The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
Parents
Former Member
The stuff you cite might be irritating, for sure. But it seems like small stuff. "Bush league," indeed.
Except for "losing it" on an official. That strikes me as HUGE.
Can officials ban parents permanently from meets? If not, that might be a good rule change.
Several posters have harped on my "losing it" comment. I didn't yell at the guy, embarrass him in front of others, etc - simply made it clear in a one-to-one, private conversation that I thought the rule was a bit OTT for little kids swimming a 200 for the first time, and that it seemed a great way to discourage younger kids from swimming more than a 100. (As an aside, I did not enter my 7 yr old in a 200 - the club coach did, and I was as surprised at this as some of the posters here have been).
FWIW, I have been attending age group meets as a competitor, parent, volunteer and club board member for nearly 40 years. I am not the "prototypical swimmer parent" by any stretch. Again, my issue is not so much with the rule (which I consider a strange one), but with how I was approached by the MD, who I have known for years... and respect.
The stuff you cite might be irritating, for sure. But it seems like small stuff. "Bush league," indeed.
Except for "losing it" on an official. That strikes me as HUGE.
Can officials ban parents permanently from meets? If not, that might be a good rule change.
Several posters have harped on my "losing it" comment. I didn't yell at the guy, embarrass him in front of others, etc - simply made it clear in a one-to-one, private conversation that I thought the rule was a bit OTT for little kids swimming a 200 for the first time, and that it seemed a great way to discourage younger kids from swimming more than a 100. (As an aside, I did not enter my 7 yr old in a 200 - the club coach did, and I was as surprised at this as some of the posters here have been).
FWIW, I have been attending age group meets as a competitor, parent, volunteer and club board member for nearly 40 years. I am not the "prototypical swimmer parent" by any stretch. Again, my issue is not so much with the rule (which I consider a strange one), but with how I was approached by the MD, who I have known for years... and respect.
