I was Meet Referee at a LSC meet recently and a coach questioned the validity of a DQ slip that had been delivered to him. The Deck Referee investigated the call and made a decision to uphold the call because the Stroke and Turn judge was able to describe in detail the infraction that she observed. On further discussion with the coach, he agreed that his swimmer had made the infraction but noted that the DQ slip had been filled out incorrectly and wanted it thrown out. I rewrote the slip "correctly" and delivered it to the coach. Upon receiving the newly-written slip, he said to me "You can't do that!" I told him that I could, in fact, do that...
According to Clark Hammond, USA Swimming Officials Chair, you must have a basis for not accepting a disqualification, and an incorrectly written DQ slip is not one. "You can't break the rules, but you can flex the procedures. We're trying to get it right!" As the Deck Referee said to the coach, "Don't you think this is a good learning opportunity for your swimmer?"
If I am understanding this correctly, this would be a change in policy as I have experienced it nationally. Incorrect paperwork is frequently overturned by Deck Referees and Admin Referees to give the swimmer the benefit of the doubt. Basically, we messed up. That said, if the call was accepted on the radio by the Deck Referee and the swimmer was notified, also signified by radio notice, (therfore no slip to the Coach is needed) it is still incumbent on the deck to get the paperwork right, before it goes to Admin.
ReplyDeleteIf the only Coach notification is via paper delivery, then the paper becomes more important, but still must be correct.
Coaches look for and use these loop holes all the time. It is official's Primary philosophy that the swimmer gets the benefit of the doubt and if there is a flaw in the process anywhere along the line, the DQ has always been cast aside.
Now, if the coach saw the infraction as well, especially as providing a coaching opprotunity for a swimmer or a parent communcation opportunity, they may want to have the slip written correctly for such use.
Again, if this is a change, the USA officials committee or Rules and Regs should let us all know about it so we can be consistent.
thanks for brining this up, Barb.
In this particular case, the name and club of the swimmer, event, heat and lane numbers and actual stroke infraction were all marked accurately, but if I remember correctly, it was marked "turn" instead of "swim."
DeleteI quoted a talk Clark gave at the officials workshop I attended in Savannah in October 2012 and I believe the focus was LSC level meets - if the call was not correct or if there were major problems with the way the DQ was recorded, then a referee should pocket it and probably do some mentoring...
"the DQ slip had been filled out incorrectly and wanted it thrown out."
DeleteSo we agree: " if there were major problems with the way the DQ was recorded, then a referee should pocket it and probably do some mentoring."
Marking 'swim' instead of 'turn' is a 'major problem" as it abrogates the applicable rule as the basis of the DQ.