As noted in "Swim Rant" I was DQ'd in the 100 M BR yesterday,after swimming a really great race for me(unfairly I believe.)I was talking to Laura Val who was DQ'd in the 200 BK after a WR time(unfairly she thought).She thought we should have a thread to ventilate,commiserate,etc.Has it happened to you?How did you cope?
I felt like leaving the pool and not competing any more,for about 5 minutes,then I felt really sad for about an hour. Then I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and had a terrible time going back to sleep.Finally I decided to focus my emotions on my next swim.Fortunately for me that worked and I swam a 50 M BR that I was really happy with.If I had swum a lousy 50 I suspect I'd still be in a funk.
So what about you?
By the way,we don't need to limit this to DQs,any meet disappointments that you want to vent about are fair game as far as I'm concerned.
Wow, I have a bunch of DQs compared to all of you. Chris, you've gotten two since you were nine? Holy cow.
in backstroke...
1.) My feet were too far out of the water or something, in the gutter, while waiting for the buzzer (I don't recall the exact infraction).
edit: I just consulted the rulebook (something I should probably do more of, haha) and I see now that this is the relevant part about my backstroke DQ: "Standing in or on the gutter, placing the toes above the lip of the gutter, or bending the toes over the lip of the gutter, before or after the start, is prohibited."
I forgot one DQ one summer when I was in college: DQ for a relay exchange, ***-to-fly (guess which I was?). It was unambiguous b/c the block had those pressure-release timing things.
The backstroke start rule changed in the last 1-2 years, and I'm not sure all starters are up to speed on it. It used to be that no part of your foot could be above the waterline. Now it is that you can't curl your toes over the gutter. Those often amount to the same thing in US pools, but not always.
And they *definitely* do not when "FINA walls" are used (ie, no gutters).
I remember Chris Stevenson's story from 2009 LC nats about getting DQ'd in the 200 back, where he would have won a national championship. Remembering that story helped me feel better about my own insignificant DQ (At nats! In a 1000 free! For the start! And they let me swim the whole race!) Laura Val's story about getting DQ'd for a world record swim has to be the biggest heartbreaker I've heard so far.
So after hearing these stories from the likes of Chris Stevenson and Laura Val and Allen Stark I believe that anyone who's anyone MUST have at least one DQ in their history! I am now proud of my insignificant DQ!
I don't think a DQ is any less significant if a WR or championship is not at stake. Honestly what frustrates me the most isn't the lost records but the fact that both times were my best-ever masters times, things just came together just right (up until that raised arm, anyway). This could happen to anyone, record or no. If I had had poor swims and been DQ'd, then record or not, I'd be much more sanguine about it.
Wow, I have a bunch of DQs compared to all of you. Chris, you've gotten two since you were nine? Holy cow.
in backstroke...
1.) My feet were too far out of the water or something, in the gutter, while waiting for the buzzer (I don't recall the exact infraction).
edit: I just consulted the rulebook (something I should probably do more of, haha) and I see now that this is the relevant part about my backstroke DQ: "Standing in or on the gutter, placing the toes above the lip of the gutter, or bending the toes over the lip of the gutter, before or after the start, is prohibited."
I forgot one DQ one summer when I was in college: DQ for a relay exchange, ***-to-fly (guess which I was?). It was unambiguous b/c the block had those pressure-release timing things.
The backstroke start rule changed in the last 1-2 years, and I'm not sure all starters are up to speed on it. It used to be that no part of your foot could be above the waterline. Now it is that you can't curl your toes over the gutter. Those often amount to the same thing in US pools, but not always.
And they *definitely* do not when "FINA walls" are used (ie, no gutters).
I remember Chris Stevenson's story from 2009 LC nats about getting DQ'd in the 200 back, where he would have won a national championship. Remembering that story helped me feel better about my own insignificant DQ (At nats! In a 1000 free! For the start! And they let me swim the whole race!) Laura Val's story about getting DQ'd for a world record swim has to be the biggest heartbreaker I've heard so far.
So after hearing these stories from the likes of Chris Stevenson and Laura Val and Allen Stark I believe that anyone who's anyone MUST have at least one DQ in their history! I am now proud of my insignificant DQ!
I don't think a DQ is any less significant if a WR or championship is not at stake. Honestly what frustrates me the most isn't the lost records but the fact that both times were my best-ever masters times, things just came together just right (up until that raised arm, anyway). This could happen to anyone, record or no. If I had had poor swims and been DQ'd, then record or not, I'd be much more sanguine about it.
