Alcohol works pretty good for getting the surgical tubing on the shafts. It also dries quickly without leaving any sort of residue. Get the tubing started onto the shaft. Hold the shaft and tubing vertical with the tubing pointing up. Fill the tubing with alcohol. Pinch the tubing and push down quickly. The tubing will "inflate" due to the pressure from the alcohol and slip over the shaft with almost no friction. The position of the tubing can be adjusted for a few minutes until the alcohol is all squished out or evaporates.
We forgot to bring some to the practice day so we had the meet organizers make an announcement asking if any other teams had any alcohol. It got some funny looks.
