I recently posted a question about racing and received a lot of great answers so here is another question. I am about to participate in my first race (in a pool) and I am worried about being disqualified now. What are some of the common mistakes I need to be aware of? Turns maybe?
Further down the rabbit hole ...
An Individual Medley (IM) event is actually four small races, back-to-back. This has no effect for fly, ***, and free, but for backstroke, it means you have to finish the backstroke leg using a legal backstroke finish, which is to say, ON YOUR BACK. You are not allowed to turn over on your front and do a flipturn, then push off into the breastroke leg, as it might seem natural to do, and as would be legal at the end of any other length of backstroke (except for the finish). It has to be a legal backstroke finish. I've seen several DQ's for this.
Also, on a backstroke start, you are not allowed to curl your toes over the gutter (if a gutter is present). Your toes ARE allowed to be above the water line, but they have to stay on the flat part of the wall.
Thanks for the post, ive been wondering about the back-*** IM turn for over a year and thought that must be the case based on TV coverages from meets. Didn't know about the toes and gutter either.
Touching the bottom of the pool is also prohibited. This can be a problem with poor turns in shallow pools.
As a very young AGer (think about 7-8ish), I got beat in a 25m mixed race in the bay by a friend who was walking on the bottom and making swimming motions on top of the water. I could see her feet while i was swimming, but apprantly the water was sufficently murky that the ref couldn't. My parent's convinced me it would be unsportsmen like to rat her out.
Sounds silly, but make sure you verify the distance and a stroke before getting ready to start. At two meets this year I have seen folks dive in and take two strokes of a different stroke right off the blocks.
This is pretty easy to do, i think. ive seem it at HS meets and usms meets. Think it's not supposed to be sign of Alzheimers unless you for get to swim at all. :)
Further down the rabbit hole ...
An Individual Medley (IM) event is actually four small races, back-to-back. This has no effect for fly, ***, and free, but for backstroke, it means you have to finish the backstroke leg using a legal backstroke finish, which is to say, ON YOUR BACK. You are not allowed to turn over on your front and do a flipturn, then push off into the breastroke leg, as it might seem natural to do, and as would be legal at the end of any other length of backstroke (except for the finish). It has to be a legal backstroke finish. I've seen several DQ's for this.
Also, on a backstroke start, you are not allowed to curl your toes over the gutter (if a gutter is present). Your toes ARE allowed to be above the water line, but they have to stay on the flat part of the wall.
Thanks for the post, ive been wondering about the back-*** IM turn for over a year and thought that must be the case based on TV coverages from meets. Didn't know about the toes and gutter either.
Touching the bottom of the pool is also prohibited. This can be a problem with poor turns in shallow pools.
As a very young AGer (think about 7-8ish), I got beat in a 25m mixed race in the bay by a friend who was walking on the bottom and making swimming motions on top of the water. I could see her feet while i was swimming, but apprantly the water was sufficently murky that the ref couldn't. My parent's convinced me it would be unsportsmen like to rat her out.
Sounds silly, but make sure you verify the distance and a stroke before getting ready to start. At two meets this year I have seen folks dive in and take two strokes of a different stroke right off the blocks.
This is pretty easy to do, i think. ive seem it at HS meets and usms meets. Think it's not supposed to be sign of Alzheimers unless you for get to swim at all. :)
