Most athletes in a flight that went ok

At Glasgow Lands we had 23 athletes total, including 9 Ams, 3 lightweights, 7 masters, and 4 women.  That was a long day, even though we ditched HWFD and light hammer along the way.

Using the patented Dana Florence Accelerator helped a lot:  we ran each class through a given event bang-bang-bang, which kept people focussed on their throwing and moving quickly.  This also shortens up the time spent with warmups, because one class can be throwing while another warms up.

This really was too many people to be running through just one trig.  I'd like that games to be even bigger next year, but I'll have to split it into 2 trigs for at least some events.  We may stick with a mere 6 events, because that seemed to go well with the hot weather.

-Wayne

Cedar Rapids runs one flight; last year was 13 people -- Masters, A through Novice all at once: 2 stones, 2 WFD, Sheaf, Caber & WOB  No Hammer.  It ran well but any more people than that and it would have been to long. 

 

From personal experience and athlete feedback I have found that an ideal flight size is 10 to 12 athletes.  At Portland we ran 7 classes (Pro, A,B, C, Women, Masters, Novice) with 10 - 12 athletes each, using multiple trigs.  We have the benefit of a huge field.  Started at 9am and we were done by 5 pm including the Amatuer challenge caber.  The Pro challenge Caber is in front of the grandstands at 5:30pm.  Everything is mapped out in advance: which trig they are in, what event they are doing, what time, etc.  We put the implements out at each trig in the Morning.  It's a three-ring circus times 3!  Pretty cool to see up to four cabers turning at once.

Hey-

We generally shoot for 8 athletes per flight. It requires more equipment, but it keeps things more aggressive between throws. Large numbers of throwers causes so much down time that it tends to let guys ease off the pedal between throws.

We can throw down 5 trigs, plus 3 or 4 sheaf standards, or more if we get a large number of throwers. At MWC03 for example, we had 4 hammer cages, 5 sheaf standards and 6 trigs for 80some athletes.

-AncientOne

The Queen wrote: Pretty cool to see up to four cabers turning at once.

I have to admit that was a first for me to see 5 groups doing caber, and safely may I add, and yes, there were 4 cabers in differing processes of turning alot of times during the competition.

At one time I happened to look across the field, and all 5 cabers were standing. . .  either being picked, running or turning.

A treat to see!!!

seckmrl wrote: ...but when we had to put the scores together it was really tough...

Using a computerized scoring program makes this a piece of cake. You can get Mike North's program or build your own in Access. You can bring your laptop out to the field and have your scorekeeper enter the scores as they come in. The computer puts everyone's scores in order.

Wayne, Try Lori Henderson. Im not sure what program she uses but she has everthing down slick, when it comes to scoring.

Terry Lawson

Thanks Terry, it took me a couple of years to get good at it.  Yes, it is Mike's program.  He is a wonderful person and hope to someday get to Las Vegas to spend more time with him and Diane.  Wayne, I PM'd you about the program.  Part of why it is so fast is that I got a new laptop last year and it makes the printer work like it should.  When I first started using it in 2002 I was using an old IBM, very slow and ask the guys at KC that year who had to stand around and wait for ever for their certificates.  It does help when your processor has made it into the next century!  Mike did a bunch of upgrades too just before MWC in NH last year that has made it more user friendly.

Lori

I was one of the judges for the B's split heats and you have to make sure you use the same exact heights on WOB,(same starting, skipped.....higher is ok) You should also use the same caber judges, back and side, and of course the same caber - tricky if its prone to break. We used (forced) the same side judge but Al and I back judged our own groups - try to avoid this. Then again just avoid splitting classes.