SW 10.15 No pace-making shall be permitted, nor may any device be used or plan adopted which has that effect.
The topic of having someone give you feedback on your pacing during a race came up in the 1500 Test Set thread. My impression is that pace-making is very common and the rule against it largely unenforceable, but that the rule is there and quite clear. Swimmers may not use devices which help them pace their race and they may not adopt a plan that allows someone on deck or in another lane to help them pace their race.
In the other thread an interpretation was posted, my interpretation of the interpretation was that it dealt specifically with using devices, but that it didn't say pace-making was ok if it didn't involve a device (watch or radio).
Outside of using a device, has anyone ever been DQed for pace-making? If having someone else give you pacing feedback is ok, what is wrong with using a device? Should the whole rule be thrown out?
I am not in any way intending to criticize anyone who has had pacing help, I would love it if it turned out that this was legal, I mean who really wants to swim 60 lengths at what one thought was goal pace only to find out that one has swum a stinky time?
I had my girlfriend as my counter in the 800 free at Nationals and all she would say is yes or no and I knew what that meant. Yes=pace; no=off pace. And quite frankly, no device is going to help me very much in going faster or staying on pace if I am off pace to start with (training problem).
Wow, I never knew there were so many distance freestyle "cheaters.":rofl: I guess one remains naive when one never swims those events ... And of course I already have a volunteer counter for my 50 fly at zones. ;)
I think the watch rule is utterly stupid. Who cares if someone is wearing a watch? Although I will say that I have seen people train with them who are very efficient at peeking at their splits. Not much lost time. And I've heard a lot of piercing whistles at USS meets. In fact, our head coach routinely uses one.
I had my girlfriend as my counter in the 800 free at Nationals and all she would say is yes or no and I knew what that meant. Yes=pace; no=off pace. And quite frankly, no device is going to help me very much in going faster or staying on pace if I am off pace to start with (training problem).
Wow, I never knew there were so many distance freestyle "cheaters.":rofl: I guess one remains naive when one never swims those events ... And of course I already have a volunteer counter for my 50 fly at zones. ;)
I think the watch rule is utterly stupid. Who cares if someone is wearing a watch? Although I will say that I have seen people train with them who are very efficient at peeking at their splits. Not much lost time. And I've heard a lot of piercing whistles at USS meets. In fact, our head coach routinely uses one.
