DQ'd

I've been both on the giving end (as an S&T judge) and receiving end of DQs and neither is pleasant. As an S&T judge at (generally NTS) age group meets, I always try to focus on finding clear infractions and on giving the swimmer the benefit of the doubt. I'm not trigger happy, but I also don't think it's fair to the swimmer to let them 'get by' with something that is clearly against the rules; better for them to get called in an early or mid-season meet than to perpetuate something illegal throughout the season. While it's never fun to give a DQ, I generally find that most of the kids 13 & up know when they've done something wrong; many of the savvier 12 & unders do, as well. To me as a judge, it's a sign of a good call if the swimmer admits knowledge or, at a minimum, recognizes that they did something wrong. That doesn't happen 100% of the time, but a lot of times. As a competitor, I think I feel what a lot of people are alluding to above: you only get angry when you're convinced you were right. Many times I've been DQ'd and the vast majority of those I've known what I did. One DQ, though, still sticks in my craw from Junior Nationals in 1983 because I was having the meet of my life and got DQ'd for a 1 hand ***-free transition turn. My time would've put my in the finals. I didn't have video of this, but everyone who watched the race on my team said I was fine. Given that my turns are generally the slowest and most deliberate parts of my races, doing a 1 hand touch was really unlikely for me. I still feel like it was a wrong call. Yeah, still hanging onto that pain almost 30 years later! As for the backstroke turn stuff mentioned above, these days in USAS, we've been told to look for two separate calls: Failure to initiate the arm pull -- such as rolling over onto your stomach, keeping the 'freestyle' pulling arm outstretched and kicking or floating before either starting the pull or the turn Failure to initiate the turn -- such as rolling over, pulling with the 'freestyle' arm and then kicking/floating towards the wall before doing any noticeable turning movement These are both hard calls to make. Like the suggestion to remove the dolphin kick on the breaststroke pullout, it'd be a lot easier if we just went back to the old bucket backstroke turns -- touch on your back, turn, push off on your back. Heck, we've gotten rid of the 'cheating suits,' let's get rid of these cheatin' rules. Where are the swimming purists when we need them?:worms:

I've been both on the giving end (as an S&T judge) and receiving end of DQs and neither is pleasant. As an S&T judge at (generally NTS) age group meets, I always try to focus on finding clear infractions and on giving the swimmer the benefit of the doubt. I'm not trigger happy, but I also don't think it's fair to the swimmer to let them 'get by' with something that is clearly against the rules; better for them to get called in an early or mid-season meet than to perpetuate something illegal throughout the season. While it's never fun to give a DQ, I generally find that most of the kids 13 & up know when they've done something wrong; many of the savvier 12 & unders do, as well. To me as a judge, it's a sign of a good call if the swimmer admits knowledge or, at a minimum, recognizes that they did something wrong. That doesn't happen 100% of the time, but a lot of times. As a competitor, I think I feel what a lot of people are alluding to above: you only get angry when you're convinced you were right. Many times I've been DQ'd and the vast majority of those I've known what I did. One DQ, though, still sticks in my craw from Junior Nationals in 1983 because I was having the meet of my life and got DQ'd for a 1 hand ***-free transition turn. My time would've put my in the finals. I didn't have video of this, but everyone who watched the race on my team said I was fine. Given that my turns are generally the slowest and most deliberate parts of my races, doing a 1 hand touch was really unlikely for me. I still feel like it was a wrong call. Yeah, still hanging onto that pain almost 30 years later! As for the backstroke turn stuff mentioned above, these days in USAS, we've been told to look for two separate calls: Failure to initiate the arm pull -- such as rolling over onto your stomach, keeping the 'freestyle' pulling arm outstretched and kicking or floating before either starting the pull or the turn Failure to initiate the turn -- such as rolling over, pulling with the 'freestyle' arm and then kicking/floating towards the wall before doing any noticeable turning movement These are both hard calls to make. Like the suggestion to remove the dolphin kick on the breaststroke pullout, it'd be a lot easier if we just went back to the old bucket backstroke turns -- touch on your back, turn, push off on your back. Heck, we've gotten rid of the 'cheating suits,' let's get rid of these cheatin' rules. Where are the swimming purists when we need them?:worms: