Legal ways to cheat

Once when when I was playing around swimming breaststroke backwards after practice, I noticed my coach scrutinizing me and looking thoughtful. Turns out he was trying to puzzle out on what grounds he could dq it! He reasoned that the stroke itself might be legal, but that there wouldn't be any way to legally touch the wall with two hands simultaneously (while still remaining in the ***, hands not going below the waist and moving symmetrically etc) if you were swimming feet first ... I think if you dropped your legs coming into the turn and reached behind yourself simultaneously with both arms you could have a legal touch?

swim backwards. Once when when I was playing around swimming breaststroke backwards after practice, I noticed my coach scrutinizing me and looking thoughtful. Turns out he was trying to puzzle out on what grounds he could dq it! He reasoned that the stroke itself might be legal, but that there wouldn't be any way to legally touch the wall with two hands simultaneously (while still remaining in the ***, hands not going below the waist and moving symmetrically etc) if you were swimming feet first ...

if you are over 5feet 10inches tall you are cheating!!!!! legally that is.

I wonder if one could swim "crawl" backwards, and push off with the feet, and swim the next length forwards. Wouldn't that still qualify as "freestyle?"

Turns out he was trying to puzzle out on what grounds he could dq it! I get that a lot in practice too. :)

Enter with impossibly fast times so you are surrounded by giants who lap you multiple times. Do this at Nationals so you can enter 6 events and swim backwards in all of them.

Shave only the area under your swimsuit.

Wear hand paddles. On your biceps.

I think if you dropped your legs coming into the turn and reached behind yourself simultaneously with both arms you could have a legal touch? i did float this idea by him. His take on it was that if your trunk is prone enough to still qualify as being "on the ***," extending your arms behind you to touch the wall before the rest of your body hit it would break the hands-not-past-the-hip-line rule. I'm not sure if I agree--not sure how the plane of the hip line would be defined if your torso was bent at the waist--but he looked as pleased as someone who had discovered a clever checkmate when explaining this. :) I also wonder if a 3/4 forward somersault with a half twist off the blocks would be a legal start for such a swim. (not hatching plans, just curious ...)

I think if you dropped your legs coming into the turn and reached behind yourself simultaneously with both arms you could have a legal touch?There is nothing in the turn rule that states the hands need to touch the wall first, only that “the touch shall be made with both hands separated and simultaneously at, above, or below the water level” So theoretically, you could touch with your feet, then rotate your body and touch/push off with your hands as long as they are separated and simultaneously at the touch. 101.2.4 Turns and Finish—At each turn and at the finish of the race, the touch shall be made with both hands separated and simultaneously at, above, or below the water level. At the last stroke before the turn and at the finish an arm stroke not followed by a leg kick is permitted. The head may be submerged after the last arm pull prior to the touch, provided it breaks the surface of the water at some point during the last complete or incomplete cycle preceding the touch.