I know that sounds dumb, but I have never been to a competition and I have no clue what touch pads look like, how much room they take and how low below the water they are situated...Also, can you somehow miss the touch pads when you hit the wall or not press hard enough on them and not stop the clock?And how is it doing turns with touch pads on the wall?Are they not an unwelcome thing to land your feet on at turns?
Parents
Former Member
I run the automatic timing for my granddaughter's team. If you don't hit the pad hard enough you might not stop the clock, but it is a rare occasion that an older swimmer doesn't hit it hard enough... the most trouble comes with the younger swimmers and, as Dorthy said, back and fly events. I wouldn't worry about not hitting them hard enough.
There is a button on the console called split arm. If for some reason you don't hit the pad hard enough during the event the timer, who is watching the swimmers as they come to the wall, can enter a touch for you. However, the timer can not enter a finish for you (have to keep things honest, ya know). And again as Dorthy said, there are stop watches and buttons for back up times. (We have two stopwatches and a button for each lane) If a swimmer doesn't touch hard enough on the finish it shows up on the timing console and the console actually asks if the button time should be used. I make notes on the sheets that go to the clerk of course about button times/watch times, etc.
The one thing that gets to an automatic timing device operator, is a swimmer who hangs onto the pad after finishing the race. Take a breath or two then get out of the pool as quickly as you can.
My advice, just swim, have fun and pretend as if they aren't there. You will have enough to think about without worrying about that. However, if the pad seems to be floating away from the wall you might want to tell an official or get the timing operators attention. Some air can be bled out of it. But most of the time that kinda thing is discovered during warm-up.
Lainey
I run the automatic timing for my granddaughter's team. If you don't hit the pad hard enough you might not stop the clock, but it is a rare occasion that an older swimmer doesn't hit it hard enough... the most trouble comes with the younger swimmers and, as Dorthy said, back and fly events. I wouldn't worry about not hitting them hard enough.
There is a button on the console called split arm. If for some reason you don't hit the pad hard enough during the event the timer, who is watching the swimmers as they come to the wall, can enter a touch for you. However, the timer can not enter a finish for you (have to keep things honest, ya know). And again as Dorthy said, there are stop watches and buttons for back up times. (We have two stopwatches and a button for each lane) If a swimmer doesn't touch hard enough on the finish it shows up on the timing console and the console actually asks if the button time should be used. I make notes on the sheets that go to the clerk of course about button times/watch times, etc.
The one thing that gets to an automatic timing device operator, is a swimmer who hangs onto the pad after finishing the race. Take a breath or two then get out of the pool as quickly as you can.
My advice, just swim, have fun and pretend as if they aren't there. You will have enough to think about without worrying about that. However, if the pad seems to be floating away from the wall you might want to tell an official or get the timing operators attention. Some air can be bled out of it. But most of the time that kinda thing is discovered during warm-up.
Lainey
