Those of you following USA Swimming Nationals will know that several swimmers were disqualified in the 400 IM for violating the "Lochte Rule." Essentially this rule was FINAs response to something Ryan Lochte did at 2015 Worlds. At that competition Lochte kicked on his back off the wall on the free leg of the 200 IM before rotating around, surfacing on his stomach and completing the free leg normally. Lochte wasn't DQ'd for doing this, but FINA quickly reacted and issued a statement that going forward this would not be allowed. FINAs stance is that leaving the wall on one's back constitutes swimming backstroke and the rules for IMs and medley relays state that the fourth leg must be swum in a style not previously swum.
This seems fair enough until you realize that swimmers are taught to push off on their backs on a freestyle flip turn. So how far is too far to be on your back? By the letter of the law if your feet leave the wall while you are past vertical toward your back you should be DQ'd.
I think there are two major problems with this rule. The first is that it becomes a very difficult judgment call for the turn judge and this leads to uneven enforcement. The second is that it requires swimmers to use a different turn technique for freestyle during an IM event versus a normal free event. As we all know, during a race muscle memory takes over.
In my opinion the current rule is a bad rule, but the solution to this is simple. Just remove the wording that the fourth leg needs to be a style different than the first three legs. Almost everyone that wants to competitive will still swim what all of us would consider to be "freestyle" anyway, and if someone really wants repeat one of the other strokes who really cares? With this rule change the two problems I stated above go away.
As a stroke or turn judge, I would have DQed Lochte. I would not have DQed John Thomas Larson, who pushed off on his back but rotated immediately (and likely spent as much time not on his back during his back-back turn, as he did on his back during the free-free turn). Ella Eastin reportedly did at least one dolphin kick towards the back coming out of her free-free turn. Technically more than 1/4 of the race in the style of backstroke in breach of SW 9.1 - but nothing as blatant as Lochte's "I'm faster dolphin kicking on my back than on my front, so how about I swim ~10m of my 50m freestyle leg SDK underwater on my back".
When FINA drafted their interpretation of SW 9.1 following Lochte's non-DQ in Kazan, I wonder if they even thought about how it might impact free-free turns in 400IM or short course 200IM.
As a stroke or turn judge, I would have DQed Lochte. I would not have DQed John Thomas Larson, who pushed off on his back but rotated immediately (and likely spent as much time not on his back during his back-back turn, as he did on his back during the free-free turn). Ella Eastin reportedly did at least one dolphin kick towards the back coming out of her free-free turn. Technically more than 1/4 of the race in the style of backstroke in breach of SW 9.1 - but nothing as blatant as Lochte's "I'm faster dolphin kicking on my back than on my front, so how about I swim ~10m of my 50m freestyle leg SDK underwater on my back".
When FINA drafted their interpretation of SW 9.1 following Lochte's non-DQ in Kazan, I wonder if they even thought about how it might impact free-free turns in 400IM or short course 200IM.
