The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
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.
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.
