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 pads are Evil. There should be a different category of records for swim meets that use pads as they reduce the length of the event by approximately .005 yards (or .0044 meters) for every length. That's just absurd. With touch pads it shouldn't be advertised as a 100m SCM Freestyle, it should be 99.9824m. Bah.
Wrong... As part of hosting a sanctioned meet, USMS requires that the pool length be measured. The thickness of the touch pads must be taken into account. If the touch pads are in place, a 25M pool must measure a minimum of 25 meters from touch pad to wall. If the touch pads are not in place when the pool is measured, the pool must measure at least as much longer as the thickness of the pads.
I have measured many of the pools in our LMSC over the last several years. None of them have come up short, or even close to it. In fact, I've been surprised at how "long" many pools are (as much as a couple of inches, in one case).
Anna Lea
Touch pads are Evil. There should be a different category of records for swim meets that use pads as they reduce the length of the event by approximately .005 yards (or .0044 meters) for every length. That's just absurd. With touch pads it shouldn't be advertised as a 100m SCM Freestyle, it should be 99.9824m. Bah.
Wrong... As part of hosting a sanctioned meet, USMS requires that the pool length be measured. The thickness of the touch pads must be taken into account. If the touch pads are in place, a 25M pool must measure a minimum of 25 meters from touch pad to wall. If the touch pads are not in place when the pool is measured, the pool must measure at least as much longer as the thickness of the pads.
I have measured many of the pools in our LMSC over the last several years. None of them have come up short, or even close to it. In fact, I've been surprised at how "long" many pools are (as much as a couple of inches, in one case).
Anna Lea
