At the past 4 Masters meets I officiated (including 2 Nationals), I have observed slower butterfliers completely submerged at some point in the stroke cycle (after surfacing before the 15 mtr mark). Although the swimmer is not attempting to submerge for the purpose of streamline dolphin kicking, their momentum coupled with slow turn-over takes them completely underwater for short periods of time.
The video link - http://vimeo.com/248356962 - shows me swimming slow fly. For brief moments I am completely submerged with no forward propulsion - just resting before the next stroke.
An overly strict, by-the-rules official would be within the rules to DQ a swimmer doing butterfly like the video. It is called "resubmerging after the 15 mtr mark".
This is one of those cases where Masters might need an interpretation of the rule - specific for masters swimmers - that allows for submerging during a stroke cycle provided the swimmer does not perform more than "x" dolphin kicks while submerged.
I know this is an old thread, but an interesting article came up about Yuma, and I thought I'd share it, here. Turns out he actually has been DQ'd before, but only rarely. It does bring up the rule to which it pertains, and actually quotes it, as well:
swimswam.com/.../
Yep, he's definitely toeing that line of legality. But I think when you're at the bleeding edge of performance like that, everybody does it to some extent. Look at breaststroke pullouts, 15m underwaters, back-to-*** IM turns. You train yourself to skirt the right side of that edge so that it's automatic, and that takes a lot of the risk out of performing that way in a race.
This doesn't apply to *most* Masters swimmers... though my breaststroke pullouts tend to get a little questionable when I get tired.
I know this is an old thread, but an interesting article came up about Yuma, and I thought I'd share it, here. Turns out he actually has been DQ'd before, but only rarely. It does bring up the rule to which it pertains, and actually quotes it, as well:
swimswam.com/.../
Yep, he's definitely toeing that line of legality. But I think when you're at the bleeding edge of performance like that, everybody does it to some extent. Look at breaststroke pullouts, 15m underwaters, back-to-*** IM turns. You train yourself to skirt the right side of that edge so that it's automatic, and that takes a lot of the risk out of performing that way in a race.
This doesn't apply to *most* Masters swimmers... though my breaststroke pullouts tend to get a little questionable when I get tired.
