The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
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.
I think we are...
I believe that what you and other anti-SDK types would like is a return to backstroke as practiced by the likes of John Naber and Rick Carey. What is ironic about that stance is that, according to the rules in effect when those two backstroker greats swam, we had:
-- stand-up starts (in SCY, anyway)
-- bucket turns
-- unlimited SDKs on your back, if you so choose
What you object to (extensive SDKs) were the result of an *innovation* popularized by David Berkoff, not a rules change. SDKs have *always been legal* in backstroke and in all other strokes except breaststroke. It wasn't until 1989 or so that limits were placed on SDKs (first 10m, now 15m). About the same time, the rollover turn was introduced and stand-up starts were eliminated. (Backstroke purists be damned!)
So asking for a return to stand-up starts, bucket turns and unlimited SDKs (ie, anything goes as long as you remain on your back) is in its way just as retro as what you've proposed.
Despite your contention that SDKs "aren't really backstroke because you can't do them the whole way," consider that if you take a *single stroke* of *** or fly or crawl in a backstroke race, you are immediately DQ'd.
Like them or not as you wish: SDKs have always been a part of "real backstroke." I've been doing them off walls (at least a little, not like Berkoff) since the 70s. Outlawing them -- no dolphin kicks at all -- would be a radical change and I contend that they are against the general principle of the stroke (again, do anything but stay on your back).
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.
I think we are...
I believe that what you and other anti-SDK types would like is a return to backstroke as practiced by the likes of John Naber and Rick Carey. What is ironic about that stance is that, according to the rules in effect when those two backstroker greats swam, we had:
-- stand-up starts (in SCY, anyway)
-- bucket turns
-- unlimited SDKs on your back, if you so choose
What you object to (extensive SDKs) were the result of an *innovation* popularized by David Berkoff, not a rules change. SDKs have *always been legal* in backstroke and in all other strokes except breaststroke. It wasn't until 1989 or so that limits were placed on SDKs (first 10m, now 15m). About the same time, the rollover turn was introduced and stand-up starts were eliminated. (Backstroke purists be damned!)
So asking for a return to stand-up starts, bucket turns and unlimited SDKs (ie, anything goes as long as you remain on your back) is in its way just as retro as what you've proposed.
Despite your contention that SDKs "aren't really backstroke because you can't do them the whole way," consider that if you take a *single stroke* of *** or fly or crawl in a backstroke race, you are immediately DQ'd.
Like them or not as you wish: SDKs have always been a part of "real backstroke." I've been doing them off walls (at least a little, not like Berkoff) since the 70s. Outlawing them -- no dolphin kicks at all -- would be a radical change and I contend that they are against the general principle of the stroke (again, do anything but stay on your back).
