Hi,
I just read Doug Strong's awesome story from LC Nationals. He had mentioned a previous DQ in the meet for something he thought was very questionable. That reminds me...
Does anyone else think the latest backstroke rule is a little silly? I'm talking about the one where one glides into the wall "too long" on their stomach for the turn. To me, as I mentioned, it just seems silly. (1) I believe the rule says that you must have continuous forward motion into the turn. If you are gliding in, which by the way is not faster, then you are moving forward. I've yet to see one stop completely! And (2) there is definitely no advantage to gliding in for that "moment too long" that is the decision of the official.
I have a feeling that this rule will go by the way of some other rules and be gone in the next few years.
Just some thoughts, and a question :)
Karen
Parents
Former Member
As I understand it, swimmers were starting to do a more sophisticated turn (I tried it a few times, also) to roll and reach over their body, touching the wall when their shoulders were nearly vertical. Is this clear? Imagine you are on your back, and your right arm is starting to recover. It reaches over the body/head, the body rotates to the left, the right hand touches the wall and you flip on the short axis from nearly front down to front up.
As you can imagine a good such turn would be difficult to officiate, as it would be difficult to determine if the swimmer rolled over to the front before or after the touch. This is why the rule was changed, to make it more easy to judge.
Guvnah is right, there is no way the rule will go back to what it was. I don't miss it, I love the 'new' turn, it is fast and easy and may let me beat my old college backstroke times (and 'new' shows our age. I swim with a guy who has done a 2:03 200 m LC back, and he never heard of another type of turn, besides what they do now.)
As I understand it, swimmers were starting to do a more sophisticated turn (I tried it a few times, also) to roll and reach over their body, touching the wall when their shoulders were nearly vertical. Is this clear? Imagine you are on your back, and your right arm is starting to recover. It reaches over the body/head, the body rotates to the left, the right hand touches the wall and you flip on the short axis from nearly front down to front up.
As you can imagine a good such turn would be difficult to officiate, as it would be difficult to determine if the swimmer rolled over to the front before or after the touch. This is why the rule was changed, to make it more easy to judge.
Guvnah is right, there is no way the rule will go back to what it was. I don't miss it, I love the 'new' turn, it is fast and easy and may let me beat my old college backstroke times (and 'new' shows our age. I swim with a guy who has done a 2:03 200 m LC back, and he never heard of another type of turn, besides what they do now.)
