Why do we keep posting only the metric for field events?

The ONLY place that still uses imperial measurements for field events is high school track in the US. Even the NCAA has used metric for quite a while now. If you follow the sport at the collegiate or international level you get used to the metric numbers real quick. The people that are complaining here obviously don't follow the field events at any level. One season spent converting numbers from metric to imperial and you don't have to do it anymore, you just know that 1.8 meters is a pretty good high jump for a high school boy (or a great jump for a girl), like you used to know 6' was. Florida went to metric for high school field events a couple of years ago I think...anyone from Florida care to chime in? Has it hurt the popularity of high school track and field down there?

I've measured long jump competitions for both high school and college and the imperial measurement system is absolutely asinine for measuring track and field marks. It's ridiculous to be staring at a tape measure and having to write down something like 24' 3 3/4" when I could have just written down 7.41 for the metric equivalent. It literally takes longer to measure things in imperial while you work through the mental gymnastics of dealing with feet and inches and fractions of an inch. If you spent one meet measuring marks in metric you would be a convert, I promise you.

The last thing I would add is in this digital age where nearly all meet results are tracked in meet management software and then uploaded to various databases and websites online, metric works so much better, metric was made for digital. Entering marks for field events in some kind of quasi digital format like 24-3.75 really illustrates how piss-poor the system is in the 21st century.

By the way the latest NFHS rulebook has metric and imperial measurements for everything in it this year (for the first time), the writing is on the wall for imperial measurements in high school. Metric is coming to high school field events in the US, and that will be the end of imperial measurements in track and field forever.

We currently use metric measurements for length/height/distance and imperial measurements for time. Seems like a reasonable tradeoff.

our sport becomes more and more niche, year after year. people who are in the sport will always adapt and continue to be with the sport. but fans matter. they matter a lot. that is where money comes from. they will NOT adapt for you.

we can only hope that whoever is broadcasting the olympics this year is smart enough to post imperial, along with metric measurements.

I say this all as a track guy who doesn't even really care about field events as it is.

If you CAN'T handle metric, you are NOT a fan.

An NBA fan knows exactly how far the 3-point line is from the basket. An NFL fan knows how to judge a completed pass. A soccer fan knows how offside works.

An athletics fan knows how high 2.30 meters is, and how far 60 meters is. Look, there's the track right next to it with 100 meters marked off.

Do you mean an NBA fan knows how many FEET the three point line is from the basket and how many YARDS a team gained by completing a pass?

CO Coach wrote:

The people that are complaining here obviously don't follow the field events at any level. One season spent converting numbers from metric to imperial and you don't have to do it anymore,

It's ridiculous to be staring at a tape measure and having to write down something like 24' 3 3/4" when I could have just written down 7.41 for the metric equivalent.

1) Correct! I no longer follow field events nearly as closely as I once did because metric distances mean little to me. You are making my point: Convert metric marks to imperial in the software and list both FOR ONE SEASON as you suggent and most likely it will not be needed anymore.

2) I am not suggesting you measure imperically, just list the conversion in results in parenthesis after the recorded metric mark. Software can do this easily.

This is NOT difficult at all, but seems to be another "we are smarter than you and in control" moment by the governing body to turn their back on fans then b*tch about decling interest and influx of $.

Bad Wigins wrote:

If you CAN'T handle metric, you are NOT a fan.

An NBA fan knows exactly how far the 3-point line is from the basket. An NFL fan knows how to judge a completed pass. A soccer fan knows how offside works.

An athletics fan knows how high 2.30 meters is, and how far 60 meters is. Look, there's the track right next to it with 100 meters marked off.

the kind of "FAN" you are talking about is not the kind of "FAN" that drives popularity and revenue. not everybody has to be a die hard.

Someday Americans will catch up with the rest of the world.

The Canadians did it. Why can't the Americans?

That's exactly what they do when they publish results in the NCAA and at USATF nationals, and when they display marks on their fancy digital boards by the field events at many college meets, they show both. Have you been to a college meet lately or looked at the results? They already do exactly what you are asking for. You can look at the USATF results from Indoor Nationals that finished yesterday, they published the field event results in imperial and metric, in fact looking at the videos and pictures from the meet, it looks like they displayed field event results on digital boards that had metric and imperial measurements in real time, so I don't think you can blame USATF for "trying to kill the sport" at least in this one case:

Every article and results that USATF publishes uses both metric and imperial, here's one from Friday:

Looks like we have a new national record in the women's triple jump of 14.64 meters or 48' 1/2".

So what is it exactly that you are complaining about?

Are you upset that people keep posting Mondo's new pole vault records on this board in metric? Those marks were set and published in Europe, there's no reason for them to publish them in both metric and imperial. Why should posters have to do the conversion for people like you? Take the 5 seconds to do it yourself, or here I'll do it for you real quick:

In fact maybe that can be a service you can offer this board, a follow up post with imperial conversions every time a thread is started about field events with only metric results. It would take you less time than the time you've spent complaining about this so far.

Where people like you are eventually going to suffer is at places like high school meets, because when they start measuring and recording metric marks, they will be calling out the marks in metric, and you'll have to sit there and convert it in your head until you get used to the new measurements. Sure once the results are published they can easily display both, but if you want to follow an event in real time you'll eventually have to get comfortable.

But lets be honest, you don't go to meets and you don't follow field event results. If you did this would be a non-issue for you.

Are there people on this thread who are genuinely proud of themselves because they don't understand the metric system?

Even Bad Wigins can figure it out and he's not an intelligent person. You people must be pretty close to having profound learning difficulties.

Just wanted to give a shout out to the people contributing to this thread.

I had to smile more than once.

trollism wrote:

Are there people on this thread who are genuinely proud of themselves because they don't understand the metric system?

Even Bad Wigins can figure it out and he's not an intelligent person. You people must be pretty close to having profound learning difficulties.

it's not about intelligence or understanding. It's about familiarity and comparative context. and people have short attention spans for things they are not invested in.

high school xc coach wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

If you CAN'T handle metric, you are NOT a fan.

An NBA fan knows exactly how far the 3-point line is from the basket. An NFL fan knows how to judge a completed pass. A soccer fan knows how offside works.

An athletics fan knows how high 2.30 meters is, and how far 60 meters is. Look, there's the track right next to it with 100 meters marked off.

the kind of "FAN" you are talking about is not the kind of "FAN" that drives popularity and revenue. not everybody has to be a die hard.

Exactly how are these fans driving revenue? If it wasn't for European meets there would be no professional track and field. If anything we should be bending over backward to make American track and field more accessible for Europeans, they seem to be the only paying fans our sport has.

If you are talking about the casual fan in the US that tunes into the Olympics every four years? You can be confident NBC will continue to convert field event marks into imperial measurements for them during the 5 minutes of coverage the field events get, for many decades to come.

high school xc coach wrote:

it's not about intelligence or understanding. It's about familiarity and comparative context. and people have short attention spans for things they are not invested in.

^

This!

CO Coach,

I have attended many college meets in the past few years and have not noticed both marks being displayed. I usually sit on the backstretch indoor or out and hardly ever see the boards period. If they are indeed listing both I will be a little more attentive, shut up, and adapt.

I do convert marks in my head but have not seen both matric & imperial listed together enough to make it second nature or familiar as the poster I quoted mentioned. This is my goal, to see metric and not have to think about it to know if it is average, good, or great. Seeing both speeds this process for me.

haha. then that is perfect.

my rant is over. IM OUT OF MY ELEMENT!

Get a piece of paper. Write down the events you're interested in following, Write down some common cut offs, like for high jump, say 2 metres, etc. Do all the conversions. You will soon become familiar with it, it wouldn't take much time at all. Keep writing it down on the paper. Keep that with you when you're watching events, until the numbers become familiar and second nature.

They won't suddenly start displaying imperial measurements when things have been measured using the metric system for decades now,

I much prefer metric. I know it's simply a case of what you're familiar with. With the exception of heights, I've never used imperial measuring so just have no frame of reference really. Don't know what a 25 foot jump would look like. Just completely unfamiliar. But I know what 6 metres is.

crumpolina wrote:

Get a piece of paper. Write down the events you're interested in following, Write down some common cut offs, like for high jump, say 2 metres, etc. Do all the conversions. You will soon become familiar with it, it wouldn't take much time at all. Keep writing it down on the paper. Keep that with you when you're watching events, until the numbers become familiar and second nature.

They won't suddenly start displaying imperial measurements when things have been measured using the metric system for decades now,

I much prefer metric. I know it's simply a case of what you're familiar with. With the exception of heights, I've never used imperial measuring so just have no frame of reference really. Don't know what a 25 foot jump would look like. Just completely unfamiliar. But I know what 6 metres is.

This is what I do when I have to coach Pent!

I believe the goal is to get that casual fan who watches the Olympics every four years to watch a bit more frequently. European fans are not going to buy Millrose Games tickets. Honestly, I don't get why this is contentious except for contentious being what goes on here. What possible problem can there be with marks being given in both measurements, which is what's done at all the "big" meets I've been to?

Did you and the rest of the ignorant crow here ever took basic conversion in grade school? 1 meter 3.28 feet or 39.37 inches? Don't be a parasite and do the math.