The DQ thread got me thinking about swimming rules I'd like to see repealed.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.
It is backstroke, not sometimes backstroke.
No, it IS "sometimes/mostly backstroke." You can turn over on your front for turns. That's my point: if it is allowed on turns, why not starts?
Actually it is "sometimes backstroke but you have to surface before 15m even if you are on your back."
If you want to be "pure" about it, I'm game: like freestyle anything goes as long as you are on your back ALL the time, including bucket turns and underwaters past 15m. But don't pull the "I'm only a little bit pregnant" purity argument.
Everyone loves watching submarine races. :banana:
Didn't they change breaststroke long, long ago precisely because people were swimming long distances under water and safety issues became a concern? I wonder how much of the 15 meter rule now is driven by safety/liability concerns...
I think the rule-writers realized it might be tough for swimmers to reprogram themselves when they swim all three courses within a given year.
Don't swimmers have to reprogram themselves to a certain degree for differing distances to the backstroke flags and different locations of the "T" on the bottom of the pool near the wall (at least virtually, since you seem to be "over" the "T" at different points depending on the depth of the pool)?
S
Don't swimmers have to reprogram themselves to a certain degree for differing distances to the backstroke flags and different locations of the "T" on the bottom of the pool near the wall (at least virtually, since you seem to be "over" the "T" at different points depending on the depth of the pool)?
S
:bliss: :bow:
:argue:Yes. :bed:
:bouncing: :bolt:
If you want to be "pure" about it, I'm game: like freestyle anything goes as long as you are on your back ALL the time, including bucket turns and underwaters past 15m. But don't pull the "I'm only a little bit pregnant" purity argument.
I'm game too. I could live with bucket turns with a dive and all the SDKs I wanted.
I say that backstrokers should be able to dive off the blocks! As long as you are on your back by the time you surface
I don't care if you dive off the blocks, however, once the gun sounds be on your back till you finish. It is backstroke, not sometimes backstroke.
