Well my ex started my girls in a country club swim team this summer and I offered to volunteer. They then asked me what experience I had and liked my resume enough to put me in the officials spot. They have not yet sent me any guidelines so I wanted to hear from some here as I know some of you have had kids just starting out.
Some real concerns for me is for instance the 8 and under age group. these are new swimmers and obviously their strok is not legit. *** stroke kicks are mostly all going to be flutter. 2 hand touches (yeah right) etc. I guess I am just worried about either being too relaxed or too strict. The coaches are telling the kids at practice that they will be DQd for flutter kick but still they just can't all get it right.
Any thoughts? Should I just DQ kids that touch the bottom and let the rest go as long as they are making an honest effort. Thanks
In my limited experience with summer club, the rules are the same, but the judging is pretty lenient. Basically, if the kid rolled over on backstroke, was blatantly flutter kicking on *** or fly (making no effort) or any other instances that make you say "ugh," they got a DQ. Even the one hand touches were a 50/50 call based on who was looking. You should talk to your coaches first, though, because each summer league is different, and the caliber of swimmers is also different from league to league.
Just saw this thread, but I'll put in my $0.02. In my son's summer league at least, the judging is no more lenient than in USA-S; indeed, most of the officials are also USA-S officials, and the training is somewhat similar except there is less supervision of inexperienced judges so the quality of officiating is more variable than in USA-S. Since there are (many) more infractions, particularly in breaststroke and in the younger age groups, there is also a greater chance of something being missed.
I'm strongly against being intentionally lenient in summer league; I say this as both a summer league parent and as a summer league coach. Yes there are times when almost every swimmer in a breaststroke heat gets DQ'd. But doing the strokes legally is -- or should be -- a major goal for young/new swimmers in summer league swimming, and being able to consistently do this is an accomplishment that should be celebrated by parents and coaches.
Some of those young swimmers may go on to swim year-round in a USA-S club and officials do them a disservice if they don't use the same standards, IMO.
Its true, if they are going to be judged officially going forwards, it might be best to teach and coach according to the official rules. Just don't be mean or rude. They are still kids!
