USMS Suit Rules
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Suit Debacle - USMS Convention Edition
**UPDATE: Click here for a scan of some of what was voted on
Ok so I just got out of the final meeting of this year's house of delegates. The last action item was, dun dun dun.... swimsuits. It finally happened. Up until this point hardly anyone mentioned it, it was like bringing up religion or politics in casual conversation... not a good idea. Once the floor opened up the comments got pretty hot for a little while.
2 major things went down here but I will forewarn you that all this may be completely meaningless depending on how things go down next week with the FINA Masters Technical Committee.
1st off, the USMS rules committee proposed suit restrictions. THIS IS A RECOMMENDATION NOT A RULE!!! The short version is men and women get the same suits, shoulder to knee in textile (the definition of which is tbd). Zippers and drawstrings are allowed. Modesty suits are still ok and taping is only allowed for medical reasons.
2nd we voted on how long to keep suits in regards to short course yards season. In case you forgot we're the only country that bothers with SCY. The 2 choices that people were voting for were:
1. dropping the tech suits as soon as the FINA Masters swim wear rule is adopted
2. Keep tech suits for SCY until June 1st (when SCY season ends) or later if FINA adopts no standard.
The vote was much closer than I would have expected. 101 to 93 in favor of dropping the suits earlier rather than later. Boo. I still think FINA has plenty of flip flop left in it and this was probably a whole lot of fighting for nothing. We'll see how it goes down. From what I understand we still get to ride out the rest of SCM season in techsuits.
More info will be coming out on this in the next couple of weeks, but I want to remind you all again that this still doesn't mean anything per se. There are a lot of variables floating around, but I wanted to share what's gone down so far.
Argue amongst yourselves, I have a banquet to get to!
from
www.robaquatics.com/.../suit-debacle-usms-convention-edition.html
Ok. Now I'm thoroughly confused.
I could have sworn I read on these boards yesterday or Sunday that USMS was going to ban the tech suits on 10/1/09, that we could only wear jammers to the knees.
One thing I learned early on re: some posts on this board, Carlos, is that they may not be correct. I saw the same one you're referring to and decided to let it pass. Some folks get USMS and USAS confused.
I hope
1) USMS suit rules for LCM & SCM match FINAs &
2) we get to wear full body B70's all SCM season
I think Masters should conclude both SCM and SCY seasons in current suits as some swims have already taken place with them in various parts of the country regardless of what's decided by other governing bodies. That would be the end of December, 2009 for SCM and end of May, 2010, for SCY.
Ok. Now I'm thoroughly confused.
I could have sworn I read on these boards yesterday or Sunday that USMS was going to ban the tech suits on 10/1/09, that we could only wear jammers to the knees.
Well, I agree that complying with the "elite" rules would have been for the best...
If you don't own one, knock yourself out, zipper and all. Took me all of 30 seconds to find. Buy it and be one of the happy few.
I'd rather not since we still may end up following FINA "elite". I'll play it safe and stick with the recordbreaker!
AND what is the likelihood that companies will be making kneeskins for men or suits with zippers? Obviously the "do nothing" option and the so-called "compromise" are most advantageous to those currently owning suits!
Well, I agree that complying with the "elite" rules would have been for the best...
If you don't own one, knock yourself out, zipper and all. Took me all of 30 seconds to find. Buy it and be one of the happy few.
Thank you...though still a little confused, it sounds like its fair game until someone tells us otherwise. It also sounds like half a dozen decisions could reverse themselves over the next 12 months and that any meet should be approached with, "if it looks legal, it probably is...but bring an extra suit just in case."
Happy Holidays!
Rob
The meeting in Jan 2010 is the FINA Bureau.
Nancy Rideout is on the FINA Masters Technical committee that already met in July 2009. They made recommendation to follow the "Swimming" swimwear guideline for Masters Swimming.
It is anticipate the Bureau will approve this recommendations, but often these "rule changes" have 60-day implementation period ( so it could be mid-March or later) or FINA could decide to implement as soom as practical or they could wait for the end of the FINA season (31-Dec-2010).
.
Once FINA make a formal decision about Masters swimwear, then USMS will react. First, to comply with FINA rules for swimwear in meters (SCM and LCM) event. Second, they will decide when or if to apply these rules to SCY, as FINA does not recognize this format.
At convention, the house of delegate was split on what makes sense for USMS with SCY ( waiting for the end of a SCY season or implementing quickly).
Hope this does not add to your confusion. Basically, we don't know what will happen until mid-January 2010 nor when/if any swimwear restriction will be implemented.
Anthony Thompson, MOVY Masters
