There is nothing more challenging for an official than having to DQ a swimmer for a false start: either a dual confirmation done after the heat has been started or for the lone swimmer who goes in all by themselves.
It is a shame that starting early and only gaining, at most, .5 seconds results in the entire race being nullified. I would hate to be the 400 IMer or the 1650 swimmer if that were to happen.
So, instead of nullifying the entire swim, consider a time penalty assessed for a False Start. In either situation that I mentioned in the first paragraph, the swimmer incurs a 5 seconds penalty when the False Start is dual confirmed. The swimmer gets the benefit of the race, albeit with a time penalty.
This could be managed quite easier with a software change in Meet Manager or whatever meet software is being used.
Paul
I wonder if such a change would make matters better, or worse, regarding the perennial question of whether to DQ young summer-league swimmers who's strokes are't legal. I imagine that anyone who has ever officiated a summer league meet, (or any meet with very young swimmers) has felt competing pressures on this issue. Some people say, "DQ them, it is a learning opportunity". Others say, "don't DQ them, it is a waste of time to process the DQ because they aren't scoring points anyway, or it might be hard on them emotionally, or..."
This is all moot speculation though. I too don't see this happening given the effort that would required on many levels to make it happen.
The concept is interesting. I’ll give you more fuel to argue with yourself.
If a swimmer false starts, even by a blink, the swimmer should be disqualified because it’s unsportsmanlike. An overly quick reaction can throw off the swimmers next to them and is deserving of more than a time penalty because their action affected a level playing field. The swimmers on one end of the pool are blissfully unaware. The swimmers next to the offender generally hesitate or jump early as a result of the movement of a swimmer next to them.
Also, in swimming, the judge is supposed to be 100% confident in all DQs. There is no video replay for officials. In all questionable cases, the benefit is supposed to go to the swimmer. If someone really is a barely a flinch too soon off the blocks, is the human eye really going to pick that up with 100% certainty? No.
Also, if you miss the wall and really, truly are missing it by a toenail but you went into the wall with certainty and kicked hard enough to get off of it, there’s going to be a lot of bubbles. If the official can’t see through the bubbles, there’s no DQ because the official can’t be 100% sure if the toenail hit the wall or didn’t hit the wall. So, now we’d be assessing penalties on things were SURE broke the rules, not cases of maybe they did and maybe they didn’t.
Thanks for your thoughts m2tall2 -
The beauty of this proposal is that Officials do NOTHING different than they current are doing. if they are not 100% confident about the rules infraction, they should not make the call. We are in complete agreement in this regard.
The change I propose is that the outcome of the rule infraction is not a DQ that negates the entire swim. A time penalty is assessed that takes place after the DQ is confirmed by the Deck/Meet referee. Since the time penalty is pre-determined, it is built into the meet management software and not subject to alteration by the officials.
Swimmers who intentionally violate the rules can be DQ'd for unsportsmanlike conduct - same as the current rules allow.
To summarize, the way swims are officiated does not change. The officials are not asked to judge differently that they currently do.
make sense?
Paul
Absolutely in agreement,
I have always been a proponent of invoking an adjustment factor so the time is "corrected" to the correct distance.
We do it for altitude, why not for short pools?
Oh, we should do it for long pools too? Our times will get faster. :)
I agree with the short pool time penalty. With bulkhead pools, the pre-meet measurement can be fine and the post meet measurement could be 1cm short. no one knows during that session that all the times don't count. I agree that those times shouldn't be WRs or ZRs, but a 1% adjustment might still get you TT or NQT or whatever your goal is.
Simple solution, without having to adjust times. DQ everyone in the heat that did not win. That would open up some interesting and fascinating training and competition techniques.
There is another thread “Times invalidated because of pool measurement” where I think the time penalty would be a just solution. Let’s say a 25 yard pool is less than 2 inches short (about 0.2%) or a bulkhead was improperly measured, I believe 1% time penalty applied to all times would be much more fair than invalidating all times.
The same could hold true for times invalidated because of failure to properly “Determination of Official Time”. If there was a good time that failed to be properly determined then let the swim count and apply the 1% penalty.
Today for both of these situations the times don’t count, similar to a DQ. And in both of these situations the swimmer is not at fault.
