The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
So, repeal the rule about lap counters for less than 16 lengths.
To Paul and other official-types: what is the purpose of this rule? To save time? (I'm really asking, not trying to pick a fight or anything.)
I don't know if this is a rule or not, or a "best practices" kind of thing. But I get annoyed about the way announcers are not allowed to give the event number except on heat 1. So for example they'll say "Event 12, heat 1" and from then on "heat 2" and "heat 3" and so on. So if you miss the number on the first one, you don't know what event they are on. They did this at the NE Championship (USMS) meet this past weekend as well, but it wasn't a big deal b/c the scoreboard displayed the event and heat number.
But at our facility, there are a lot of seating areas without a direct view of the pool so you can't see the heat in the water to know what they are swimming. I seriously doubt saying "event 12, heat 4" is going to add significant time to the meet. When I asked the officials about this, they said the reason they do it is because the practice (ie, purposefully withholding information) encourages people to pay closer attention.
That's the kind of...well, idiocy...that makes people see red. And while I really, truly, whole-heartedly admire the volunteer officials and their dedication -- and think that 99% of them are regular folk who roll their eyes at that sort of thing -- USA-S officiating can sometimes seems to be full of nit-picky practices like this. I saw an official pull a 11-yo girl off the blocks for a delay-of-meet DQ. She was maybe 5 sec late getting on the blocks -- TOPS -- and the DQ and resulting melodrama probably took 5 min.
And don't even get me started on the uniforms.
So, repeal the rule about lap counters for less than 16 lengths.
To Paul and other official-types: what is the purpose of this rule? To save time? (I'm really asking, not trying to pick a fight or anything.)
I don't know if this is a rule or not, or a "best practices" kind of thing. But I get annoyed about the way announcers are not allowed to give the event number except on heat 1. So for example they'll say "Event 12, heat 1" and from then on "heat 2" and "heat 3" and so on. So if you miss the number on the first one, you don't know what event they are on. They did this at the NE Championship (USMS) meet this past weekend as well, but it wasn't a big deal b/c the scoreboard displayed the event and heat number.
But at our facility, there are a lot of seating areas without a direct view of the pool so you can't see the heat in the water to know what they are swimming. I seriously doubt saying "event 12, heat 4" is going to add significant time to the meet. When I asked the officials about this, they said the reason they do it is because the practice (ie, purposefully withholding information) encourages people to pay closer attention.
That's the kind of...well, idiocy...that makes people see red. And while I really, truly, whole-heartedly admire the volunteer officials and their dedication -- and think that 99% of them are regular folk who roll their eyes at that sort of thing -- USA-S officiating can sometimes seems to be full of nit-picky practices like this. I saw an official pull a 11-yo girl off the blocks for a delay-of-meet DQ. She was maybe 5 sec late getting on the blocks -- TOPS -- and the DQ and resulting melodrama probably took 5 min.
And don't even get me started on the uniforms.
