Hi Steve:
Did you mean to say high touch pads as opposed to lower touch pads where you can grab on to a gutter for fly and *** and during transitions in the IM events. I believe Michael is correct and sometimes that is an adjustment for swimmers to get used to. I remember the 1989 Pan Pacfic meet was the first time I ever encountered this and sometimes you can slip on those touch pads and back in those days get a DQ in IM events because one shoulder was not level with the other when pushing off the wall. I believe they got rid of that rule sometime in the 1990's and so its been easier to deal with this now. I don't think I have ever been to a masters meet of any kind that does this except the FINA World Championship meets. I think this might be a FINA only rule because I haven't seen it at any other USA National or NCAA meets. Now I could be wrong on this and didn't pay attention. Maybe all off the Olympic Trials meets and Nationals set up the courses like this. Which brings me to another FINA pool set up question. I remember hearing many years ago that FINA would not allow the use of Wave Eater lane markers. I don't know if this is still true or was ever true in the first place. Myabe someone out there knows of this.
The pools have bulkheads at both ends of each pool that extend about a foot about the water surface. I'd bet my life savings that there will be "flat walls."
If you have the opportunity, ask your coach to set up this type of touchpad so you can work on the turns. If you've never done turns on a flat wall before, you definitely need to practice it.
Also, the new FINA rules allow your toes to above the surface on backstroke starts, so you can work on that as well.
My first turn on a bulkhead wall was at my first meet...Mountain View Masters was the location. I made the mistake of not warming up in the main pool which really threw me off when my events came up. Turning off the flat wall was something I had never done but what really messed me up was the markings on the bottom of the pool. This was a SCM meet and I had only swam SCY before this. When I saw the T coming up on the pool floor I was preparing to turn but the wall was nowhere to be found. Then came another T but it was spaced a bit further from the wall than I had anticipated. It was a lot of fun but I learned to always warm up in the main pool if possible...especially in an unfamiliar pool.
Are you saying that in the US it's common at meets to have the tops of touch pads at the water level?
The vast majority of meets in the US have the tops of touch pads at the water level (up to and on the top of the gutter).
Personally I find the yellow and black omega touch pads to be extremely grippy and superb for turning against, much better than most pool walls. The colorado touch pads are more slippery and I agree that this makes *** and fly turns more difficult if they're at both ends. I'd expect there to be touch pads at both ends to record splits every 50m.
I've never seen touch pads mounted any way other than with the top well above the level of the water, like you see in major non-Masters competitions.
Isn't this a "gutterless" pool where water flows over the side edges into slots on the surface for recirculation?
The start/finish ends should have a full width gutter that allows touch pads to be hung just above the water's surface.
When I hear "flat wall" I think of tall walls where there are several inches of surface above the water. I don't think this pool is like that.
Even if the pool is what we call "deck level" over here in the UK, I have only ever seen touch pads mounted in the manner shown in this picture:
www.tribuneindia.com/.../sp6.jpg
Are you saying that in the US it's common at meets to have the tops of touch pads at the water level?
