Last year I swam at a SCM meet and leisurely swam a 400 IM (had a bad cold and feeling lousy). I had been swimming *** for almost 50 years and was astonished when I was told I had performed an illegal turn. The meet was almost over, I was swimming a relay the very next heat, and the referee gave me a prefunctory reply something like I had not completed a stroke before the turn. He disappeared as soon as the meet was over and email to the meet manager failed to get me a definitive answer. I looked at the rule book online and saw nothing in the breaststroke regs that looked even close to it. I decided to not take any chances and glide into the wall instead of taking a short stroke.
Now I was told that another swimmer was DQd last weekend at the Colonies Zone for the same reason. I have looked at the current rule book online and can find nothing about that. Is this an unspoken rule or an old one that has been removed and officials are still using?
Very confusing!
I suppose the language of the rules can be tightened up somewhat. There is no one that I know in USMS that is trying to keep any knowledge of the rules as special or secret, as there are many knowledgable people who will be on the forums to try to answer questions about the rules or how the rules are interpretated.
Sometimes the rules are not as clear as they might seem. Today, one stroke and turn judge and I had a discussion about what constitutes a forward start. She wanted to dq a swimmer for his forward start. We reviewed the rules to see what exactly the rules said. (the swimmer was correct in his start).
I would not confront a referee. I would ask the referee to review a decsion - which is what did the Stroke and Turn judge see; where was the stroke and turn judge; what does the rule say (what is the infraction). All referees will review a call with the judge, even if he saw the infraction himself.
In swimming the standard is to give the swimmer a benefit of the doubt so that if under the rule the swimmer could have possibly correctly swam the event the swimmer will not get a dq.
If you feel the call was made incorrectly you can protest the call to the head referee. (If you protest a call at a FINA meet, it has to be in writing and will cost you about $75.00 - much better to ask for an interpretation - which costs nothing).
I am guessing, but I think the reason that the referee has the final on judgement calls, is that people want to quickly resolve questions about dqs and do not want to go to the hassel of calling a protest committee . The swimmers want to get the question resolved then get the awards and move on
In Pacific, I dont know of any meet referee who has less than 12 years experience, and we have some who have over 25 years experience. It kind of works that if we dont think the ref is going to do a good job then we dont ask them to be a referee.
michael
(national championship certified official
former member of rules committee
member championship committee
chairman pacific masters swimming
frequent meet referee at pacific masters meets
and trying to get rid of all the inside knowledge)
I suppose the language of the rules can be tightened up somewhat. There is no one that I know in USMS that is trying to keep any knowledge of the rules as special or secret, as there are many knowledgable people who will be on the forums to try to answer questions about the rules or how the rules are interpretated.
Sometimes the rules are not as clear as they might seem. Today, one stroke and turn judge and I had a discussion about what constitutes a forward start. She wanted to dq a swimmer for his forward start. We reviewed the rules to see what exactly the rules said. (the swimmer was correct in his start).
I would not confront a referee. I would ask the referee to review a decsion - which is what did the Stroke and Turn judge see; where was the stroke and turn judge; what does the rule say (what is the infraction). All referees will review a call with the judge, even if he saw the infraction himself.
In swimming the standard is to give the swimmer a benefit of the doubt so that if under the rule the swimmer could have possibly correctly swam the event the swimmer will not get a dq.
If you feel the call was made incorrectly you can protest the call to the head referee. (If you protest a call at a FINA meet, it has to be in writing and will cost you about $75.00 - much better to ask for an interpretation - which costs nothing).
I am guessing, but I think the reason that the referee has the final on judgement calls, is that people want to quickly resolve questions about dqs and do not want to go to the hassel of calling a protest committee . The swimmers want to get the question resolved then get the awards and move on
In Pacific, I dont know of any meet referee who has less than 12 years experience, and we have some who have over 25 years experience. It kind of works that if we dont think the ref is going to do a good job then we dont ask them to be a referee.
michael
(national championship certified official
former member of rules committee
member championship committee
chairman pacific masters swimming
frequent meet referee at pacific masters meets
and trying to get rid of all the inside knowledge)
