At this past weekend's Zone meet I was DQed in my 100 backstroke during my turn. I was told I glided into the wall, of which means that I must either be flipping or making an arm stroke. However the rules:
Upon completion of each lenght, some part of the swimmer must touch the wall. During the turn the shoulders may be turned past the vertical toward the ***, after which a continuous single arm pull or a countinuous simultaneous double arm pull may be used to execute the turn. Once the body has left the position on the back, any kick or arm pul must be part of the continuous turning action. The swimmer must have returned to a position on the back upon leaving the wall.
do not say that I have to be moving, it just says may. I searched the rest of the rules and found no "glide" anywhere in the rules. I do not understand why they told me I must use my arm when the rules state that I may. Is it possible that they used a different set of rules? I was talking to my coach afterwards and was told that many of the officials do kids meets as well and there are some differences. I just want to know why when to me it seems I didn't do anything wrong.
Jim is correct about the continious turning motion. Once you are toward the *** you must have a continious turning motion or you will be DQ'ed.
Also the USA-Swimming (kids meets) and USMS rules concerning the backstroke are the same.
michael
Once you turn on your stomach, you must keep the arm(s) moving as part of the continuous turning process.
If you turn over, kick toward the wall a few feet, and then pull the arm(s) down, you are DQed.
If you pull the arm(s) down, kick into the wall, and then flip over, you are DQed.
If you turn over and you are too far from the wall, you must continuously move the arm (as part of the "turning process") as you kick into the wall. This means pulling the arm down slowly; the turning action must be continuous.
To be safe, you can forget the flip, touch the wall on your back, turn around any way you want, and then leave the wall on your back.
I am not an official, but this is the way I understand it.
There is the letter of the law, the spirit of the law, how the law is enforced, and what the law should be.
The letter of the law: ? (I don't have a clue)
The spirit of the law: You should not swim on your stomach. That means you should either be swimming on your back, or turning. Swimming means going forward by any means on your stomach, so gliding or kicking after you roll over is not allowed, whether a stroke is taken or not.
How the law is enforced: Pretty much according to the spirit of the law, but it is not clear how that happened. In the stroke and turn judge training classes the various phrases of this law are repeated endlessly, as if that will make it clear what they mean. I saw no explanation of what the real intent of the law was, and the method made it appear that the law was *only* intended to disallow glides after the 'turn stroke.'
What the law should be: rewritten. I have heard a couple of coaches make pleas to officials to change the rule to allow a glide, because "no advantage is gained." I don't really buy that argument, but I think it carries weight as long as the spirit of the backstroke law is buried in the confused wording.
Edward,
A couple of things;
First USMS rules are constantly being looked at, so any proposed changes are cheerfully accepted by Leo Letendre and the USMS Rules Committee.
Second, as the rule is interpreted today, it is legal for a swimmer to flip over anywhere in the pool and do a slow arm pull. If this rule would start to be abused, I’m sure we would see a rule change. Also, as mentioned in other posts, disqualifications are based on want the official sees and how they understand the interpretation of the rules. In this hypothetical situation, some officials may not see this as “part of the continuous turning action.”
I would like to also know the rule for an open turn. I probably not would swim backstroke in a meet unless its an Im. But I don't do the new turn that well and prefer to do an open turn in practice and I don't remember how to do the old backstroke flip turn. So, what is the rule on an open turn. Also, what about in Freestyle, its easier for me to swim distance freestyle doing both open and flip turns now because of breathing, so in a race are you allowed to do both open and flip turns going back in forth in a 1000 or 1650 race.
If you are on your back when you touch the wall, you can do whatever you like, as long as when you push off the wall, you are on your back again. You can do an open turn or an old-style flip turn.
If you roll over on your stomach before you touch the wall, you had better be sure that you do not glide, or kick, to the wall. The roll over and touch of the wall needs to be one continuous movement. In other words, part of an obvious turn, and I think doing a turn like that would risk a DQ. It sounds like this is the mistake that Mr. The Head made. I have already discussed how badly worded the rule is and how it leads to confusion.
In freestyle, you can turn anyway you want, open or flip. You can even turn, miss the wall, and swim back to touch or do another flip.
I still don't think I get it 100%. I guess I forgot to say what happened. Obviously for most people your stroke changes a bit when a meet comes around. My backstrock got a bit longer and when I flipped over I was much closer to the wall then I normally am, hench I didn't pull because I would have basically reached out and then been ready to turn. I will also add that not everyone uses their hands to flip, I do not.
Also the rule does say "Once the body has left the position on the back, any kick or arm pull", and they did say I kicked just did not pull. IMHO I thnk the rule needs to be looked at at least a bit, does this mean that if I am a very strong kicker that I could flip over halfway down the pool and do a very slow arm pull?
To Susan:
Can one roll to your stomach and touch without doing a flip, then push off on your back?
I have asked two officials at different meets if this is allowed, and both said yes as long as it is done continuously as the rule indicates.
