← Spark & Whetstone · The Pool Deck Is a Maths Room
The printed schedule says when an event should start; the pool decides when it does. Count the heats still to come from your heat sheet, then tap each time a heat dives in. After three taps the page knows how fast this meet is really moving.
Start with the event in the water now: how many of its heats have not started yet? Then each whole event between it and yours. “6 4” means six more heats of this event, then four of the next, then your event.
No heats tapped yet.
Each tap is a heat starting. The gaps between taps are the meet’s real pace — a heat of 50s goes by faster than a heat of 200s, and a slow start or a false-start recall stretches one gap. The estimate is the average gap times the heats still to come, with a range that is wider when the gaps vary and when you have only seen a few. It narrows as your heat comes closer. Tap again when a new, longer event begins and the gaps will catch up.
Heats are seeded from entry times, and the fastest heat usually swims last. At championship meets with heats and finals, the fastest entries are often spread across the last three heats instead (circle seeding), so a fast swimmer can turn up in an earlier heat than you expect. Inside a heat, the fastest seed swims in the middle lane and the rest fan out: in an eight-lane pool the order is lanes 4, 5, 3, 6, 2, 7, 1, 8. An outside lane just means a slower entry time this time.
Nothing on this page talks to a meet app, a results service or anyone else. Your taps stay in this tab and are gone when you close it.