I assumed that the heat sheet would always be on a deck at a competition. But the heat sheet is gone.
I enjoyed having a heat sheet in my hands. A tangible link to the days order. Every race set out, at hand, with a pen, possibly a highlighter. No, always a highlighter.
I was an endless doodler or note taker. There are so many things going on in each race that I’d try to quickly note something to remember that swim. The upcoming conversation will be soon at hand, but until that happens there will be more races to observe, so quick scratching a note and you’re prepped.
Splits were pretty standard notes on a heat sheet. Even before the display boards arrived at pools, a stopwatch would be in-hand at any time, but a heat sheet was where those splits were recorded. After display boards arrived stopwatches acted as necklaces for nerds… but the heat sheet remained. And splits could be your only link to a race with multiple swimmers, so remembering three sets of IM splits was impossible without paper.
Now the mobile phone spews out live splits, or close to it live (if WiFi was present), so now splits don’t need to be written.
To be honest split taking was something that took my eyes off the race so it’s better with an app display. The heat sheet was essential though for knowing who was in the next race. Whao be the rath of a Swim-Mum if you missed Bethannie’s race.
Paper is the issue. Reams and reams of paper were consumed at any competition. Forests died for swimming. So that soon became too expensive for organisers. The death of the heat sheet followed the time cards.
I am old school though, I still miss the heat sheet.
