The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
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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.
I think I agree with you, but the problem is it cannot be detected 100% of the time because, well, it is underwater and you don't get a clear view. You could use underwater cameras at the Olympics, but you cannot do that at an age group meet.
I know of one division 1 coach who taught swimmers how to get away with it long before it was legal (and before Kitajima did it) because he knew a DQ was unlikley. Really it has been common practice for quite sometime (which by no means makes it right, just trying to impress that it is difficult to detect).
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.
I think I agree with you, but the problem is it cannot be detected 100% of the time because, well, it is underwater and you don't get a clear view. You could use underwater cameras at the Olympics, but you cannot do that at an age group meet.
I know of one division 1 coach who taught swimmers how to get away with it long before it was legal (and before Kitajima did it) because he knew a DQ was unlikley. Really it has been common practice for quite sometime (which by no means makes it right, just trying to impress that it is difficult to detect).
