK? No, not OK! Watch times present two opportunities for human error that could adversely affect a swimmer’s achieved time – at both the start and the finish. Always make sure to adjust a watch time (or the average of two watches, if both are being used as a backup system) by using the average differential from pad-to-watch for all

• lanes. That instruction is coming up!

HEAT MALFUNCTION MANUAL or LATE START TO TIMING SYSTEM

When there is an electronic timing malfunction to an entire heat, always encourage the Timing System Operator to do a Manual Start to the Timing System. When that is done the system will provide an accurate order of finish and the timing judge can adjust the achieved times to the watch times for an accurate finish time. In this manner, the times of the primary system are adjusted by calculating the average difference between the primary times and valid back-up times for every lane in the heat. USA Swimming Rule 102.24.4F and Appendix 1-B. For Daktronics timing systems, the manual start is the green button at the bottom left of the console.

HEAT MALFUNCTION MANUAL or LATE START TO TIMING SYSTEM

For Colorado Timing Systems, the manual start is the button at the bottom left of the console.

HEAT MALFUNCTION MANUAL or LATE START TO TIMING SYSTEM

In this scenario, you know the primary pad times are incorrect due to the timing system malfunction and the late manual start. You also know the order of finish is correct. Click on CALC and put a CHECK in the Show Heat Malfunction box. That brings up the Timing Adjustment screen. ENTER the watch time for each lane. MM calculates the average differential from pad to watch for each lane and applies that average differential, in this case 12.06 seconds, to each primary time. PRINT this report for your records.

HEAT MALFUNCTION MANUAL or LATE START TO TIMING SYSTEM

ACCEPT ADJUSTED will bring up this Warning! Select YES to continue and MM will place the adjusted time in the FINALS TIME portion

• f the run screen. Double-check to make sure Order of Finish remains the same.

QUIZ QUESTION #2

If there are two watches on each lane, how do you know which watch to use in the CALC screen for the Heat Malfunction?

USA Swimming Rule 102.24.4B: (1) If two of the three button or watch times agree, that shall be the time for that timing system. (2) If three valid buttons or watches disagree, the time of the intermediate button or watch shall be the time.. (3) If only two valid button or watch times are available, the time shall be the average… (4) If only one button or watch is available, the time of the button or watch shall be the time…

HEAT MALFUNCTION NO Electronic Times – ONLY Watches

In this scenario there was a complete malfunction of the Electronic Timing System. The ONLY times available are the manual watches from the Timers and an Order of

• Finish. Generally, Timers will get a late start on the watch and may stop the watch

early due to anticipating the finish. Thus, watch times have to be adjusted for both a late start and early finish. (Note: this adjustment value can be reduced to a minimal value if the timers are properly briefed to “react” to the finish i.e. see the touch then stop the watch!) To do this, you will need to calculate the average differential of pad-to-watch times for your timers. Try to select about three to four heats where there haven’t been any timing malfunctions, and use events of similar distances and stroke and the same gender.

HEAT MALFUNCTION NO Electronic Times – ONLY Watches

Get the watch times from those heats and then select the first heat in the RUN screen. Bring up the CALC screen and select SHOW HEAT MALFUNCTION. Enter the watch times for each lane and PRINT the reports. ***DO NOT ACCEPT ADJUSTED for these heats!!! You will alter the valid pad times in your results! Your average differential is -0.09. You will need to ADD that number to the watch times in your Heat where there was the malfunction. (PAD time slower than watch time!)

HEAT MALFUNCTION NO Electronic Times – ONLY Watches

To do that, select the heat in the RUN menu and manually enter each of the watch times as if they were primary times. Select CALC and remove the watch times. Print that report. (There is an option to export that report to Excel if you prefer computer calculations!)

HEAT MALFUNCTION NO Electronic Times – ONLY Watches

Hand-calculate the adjusted Pad time by adding the differential to the watch times. (Only the hundredths times are shown in the example below.)

HEAT MALFUNCTION NO Electronic Times – ONLY Watches

Manually enter the new primary time into the run screen. MAKE SURE the adjusted times are checked to match the Order of Finish. SAVE you’re the Differentials calculations, JUST IN CASE you need them for another heat in that session. But remember, those differentials are only good for that session and with that group of timers. Remember the earlier Quiz?!!!

QUIZ #3

In a Prelim/Final meet a Swimmer set a new National Age Group Record in Prelims, but was seeded in Lane 8 for Finals. Upon returning to the meet for the Finals Session, the Father saw the seeding in the heat sheet and was furious with the Admin Official, demanding to know WHY his swimmer wasn’t in Lane 4 with the fastest time in the country!! What did the Admin Official tell the Father? The Swimmer set the new NAG record in a Swim-Off for 8th place in Finals. While the record is still good, the time simply breaks the tie for 8th place. Remember USA Swimming Rule 102.5.2: …For the seeding of finals, the times used for the swimmers involved shall be the times achieved in their original preliminary heats… The BIG question: Was the Swim-off set up and logged in the Scoring System?

SWIM-OFFS

The intent of a swim-off is to break a tie for a position that would advance from Prelims to

• Finals. Those positions include Places 8, 16, and possibly 24 and 32, as well as any

alternate positions, depending on the number of heats in Finals and assuming Finals is swum in an eight-lane pool. It is also advisable to conduct swim-offs for Places 9, 17, and in the scenario above, 25 and 33, as late medical scratches or other issues could cause advancement of those places. Scratches may eliminate the need for a swim-off. Unfortunately, too often, Swim-Offs are not logged in the Meet Scoring System, such as Meet Manager! Thus, the times achieved are never submitted into SWIMS for those swimmers competing in the swim-off!

SWIM-OFFS

Correct this by setting up a new Event in MM, designated by the Event number followed by a “s” for swim-off. Make sure to designate the event as a swim-off and eliminate any event charges. Double-check the gender, event and distance are correct for the swim-off!

SWIM-OFFS

The next step is to add the new event, in this case #16S, to the applicable Session. That way the swim-off Event will appear in the RUN menu, and the times can be pulled in from the Timing System.

SWIM-OFFS

Once the times are pulled in, select the Event where the swim-off was required. Then Select “JD” for Judges Decision to determine which swimmer will take the LOWER place – in this case, 9th Place. Following these steps will assure the Swimmers’ times will be credited to them in SWIMS, and ensure the proper seeding for Finals.

QUIZ #4

At an LSC Championship long course meet, a swimmer had a breakout 100 Backstroke swim with a time that qualified her for the next Olympic Trials in the event. Her family, coach and teammates were thrilled for her. As the weeks passed, they were all getting more worried because she wasn’t getting credit for that time. As a matter of fact, no one was getting credit! What could have gone wrong? The breakout swim occurred during the backstroke portion of the medley relay. Unfortunately, the relay card went missing during its transit from the lane timer to the scoring operator, and no one followed-up with the coach to get a new card and confirm the participating swimmers. Thus, names weren’t logged into the system and swimmer didn’t get credit for a Trials Qualifying Time. Whenever there’s a missing relay card, take the time to investigate and get the names. We never know how important that lead time might be for a swimmer!

RELAY NAMES

One of the most overlooked operations in the scoring system is the accurate logging of relay names. Once the names are added into the system, and the name of the lead-off swimmer is the most important, SWIMS will automatically credit that swimmer with the time achieved during the first leg of the relay. Check and double-check to make sure you have all the relay cards for each event and the swimmers listed are eligible to swim on a relay for that team. Unattached swimmers cannot compete on a relay, but may become eligible if their 120-day registration occurs during the middle day of a meet.

Drag and drop, or double- click to move swimmers from eligible athletes to the Relay Order box.

QUIZ #5

After looking at the posted Men’s 200m Freestyle Event Results (showing Cumulative splits), a coach came to the Admin Official and wanted to make sure her swimmer received credit in SWIMS for the 100 split time of 48.36. She was thrilled the time would make him one of the fastest in the world this year, and she had no idea he was going that fast! Neither did anyone else at the pool, but the timing system report showed that split time was accurate. How did the Admin Official investigate the accuracy of the split time? The AO spoke with the Deck Referee and Turn Judge and discovered the swimmer in the next heat had inadvertently stepped on the pad while splashing himself, triggering a false

• split. The AO confirmed the issue with the Meet Referee, who agreed the split time had to

be removed from the scoring database. They then spoke with the coach and explained the error.

SPLIT TIMES

It happens all the time – an inadvertent mistake by a swimmer, timer or timing system

• perator records a false and inaccurate split time. Rarely, however, are those split times

removed from the scoring system. They should be, and this is how to do it. In the RUN menu for the questioned Event and Heat, select Splits. That will bring up another box where the inaccurate split time can be deleted, or changed, depending on the timing system operation. WARNING: Make sure due diligence has been done before deleting or changing any times, and only do it with the Meet Referee’s approval.

SPLIT TIMES

To submit a valid Split time into the SWIMS database, first confirm the coach wants the time submitted. In the body of the email sent to Niagara Swimming (Bob Matlack bob.matlack@gmail.com>) with the BACKUP of the meet (shown below), SPECIFY the swimmer’s name, event number and details, intermediate split and time achieved. For instance: “Please enter Ryan Lochte, Event #2, 200m Freestyle, intermediate 100m split of 50.34.”

SPLIT TIMES

REMINDER: If there are no automatic timing pads in use at the “initial distance” (25yds or m in a SC pool or 50m in a LC pool) 3 Timers, each with a watch, become the Primary Timing system for that distance. For the time to be “official” the Meet Referee must:

• Pre-approve the arrangement
• Confirm the timers are fully briefed
• Personally record the three watch times
• Validate the time to be used to create the “official” initial distance time

If an “initial distance” is relying on the touchpad, it remains the primary system and back up watches (1, 2 or 3) should be used in case of a timing system failure at that distance. For backstroke, the Meet Referee should verify with the turn judge that the finish at the initial distance was in accordance with the rules.

FINAL NOTES & THOUGHTS

• When an ERROR repeatedly occurs – FIX the cause!
• Change the malfunctioning pad or button
• Re-educate the Timer on pushing the button or using a watch, and how to get a

better view of the finish

• Don’t change any times in the system after the meet without approval from

the Meet Referee

• While we like to save trees and avoid the cost of paper and printing, a

permanent paper record is a necessary reference

• Save meet documents, including print-outs from timing systems, heat sheets,
• etc. for at least one year, just in case…
• Use Common Sense and Logic when scrutinizing times during a meet.