The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
I just think the skill of, for example, swimming backstroke, is different from the skill of SDKing, and that the events should be separated.
Backstroke is anything you want it to be as long as you are on your back. So SDK on your back *is* backstroke. There is no distinction between the two.
Getting rid of the 15m rule would not turn every event into an underwater contest. It would have a big effect on 50s, except the 50 free for most people (ever notice that the fastest sprinters pop right up on the start?).
If there were no 15m rule right now, my kicking strategy in (say) the 100 back or 100 fly would be unchanged except for perhaps 1-2 more kicks off the start. And greater ease of mind knowing I won't be DQ'd on the start.
Maybe it would be different for the young studs out there, but I don't think it would be greatly different. Yes, SDK is faster than every stroke except sprint free, but you pay a price for it in oxygen debt. There is a compromise, and it generally less than 15m.
You don't see even the elites go to 15m on every turn in every event, do you?
I just think the skill of, for example, swimming backstroke, is different from the skill of SDKing, and that the events should be separated.
Backstroke is anything you want it to be as long as you are on your back. So SDK on your back *is* backstroke. There is no distinction between the two.
Getting rid of the 15m rule would not turn every event into an underwater contest. It would have a big effect on 50s, except the 50 free for most people (ever notice that the fastest sprinters pop right up on the start?).
If there were no 15m rule right now, my kicking strategy in (say) the 100 back or 100 fly would be unchanged except for perhaps 1-2 more kicks off the start. And greater ease of mind knowing I won't be DQ'd on the start.
Maybe it would be different for the young studs out there, but I don't think it would be greatly different. Yes, SDK is faster than every stroke except sprint free, but you pay a price for it in oxygen debt. There is a compromise, and it generally less than 15m.
You don't see even the elites go to 15m on every turn in every event, do you?
