The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
Well, I don't like any part of it, actually; I'm not a backstroker. I just picked backstroke to use as an example, and I would say the same for fly and free.
I understand that after the 15m you can use your arms or not, or do elementary backstroke, or whatever. But that wasn't the point we were discussing. The point we were discussing was whether 15m of underwater SDK should count as part of backstroke. Saying that "backstroke is anything on your back" doesn't get at the main question, which is what the rule should be (not what it actually is), and, moreover, it's false, since under the current rules you can't go the whole length underwater on your back.
Enough of defining backstroke. Let's talk about what the rules should be.
What Chris and I are saying is that, technically speaking, SDKs have always been perfectly legal. You want a repeal that would re-define the stroke to mandate that simultaneous arm motion and flutter kick is all that is allowed? That is a valid opinion. (And I'd ideally like to substitute dolphin kick for whip kick on breaststroke too, if we're speaking of ideal total redefinitions.) But I notice that the "abolish the SDK" is often promoted by people who either can't/won't kick or seem to believe that swimming is only an upper body sport. I'd love a separate SDK race that threw out the 15 meter rule, at least for 50s. But that still leaves plenty of "backstroke" left to swim in all the other events. Underwater swimming is beautiful to watch. I'm really looking forward to watching the leading expert, Mike Ross, do it in Boston.
I don't think Chris is ever really rude. Just logical.
Well, I don't like any part of it, actually; I'm not a backstroker. I just picked backstroke to use as an example, and I would say the same for fly and free.
I understand that after the 15m you can use your arms or not, or do elementary backstroke, or whatever. But that wasn't the point we were discussing. The point we were discussing was whether 15m of underwater SDK should count as part of backstroke. Saying that "backstroke is anything on your back" doesn't get at the main question, which is what the rule should be (not what it actually is), and, moreover, it's false, since under the current rules you can't go the whole length underwater on your back.
Enough of defining backstroke. Let's talk about what the rules should be.
What Chris and I are saying is that, technically speaking, SDKs have always been perfectly legal. You want a repeal that would re-define the stroke to mandate that simultaneous arm motion and flutter kick is all that is allowed? That is a valid opinion. (And I'd ideally like to substitute dolphin kick for whip kick on breaststroke too, if we're speaking of ideal total redefinitions.) But I notice that the "abolish the SDK" is often promoted by people who either can't/won't kick or seem to believe that swimming is only an upper body sport. I'd love a separate SDK race that threw out the 15 meter rule, at least for 50s. But that still leaves plenty of "backstroke" left to swim in all the other events. Underwater swimming is beautiful to watch. I'm really looking forward to watching the leading expert, Mike Ross, do it in Boston.
I don't think Chris is ever really rude. Just logical.
