What exactly is the AD doing to rush the meet? Maybe find him a job “that fits his particular skills” that keeps him out of your hair.
Clerk of the Course will leave him tied to a table pretty much the whole time if you have athletes check in, pre-assign heats and lanes (heat sheets) to competitors.
Just to ensure he stays busy, he can also receive result sheets, determine places and pass the sheets on to the scorer.
Having athletes pre-assigned to lanes and heats will speed up both starting races and collecting results at the end without increasing stress.
I’m pretty sure there are smartphone apps that do this, and will give a whole column of split times as fast as you can tap the screen. It might even be the default Clock app in stopwatch mode.
He demands the official to start the next heat(usually an exhibition heat after the varsity heat runs) to go immediately, sometimes before we can even clear the timers and make sure everything is set.
I do have him go move and setup hurdles, but it doesn’t take cafe of him for enough of the time.
The starter should have absolute control over when the next heat starts.
Like I mentioned upthread, just having a proper check-in for athletes and heat sheets/result sheets (if you’re not already doing that) will drastically speed things up at both the start and finish without rushing anyone.
That alone should enable races to go every 2-3 minutes without hurrying. While finish line officials are giving times to the kids, the starter can be giving the next race their instructions.
Do you have sample check-in sheets? My co-coach has a table with each event and the top 3 finishers are handed a card to turn in at that table to record their times/places. She runs the table.
No, our officials are pushed to start heats way too fast. Again, I have no recourse. My last meet was a quad-meet and two teams had way too similar coloring on their uniform and I had a heck of a time keeping accurate scores. Did it, but it was a huge pain. Every meet I have left this year is a dual meet. Only one team that is not mine. Much easier.
1)At “first call”, athletes should check in with the Clerk of the Course.
Same with “second call”.
2)At “final call”, entries are closed. The sheet goes to the starter’s assistant. (You’ll need reliable kids to run sheets around.)
3)The starter calls the next race onto the track, the starter’s assistant is responsible to actually round up the correct group.
4) As the race steps on the track, the sheet goes to the finish line official.
5) When the race is complete, the runners should return to the finish line in their lanes. At the same time each timer will go to his/her assigned lane in front of the runner. Each finish judge will step behind the runner. Starting at lane 1, the finish line official will get time and finish place and record on the heat sheet.
5a) While this is going on, the start line crew is going through steps 3) and 4).
6)Once times and places are recorded, the runners are dismissed and exit the track behind the finish line. The sheet goes back to the Clerk of the Course who verifies the results and passes the sheet to the scorer.
7) Timers reset watches and the Head Timer signals to the starter that the timers are ready.