NFHS Bans Pace Lights for Sanctioned events

Now that the NFHS has banned pace lights......you would think they would move onto something more meaningful like banning biological males from female competition

NFHS don't have the legal authority to do that. That decision is made by politicians and judges.

It's true this will hit those 10s of high school meets that rely on pacing lights and adult pacers for state high school-certified races.

Oh so many state qualifiers and state championships are terribly disrupted by this—it's terrible, I say!

In all seriousness, the kinds of runners who would benefit from pacing lights and pacers are already running non-NFHS certified races, and that's fine. Absolutely fine. NFHS rules don't prohibit that (although some state sanctioning bodies limit non-school competitions in season.)

I don't think any state have their state qualifying meets using pacing lights or pacers; nor do they have their state finals using these. And, to be frank, that's all NFHS certification would affect.

However, I imagine there are some states that have qualifying standard to be able to either make it into state qualifier meets, or the state meet itself—so that may be relevant, I suppose. Even so, again, the kids who would truly benefit from pacing lights or adult pacers still won't have to worry but for catching an NFHS certified meet to get a time. And the ones who might benefit in the sense of being able to get that extra second or two? I mean, find a faster fellow high schooler—one of those elite already at the non-NFHS meets like The Circuit or Nike/New Balance/Adidas Indoor Nationals or whatever—that can pace you.

The thing that cheeses me off about NFHS rules is that there are still plenty of officials in cross country or track that take these gonzo views on when GPS watches can and cannot be used, despite clear guidance in the dang NFHS rules.

The timekeepers complain that it blocks their results because kids cross the line while trying to stop their watch, blocking their view of the numbers . . . uh, okay. Except many non-watch stopping movements will do the same, and you can always just tell the kids not to stop it until they are in the finishing shoot or well past the line.

Then there are the anti facepaint/glitter brigade officials! Good lord, had one official tell a high school girl wearing bog-standard makeup that had glitter worked into it that she was wearing facepaint and would be DQed if she didn't remove it. Another who took the view that ANY makeup was face paint. Another who told an athlete to remove their eyelash extensions as "face paint" but let a male runner run with "FU [RIVAL]HS" painted on his cheek.

Reminds me of when I used to run, back in my day, in the snow, up hill, both ways, around a cinder track with gale force winds blowing down both straights and across the curves.

I will say it has improved, in all seriousness—saw one kid in XC back in my HS days prevented from running because he was wearing fancy glasses that sparkled, and that was "jewelry," and another kid with a hair tie tying back his long hair prevented from running because, you guess it, that counted as "jewelry." WTF.

Aaaaaaaannnnnd this became a rant against HS officials, lol. Most are lovely folks, really, who do a thankless job. Some are jerks who bring their views on what society should look like (them, of course!) into their decisions.

(Gah, that story of the HS wrestler who was forced to shave his head by a racist ref a few years ago before he could compete in a match? Seriously, if the NFL was the No Fun League, then sometimes NFHS can be the No Fun Here Sports group.)

That's true. After all, the millions of biological males running in female competitions has become an epidemic. I mean, puberty blockers are the new PED. They have such an advantage with all those meds they're taking, and they've taken over the podiums across the nation.

It's important we prevent kids from participating in sports when they're different. Gotta make sure they stay in the background.

Soooooo important. I mean, more important than high oil prices, rampant inflation, downturn in jobs numbers, a war that is an excursion is a not-war war with Iran, and masked paramilitary folks shooting US citizens to death.

On top of that, I think it's important that women competing in Olympic Sports be forced to take tests to prove they're women. I mean, men shouldn't have to do that, but the women should have to do so. And they need to pay for the dang tests for the privilege of participating in sports!

These are the most important issues of our times. THE. MOST. IMPORTANT.

How else will we white males know who we're dealing with?

There are some differences of opinion and practice around high school records. In my state, the state high school association treats as the 'state record' the best mark or time ever at the state championship meet. Performances at all other meets in our state are not considered to be records.

The basic question, then, is 'you say this is a "record." What is a record?' I believe that NFHS national records must be set in a high school athletes only event. Results in a race with other than high school students may be the best mark ever 'by a high school athlete.' But NFHS treats those results as not a record because it wasn't a high school event.

As an official, I have signed off the paperwork on four national records. There is a process that has to be followed for a record to be recognized by USATF/WA, which now includes drug testing and shoe checks. You don't see those record requirements at the high school level and as a result, you may find different results reported as a record in the same event.

I havent heard is the TEN still going to use pacing lights? Also, Trabuco has used them in the past for high school meets so i think they were planning on it too.

Ummm.. ever heard of Joshua Cheptegei? His 5k and 10k world records were some of the most evenly paced races in history and those are world records.

I am definitely for it, as well as checking shoes in on the day of a major championship meet at the college and professional levels.

Heres how you deal with non sense bureaucracy from now on. Do what you want. If you want to have pace lights. Have them. Nobody cares. Nobody.

Does Lutkenhaus get a pass on the pacing adults when he can beat all of them? Or does this mean he has to be in the lead all the way when he races?

High school runners are in school, and school is supposed to help students gain an education and learn things. Participating in high school athletic competitions is part of that education.

A big part of running, especially for young distance runners, is learning how to properly pace themselves using things like learning to control excitement/adrenaline, gauging perceived effort, running their own race, understanding one's current fitness level, etc.

Blindly following pace lights can interfere with that educational practice.

Also some High School Athletic Associations use a certain number of top time performances to decide which athletes qualify for the state meet. Not all high school tracks and track meets will have pace lights. Athletes participating in meets with pace lights could use them to gain an unfair technological advantage for qualification over athletes that did not participate in meets with pace lights.

"Slight variations" in pace is technically better, but it only makes a small difference vs a perfectly even pace the entire race.

For example, let's say that someone wants to run a 4:40 1600, and they run a perfectly even pace of exactly 70 seconds per lap, which gives them a 4:40. If they had run with the "slight variations" approach, they could run splits of around 69, 71, 71, 68, which would give them a 4:39, instead of a 4:40.

In some situations that extra second wouldn't matter much, and in other situations it might make an important difference, such as if they needed to run sub 4:40 to qualify for an important race, or if their school record was 4:40 and they were trying to break it.

Keep in mind that pacing lights only limit the "settling in early" part. The "closing hard" part is not limited by pacing lights, because near the end of the race everyone can ignore the pacing lights and kick as hard as they can, regardless of what the lights are doing.

The ideal situation would be pacing lights that go about 2 seconds faster the first lap, and then even pace the rest of the way. Near the end of the race each runner can decide on their own when to start ignoring the lights and start kicking.

One meet that really likes pacing lights is a meet happening tonight, The TEN. I wonder if they will set the pacing lights to be slightly faster during the first lap?

1) it’s discus, only one ‘s’

2) I’d rather watch races than paces and ok with World Athletics does the same

That was a really bad post. You can set wavelights to change paces, negative split, etc.

The wavelight's most valuable use is making sure the rabbits don't mess up the pace. We've seen so many record attempts over the years where high school rabbits completely mess up.

lol

Oy vey, a “… dear fellow people” guy shows up. If you’re not familiar with the memes, look them up. This guy is a hairy bolshie that likes to pretend his bunch isn’t white and is better than everyone, while projecting that behavior on anyone else who’s white. Disingenuous prattle.

Kansas City Relays is an NFHS-sanctioned meet that was planning on having pace lights.

Imagine blowing your wad on pacing lights for your HS meet only to have them banned.

Were the HS races at the Ten NFHS sanctioned? It's my understanding that all state associations follow the NFHS rules, so if it was a NFHS or state sanctioned meet then in theory the lights are banned.

But again this is a rules interpretation that came out mid-season. What committee met on this to determine this outcome?