The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed. Here's my list:
15M rule on freestyle -- You're allowed to do virtually anything you want in a freestyle race provided you touch the walls, don't push off the bottom and don't pull on the lane lines. Why is going beyond 15 meters doing SDK not "freestyle?"
15M rule on backstroke -- Again, the rule seems arbitrary as I could go 15M underwater SDK, pop up and then kick the rest of the way still doing SDK on my back and be perfectly legal. What's so magical about 15M?
Dolphin kick off the wall on a breaststroke pullout -- just have the guts to DQ Kitajima back when he should've been DQd and this whole :worms:wouldn't have been opened.
Rollover backstroke turns -- go back to the bucket turn (touch on your back, turn, push off on your back) and you save a whole bunch of DQ hassles for swimmers & judges. Yeah, times will be way slower, but we banned tech suits, so clearly the swimming purists should be lined up behind this one.
Standup backstroke starts -- what's so magical about starting with your toes / feet in the water when we get to start with our feet out of the water on all other races? Let's stop the discrimination against backstrokers!
For the record, with the exception of #5, I would derive no speed benefit from any of the above rule changes as a competitor (I can't hold my breath in a race for 15M and my doplhin kick on the *** pullout is weak at best). As an S&T judge, though, all of these would make my life easier and, I believe (#5 possibly excepted), be more consistent with the overall rules for the strokes.
... rules I'd like to see repealed ... 5. Standup backstroke starts -- what's so magical about starting with your toes / feet in the water when we get to start with our feet out of the water on all other races? Let's stop the discrimination against backstrokers!
Ixnay. :2cents: ... I think the purpose of this rule is to make all pools as equivalent as possible. Allowing standup starts in pools with gutters would give those pools an advantage over pools with flat (FINA) walls.
Personally, I liked the old-school standup starts. They were fun & you could really get a huge launch off the gutter. But I understand the need for this rule.
Ixnay. :2cents: ... I think the purpose of this rule is to make all pools as equivalent as possible. Allowing standup starts in pools with gutters would give those pools an advantage over pools with flat (FINA) walls.
Personally, I liked the old-school standup starts. They were fun & you could really get a huge launch off the gutter. But I understand the need for this rule.Yeah, I know you're right. Of the 5 I listed, this is the only one I selfishly wanted because I can't do normal in-water backstroke starts well at all!
Now that you mention FINA walls, though, I'd like to see those banned. I need gutters for turns.
If you get rid of 15m, you might as well merge fly, back, and free...because the top athletes will only take a couple strokes per lap.Yeah, but then we could our focus away from those distracting sprint events and turn back our attention to the glory of the 400/500, 800/1000, 1500/1650. Who knows, maybe even bring in an 800 IM to see the strokes on display.:agree:
The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed. Here's my list:
Dolphin kick off the wall on a breaststroke pullout -- just have the guts to DQ Kitajima back when he should've been DQd and this whole :worms:wouldn't have been opened.
Totally agree on this. I hated that I had to start doing the fly kick off of each wall for breaststroke. I think that Hansen wished that the officials would have DQed whats his face back in 04.
Interesting list. The logic for freestyle seems obvious. But actually I think lifting the 15m rule would have very little effect on events over 50 yards/meters. Certainly that's true for masters; the main effect for me is that I'd worry less about the start (b/c it is so easy to go past 15m).
I've gotten kind of used to the rollover backstroke turns. It does make sense to have the bucket turns: backstroke should be entirely on your back. Isn't that the reason we still have different starts for backstroke? An added advantage is that initial splits would be easier to do b/c they'd be official finishes.
I believe, though, that I think a main reason they allowed them was b/c it was difficult to judge cross-over turns. Kitajima all over again.
But if we're going to keep the rollover turns, forget about the standup starts (which I also loved): I say that backstrokers should be able to dive off the blocks! As long as you are on your back by the time you surface, you're good.
It would have the added benefit of allowing meets to run faster, since dive-overs would now be possible for all events. We could also do medley relays in IM order, the way God intended.
15m might make sense in LCM, but why was it transferred to SCM & SCY? If you're going to only allow a swimmer to SDK off the wall for "aways", shouldn't that distance be sort of proportional to the length of the pool?
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I think the rule-writers realized it might be tough for swimmers to reprogram themselves when they swim all three courses within a given year.
YES! add SCM & SCY too
add a 50 SDK internationally for LCM. To me the most basic concept of swimming is how fast can you go from point A to point B through the water. If someone can do a 50 SDK faster than a 50 free, we're missing the whole point of swimming!
Comments on Patrick's points...
1 & 2: I think the 15 m limit was in response to a few elite swimmers being able to go the entire 50 meters underwater. 15m is probably arbitrary, but what distance should it be?
3: I agree about the dolphin kick on breaststroke. No reason for it.
4: I seem to remember that the back turn was changed due to injuries. Some swimmers were reaching so far back that they were dislocating a shoulder.
5: At first I thought this was a safety issue, but it may have been in response to the FINA walls. You can't do it in a start with the high pads so banning that start may have been the solution. I did those starts and was faster, but I was always a little nervous about letting go of the block.
