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?
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Former Member
Touch pad location varies depending on the pool design. The typical high end pool has a gutter flush with the top of the water and the pad is also flush with the water. On other pools - with a flat wall - the pad can be several inches above the water depending on the bracket design that holds them to the wall.
Most pads are not slippery. Like others said - I find they have better traction than tiles.
The touch is missed sometimes in backstroke, and fly/*** when the swimmer touches the lip of the pool (if present) above the pad. But the plunger or backup timer exists for this purpose. The timing system knows how many touches are expected and will notify the operator when a touch was missed. The operator will manually enter a touch which doesn't affect the final time but at least one of the splits will be wrong.
Colorado and Omega are the leading manufacturers. I think they start at $10,000 or so and go up depending on how many pads (6-8 lanes), scoreboard, etc.
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Former Member
Touch pad location varies depending on the pool design. The typical high end pool has a gutter flush with the top of the water and the pad is also flush with the water. On other pools - with a flat wall - the pad can be several inches above the water depending on the bracket design that holds them to the wall.
Most pads are not slippery. Like others said - I find they have better traction than tiles.
The touch is missed sometimes in backstroke, and fly/*** when the swimmer touches the lip of the pool (if present) above the pad. But the plunger or backup timer exists for this purpose. The timing system knows how many touches are expected and will notify the operator when a touch was missed. The operator will manually enter a touch which doesn't affect the final time but at least one of the splits will be wrong.
Colorado and Omega are the leading manufacturers. I think they start at $10,000 or so and go up depending on how many pads (6-8 lanes), scoreboard, etc.
