Split requests seem to be all the fashion lately. I know they're perfectly legal, though I haven't read the rule itself. I'm wondering about them though ... It seems oddly unfair, for example, that a person never (or rarely) swimming open 50s could hold world or national records or #1 rankings in those events. (I'm just saying it's odd, while recognizing it could be perfectly legal.) But, aside from that and further, what if someone really played the system. What if, for example, someone was after a 50 free record. They entered a meet in the 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 free and led off free relays and requested split requests in each event to try to set a record. Is this legitimate or legal? Would a meet director be bound to accept split requests for all these events? Is there a limit? Do meet directors have discretion to deny multiple split requests? I can see a situation where multiple attempts at a 50 might result in a better time ...
I thought 'freestyle' meant exactly that. In other words you are free to do any style you want. Front crawl is the fastest so everyone uses it, but they could equally choose to use any of the other three strokes should they want to. Am I wrong?:confused:
Right. You can do any stroke you want. But it only counts as freestyle. If you do a 400 IM during a 400 freestyle... the officials are only officiating against freestyle rules. They're not watching your 2-hand touch. They're not watching your over-rotation on backstroke turns, etc. They're just officiating freestyle rules.
(Note that in many meets, the officiating setup will actually change for freestyle events. Often, for example, during a 400 freestyle, you'd only have one official at each end, making sure each lane touches the wall. For a 400 IM, you'd need at least 2, and preferably at least 4, officials at each end of an 8-lane pool to properly officiate the strokes.)
-Rick
I thought 'freestyle' meant exactly that. In other words you are free to do any style you want. Front crawl is the fastest so everyone uses it, but they could equally choose to use any of the other three strokes should they want to. Am I wrong?:confused:
Right. You can do any stroke you want. But it only counts as freestyle. If you do a 400 IM during a 400 freestyle... the officials are only officiating against freestyle rules. They're not watching your 2-hand touch. They're not watching your over-rotation on backstroke turns, etc. They're just officiating freestyle rules.
(Note that in many meets, the officiating setup will actually change for freestyle events. Often, for example, during a 400 freestyle, you'd only have one official at each end, making sure each lane touches the wall. For a 400 IM, you'd need at least 2, and preferably at least 4, officials at each end of an 8-lane pool to properly officiate the strokes.)
-Rick
