Is "reaction time" the time between the gun and when your feet leave the block?
If so, wouldn't tall swimmers tend to have slower reaction times? - their hands/body could be ahead of other swimmers while their feet are still on the blocks making their reaction time slower.
Yes, that's how it's measured. The real reason to have this at all, of course, is to judge relay takeoffs automatically.
You're probably right about taller swimmers having slower reaction times. You can't really leave the block until your body is fully extended, after all, and it stands to reason taller swimmers will take longer to do this since they've got more distance to cover to become fully extended.
Yeah, purely using reaction time to judge someone's start is about as useful as evaluating a baseball player's offensive contribution by only stating his batting average.
Is "reaction time" the time between the gun and when your feet leave the block?
If so, wouldn't tall swimmers tend to have slower reaction times? - their hands/body could be ahead of other swimmers while their feet are still on the blocks making their reaction time slower.
Yes, that's how it's measured. The real reason to have this at all, of course, is to judge relay takeoffs automatically.
You're probably right about taller swimmers having slower reaction times. You can't really leave the block until your body is fully extended, after all, and it stands to reason taller swimmers will take longer to do this since they've got more distance to cover to become fully extended.
Yeah, purely using reaction time to judge someone's start is about as useful as evaluating a baseball player's offensive contribution by only stating his batting average.
