My son lately always slow down in the back stroke finish. I am frustuauted to see slow down at least 2 sec in the finish touch. He says he is afraid of bumping his head to the wall. I have a couple of questions. It takes him approx 5 strokes (in SCY) from the flag to do back stroke flip turn, is that means he should count 6 to 7 strokes in the finish lap then do the finish stretch (head down & stretch) to touch the wall? Also is it standard length in all pools of the disttance from the flag to the end? What about 25 yd pool and 50 m pool are the flag distance the same in SCY & LCM? Thanks
Parents
Former Member
The USA Swimming rule book says:
Location:
A Long course and short course meters: 5 meters (16 feet 5 inches) from each end of the course, a minimum of 1.8 meters (5 feet 11 inches) to a maximum of 2.5 meters (8 feet 3 inches) above the water surface.
B Short course yards: 15 feet (4.57 meters) from each end of the course, 7 feet (2.13
meters) above the water surface.
C Height shall be measured to the horizontal line from which the pennants are suspended.
So for a given course - the flags should always be the same distance from the wall.
How old is your son? If he is young I would not worry about it too much. Many kids are timid at the wall on backstroke turns and finishes. I think to finish strongly he needs to practice it often so that he can trust his stroke count. He should know that his stroke count might be slightly different when he is tired swimming repeats in practice compared to racing. But I'd say especially on fast swims in practice he needs to concentrate on his stroke count and think about accelerating into the wall, not easing up.
The USA Swimming rule book says:
Location:
A Long course and short course meters: 5 meters (16 feet 5 inches) from each end of the course, a minimum of 1.8 meters (5 feet 11 inches) to a maximum of 2.5 meters (8 feet 3 inches) above the water surface.
B Short course yards: 15 feet (4.57 meters) from each end of the course, 7 feet (2.13
meters) above the water surface.
C Height shall be measured to the horizontal line from which the pennants are suspended.
So for a given course - the flags should always be the same distance from the wall.
How old is your son? If he is young I would not worry about it too much. Many kids are timid at the wall on backstroke turns and finishes. I think to finish strongly he needs to practice it often so that he can trust his stroke count. He should know that his stroke count might be slightly different when he is tired swimming repeats in practice compared to racing. But I'd say especially on fast swims in practice he needs to concentrate on his stroke count and think about accelerating into the wall, not easing up.
