why doesn't masters apply the same age rule for short course as it does for long course?
In long course meets a persons age is determined by their age by the end of the year.
so at worlds there were 24, 29 , 34, 39, 44, ... year olds
who competed in the next age group up because they aged up later in the year.
In short course competitions a persons age is determined by their age at either the end or beginning of the competition.
I encourage USMS to be consistent and
consider adopting the same rules for short course competitions
Ande
Ande,
how does one go about proposing the to the USMS rule making body?
You may propose any rule changes through your LMSC. Check www.usms.org/.../part6.pdf for specifics. Since Rules were considered this year at convention, they won't be considered again until 2008, with the exception of "emergencies." It's been a number of years since we have had a rule proposal dealing with age determination dates. We used to be consistent for all meets with age determined by the date of the swim like we currently use in yards. However, once FINA went with age as of December 31st, we needed to change our rules for meters to be consistent with FINA rules or else jeopardize records for many of our swimmers. Since FINA does not keep records in yards, there has been no compelling reason to change our rules for yards.
Ande,
how does one go about proposing the to the USMS rule making body?
You may propose any rule changes through your LMSC. Check www.usms.org/.../part6.pdf for specifics. Since Rules were considered this year at convention, they won't be considered again until 2008, with the exception of "emergencies." It's been a number of years since we have had a rule proposal dealing with age determination dates. We used to be consistent for all meets with age determined by the date of the swim like we currently use in yards. However, once FINA went with age as of December 31st, we needed to change our rules for meters to be consistent with FINA rules or else jeopardize records for many of our swimmers. Since FINA does not keep records in yards, there has been no compelling reason to change our rules for yards.
