wrist watches at USMS sanctioned meets

There was some confusion when USA-Swimming added language to their disqualification section “102.10.10 (DISQUALIFICATIONS) No swimmer is permitted to wear or use any device or substance to help his/her speed, pace or buoyancy during a race.” Questions were raised about considering wrist watches as “pacing devices”; as I understand it, USA-S determined that watches were pacing devices and are illegal.

Thanks for posting the rule-- There was a sign up at Colonies Zones indicating that watches could not be worn during competition. I don't wear one when I swim so I didn't look at the sign too closely but I do remember seeing it.

Some of the competitors were wearing heart rate monitors which looked like wrist watches. Wouldn't a heart rate monitor fall into the category of pacing device? Are they allowed at a USMS sactioned open water competition?

The long distance section of usms and usa swim rules books make no mention of pacing devices.

The FINA and USA-Swimming rules only apply to what the swimmer is allowed to wear, not to pace clocks, coaches or counters. In USA-S “Verbal counters … may use watches and signal intermediate times to the swimmer.” The rule primarily applies to pacing devices (such as Tempo Trainers) and radio receivers (just what I always wanted, my coach shouting in my ears while I’m swimming), but watches are being banned because there has been an interpretation somewhere to include these as “mechanical or electronic device than can convey pace or speed”.

I'm pretty certain there were people on the blocks at nationals that were told to remove watches.

Heck, most of the pools I swam USMS meets in had pace Clocks somewhere around the deck or the digital pace clocks running somewhere....I used these clocks in a few of the mile events I swam by simply looking up at the clock hanging on the wall. Additionally, I have seen many, many swimmers get input regarding pace from their counter or people/coaches in the stands by simply looking up on the air intake side of the stroke and looking for the pace signal....in the form of arms up or down or going round and round.....I cannot think of a time I wondered what my pace was during a swim....and...most of the time my own sense of pace had me pretty close to the pace. Heck, I remember on time when my son was counting laps for me at the USMS Zone Championships at the Univ. of Texas Pool in Austin. He gave me the signal to pick up the pace (to bust 20 minutes in the mile) when I felt/knew I was on or below the pace. As the swim turned out I went 19:29, but swam far over the line of safety to swim that time....I’ll never forget the grin on his face when I asked him why he gave me the off the pace signal….and he told me because I thought you still have some left in you….The little dork darn near caused me to have a heart attack. :)

Originally posted by Mary Thanks for posting the rule-- There was a sign up at Colonies Zones indicating that watches could not be worn during competition. I don't wear one when I swim so I didn't look at the sign too closely but I do remember seeing it. Nope that's what the sign said. They were also going around and telling people they will be DQed if they wear a watch during the swim. I still don't see the point, you can still have some one else time you and tell you what's going on. Plus you can, at least at the Zones, read the boards and know your splits.

Originally posted by Edward The Head I still don't see the point, you can still have some one else time you and tell you what's going on. One argument that I can see against it is that some watches have a function that allows you to set a beeper to go off at a given interval. This would allow you to time your stroke to some predetermined, "optimal" standard. Of itself, I could think of worse things, except if it throws off the stroke of another competitor. When I used to compete in racewalking, people would occasionally do this before it was banned and it drove other competitors nuts. The offender usually got a serious talking-to after the race. Now imagine a pool (or open water race) full of beepers all set to different intervals. Ouch.

GREAT QUESTION, GREAT THREAD! I've never worn a watch during an OW race, but see everyone else (here in Italy) wearing them, and never questioned they may be against the rules. I thought they were wearing them just to know their own time at the end of the race, without waiting for the official results to come out. What do you think of that? In long pool races we can always see the digital pace clock running, and many people have coaches or friends signalling them. I wish I did, and will in the future, as I tend to go too slow and end the race feeling fresher than when I started it. Wearing watches in the pool DURING workout is against the rules in Italy, because of injuries which may occur if you hit someone. Ciao! m