Four years ago, I introduced a free software package called Bob’s
Swim Tools for Hy-Tek, which consists of a small collection of
utilities that can be used by TSA teams which own Hy-Tek’s swimmer management
program, Team Manager, or its companion product for running swim
meets, Meet Manager.
This year I am releasing a revised version of this software,
now renamed to Bob’s TSA
Tools for Hy-Tek. Teams who compose their entries for a dual
meet in Team Manager as described in this
document can use Bob’s TSA Tools to automate various pre-meet chores that
formerly had to be done by hand. Teams which own both Team Manager and Meet
Manager will be able to perform even more meet preparation tasks. As before,
the software is still completely free of charge.
The components of this package include:
Event Entry Form Generator
This feature frees coaches from the tiresome task of
manually transcribing all their main event entries (up to 138 swimmers in
individual events and up to 240 swimmers in relay events) to the pink and blue
event entry forms used during TSA meets. Instead, the tool will generate those
forms online automatically from a team’s meet entries in the span of only a few
seconds. The online forms can then be printed on sheets of blue and pink paper
to create the physical forms that will be used in the meet by the Clerk of
Course and Recorder.
Swim Up Form Generator
This feature produces a pair of forms, one for boys and one
for girls, listing all the “swim up” athletes entered in any of their
respective gender’s ten relay events, suitable for presentation to the opposing
team’s TSA Representative as required by TSA rules. These forms are combined
with the event entry forms described in the previous section so that they can
be printed along with them, using the half-sheet of blue or pink paper that
would otherwise be left over after producing 33 event entry forms for each sex.
Event Entry Error Checker
This feature examines a team’s meet entries and produces a
report enumerating any violations of TSA rules it finds in entries for main
event heats. Examples of such violations include athletes who are entered into
too many main events and relay teams which include illegal “swim up” athletes;
a full list can be found in the instructions.
Coaches and other team personnel can use this feature to check their initial
meet assignments and apply corrections as necessary before settling on their
final entries.
Three Options for
Producing Heat Sheets and Kid Pusher Reports
The previously described features require only Hy-Tek Team
Manager and Microsoft Excel as prerequisites. If your team also owns a copy of
Hy-Tek Meet Manager, you will be able to take advantage of another feature of
Bob’s TSA Tools: the ability to seed meet entries, from one or both teams, and
import those seeded entries directly into Meet Manager. You can then use Meet
Manager to generate any desired meet paperwork, including heat sheets, kid
pusher reports for specific age groups, timer sheets, etc. This paperwork will
automatically identify swimmers both by name and by the swimmer ID number they
are “tattooed” with during meets: “Doe, John (301)” instead of just “Doe,
John”, for example. A separate set of seeded meet entries without the appended
swimmer IDs will also be generated, and can be used to run the meet itself in
Meet Manager if the teams participating in the meet opt to employ an automated
timing system.
There are three seeding scenarios:
1)
Unseeded: If you have meet entries only for your own
team, but no information about the other team, the “seeded” entries produced by
Bob’s TSA Tools will facilitate mustering your team’s heat swimmers in the
traditional TSA dual meet fashion. Your team’s main event (Heat 1) assignments
will not be affected, but all other swimmers will be assigned to fake lane
numbers (starting at Lane 21) in a single fake heat (Heat 99), in order of
their seed times. This will allow those swimmers to be lined up in order from
fastest to slowest and deck-seeded by the Clerk of Course into actual heats and
lanes in real time, as in a standard TSA meet.
2)
Semi-seeded: If you have meet entries for your own
team and also know how many swimmers the other team plans to enter in each
individual (non-relay) event, Bob’s TSA Tools will generate a set of mock
entries representing the other team and then fully seed the meet as in the
final scenario below. Useful heat sheets, kid pusher reports and other meet
paperwork can then be generated for your team, though not for the opposing
team.
3)
Fully seeded: If meet entries for both teams are
available, Bob’s TSA tools will seed Heats 2 and beyond for all individual
events according to TSA rules (a capability not offered by Meet Manager’s own
native seeding mechanism). In this scenario, useful heat sheets, kid pusher
reports and other meet paperwork can be generated for both teams, not just your
own.
Prerequisites
Bob’s TSA Tools for Hy-Tek require Excel 2003 or later on a
computer running Windows XP or later.
Your team must have access to Hy-Tek Team Manager (any
version) and, optionally, access to Hy-Tek Meet Manager, but these need not be
on the same system where Bob’s TSA Tools will run. However, it is more
convenient if they are installed on the same computer.
To Get the Software
Simply
download this file,
unzip it, and follow the instructions.
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