Me and Frank

Ok, this is be a bit of a stretch but starting at last weekend's meet left me feeling like Frank Sinatra singing at one of his famous concert performances. Here's the story.

About an hour into the first session of the meet the battery on the Colorado starting system died. We thought the battery had been fully charged but it wasn't. We learned that while you can run this unit while it is plugged in the battery still runs the unit. The wall power just recharges the battery. It doesn't power the unit. Normally that's fine because when the unit is plugged in this will keep it charged at whatever level it was at when you began using it. Unfortunately for us the battery was dead and even when plugged in it wasn't going to work until the battery had a chance to charge up. And there wasn't a back-up starting system readily available. What to do now?

Since the rest of the timing system was still operational we had a few alternatives. The timing console, pads, and buttons still worked and we would still get automated finishes. The start would have to be manual. We could either have the timing console operator use their start button or connect a button to the primary cable and have the Starter push it when each race began. We went with the console operator hitting the start button on the timing console.

Now here comes the Frank part. I had to use the public address to give the "take your mark" command. I had a nice wireless Shure microphone similar to those often seen on TV and concerts. Since the acoustics were poor I had to use my best silvery voice to be clearly heard. Kind of like Frank belting out New York, New York. As a starting sound we used an air horn which I held up and away from me so that I wouldn't go home deaf. As you can see from the pictures I think their might be some resemblance between me and Frank.

As it turned out, we could not get the starting unit charged and after about 4 hours of singing  starting this way a replacement unit from MN Swimming arrived.

A couple of notable things about all things ...

Coaches didn't like the horn. Air horns don't make one distinctive sound. As you press it the sound starts out weak and gets stronger. It's more like two sounds. Instead we mostly used a whistle.

Swimmer don't react well to anything other than the usual starting sound. They appear really tuned to it and anything else doesn't get the same reaction. When we went back to the normal "beep" the change was noticeably for the better.

So that's my story. All that's left to say is that I did it my way!

Relay Did Not Finish

I was sitting with a couple of coaches over the weekend and one coach asked the other if they could remember the last time when all the scheduled relay swimmers showed up for a session. Neither could.

Coaches frequently find themselves with an undermanned relay team but still want them to compete. They don't want the athletes who are present to be denied an opportunity to swim and they also want an official time from the initial swimmer's split. This post will examine what's allowed and what's not. 

Several USA Swimming rules apply ...

RELAY — a race in which each team member swims a specified portion of the course.

101.7 - Four swimmers on each team ....

A relay teams needs four athletes. One to swim each leg of the relay. A swimmer cannot swim two legs.

Who can a coach choose from to fill the team roster?

102.3.1 - Relay teams shall not compete unattached. In all cases relay teams must be composed of USA Swimming members of the same club, school or organization which is a member of USA Swimming.

There goes any unattached swimmers on the relay. An unattached swimmer is never eligible to be part of a relay team.

102.3.7 - Names of eligible relay swimmers and order of swimming shall be submitted to the clerk of course or to the head lane timer. Any changes in names of the competing swimmers or their order of swimming must be declared to the Head Lane Timer prior to the start of the heat in which such relay team is entered. No changes will be permitted thereafter.

The coach needs to submit the names of four eligible swimmers. The meet announcement specifies who is eligible to complete in a relay event (i.e. gender, age group, qualifying time). All four swimmers named must conform to the event's eligibility requirements. No girls on a boys relay. No 8 year olds on the 9-10 relay. 

If the team can submit four eligible names then that relay team may compete. All those swimmers need not be present. They just need to be eligible. What occurs when the relay team competes is another matter.

If a team cannot submit four eligible names for a relay their entry should be scratched and if already seeded they may not compete. 

Having submitted an eligible roster the team may find that they cannot finish. Nothing prevents the team from starting or continuing the race. If the team fails to finish we simply disqualify them (DNF). 

So if a coached finds that they are short a swimmer they must still list someone who is eligible for the team to compete. If they can submit an eligible fourth swimmer's name but only three are present that team can still start the race. If they cannot submit four eligible names the relay team must sit out the race. 

It's not for us to judge why having started the race they did not finish the race. We just DNF the relay. The lead-off swimmer will be eligible for an official time/record, and the swimmer not present will have that relay event count against their event entry maximums.  

If a team submits less than four names or one of the swimmers is ineligible then the relay team is ineligible. That team should not be allowed to start. The administrative official should ask the coach to resubmit with four eligible names and if they cannot then scratch the team.

If a team does use an ineligible swimmer then their result should be voided by scratching the team from the event. It's the team's responsibility to use eligible swimmers. The fact that we didn't spot the problem and stop them doesn't somehow make them eligible. It's just unfortunate. 

Keep in mind that relays are all about one team's four swimmers against another team's four swimmers. The fact that a lead-off time can be used as an official or record time is just an artifact from the race. That's not why we run relay events. 

If we start letting ineligible teams race in a relay then that opens up a big can of worms:

• The other teams don't know that the ineligible team is effectively already DQ'ed. They think they are racing a legitimate team and that impacts their behavior. For example, if the race against an illegitimate team is close a legitimate team member might push their take-off rather than play it safe. If that ends up getting them DQ'ed for an early take-off then that's not right. Another example would be a legitimate team member going really hard in an effort to catch an illegitimate team and blowing up on the second half of their leg. 
• The ineligible team can never really "win". Their participation muddies the race results. It's unfair to the other teams; those that they "beat" and those that think they beat them.

You may get some push-back if an ineligible team swims and we refuse to accept the lead-off time from a swimmer who was eligible. They may say, "What's the harm now that the meet is over." I'd answer by saying that we're all (athletes, coaches, and officials) responsible for ensuring the integrity of our meets and the results. If a team was ineligible and we knowingly look the other way because it was expedient or we weren't willing to take some heat for this mistake then we'll chip away at the honesty and principles that are vital for our sport to exist and grow.

Updated MN Swimming Policies

Recently USA Swimming reaffirmed the importance of adherence to the 4-hour rule and the need to make our meets more attractive to families. Here's a part of Bruce Stratton's 2013 address to the USA Swimming House of Delegates.

The retention of our younger swimmers, especially those 12 and under is critical to the growth of our sport. We must make swimming as attractive to parents as soccer, baseball, and tennis or the parents will drive kids out of the sport. Our LSCs must recognize this need or we will continue to lose swimmers at an early age. As the recognized leaders of your LSCs, I challenge you to go back to your LSCs and clubs and to look for innovative and creative competition formats that will be more family friendly. Retaining our younger swimmers is a key component to growing our membership and to the future success of our sport. I am convinced that making meets fun for young swimmers and their parents will be a great help in this endeavor.

With this in mind MN Swimming updated three policies related to the length of a session and seeding distance events. These policies are designed to keep our meets shorter and more attractive.

4 Hour Rule
USA Swimming rules stipulate that non-championship sessions with 12&Under athletes must be planned so that those 12&Under athletes will be done within 4 hours after the start of the session. MN Swimming policy 244 outlines guidelines on how to calculate the length of a session.

5 Hour Rule
MN Swimming policy 245 allows the Meet Referee and host to introduce a positive check-in if a session is planned to exceed 5 hours. It's hoped that hosts will take advantage of this policy to significantly reduce the length of their meets.

Distance Seeded
MN Swimming policy 243A is the default for all meets unless the distance seeding is otherwise specified in the meet announcement.

• Within a session combine all events of the same stroke, distance, and gender. 
• The combined event is seeded fastest to slowest, alternating women’s heats with men’s heats. Unfilled heats of women and men may be combined. 
• The results will be separated back into the original events for awards and scoring. 

USA Swimming rules also allow the Meet Referee to consolidate events. The Meet Referee may combine heats of men and women when space allows. 

2014 Arena Grand Prix at Minneapolis

Last week the University of Minnesota once again hosted the Arena Grand Prix at Minneapolis. Minnesota officials were out in full force with 34 officials participating over the meet's six sessions.

In addition to seeing some exciting racing those officials also had numerous opportunities to refine their skills and participate in educational opportunities. Several officials took the opportunity to receive national certification evaluations. U.S. National Team Director Frank Busch spoke during one officials meeting about the goals of the Arena Grand Prix series and how USA Swimming was supporting top tier athletes entering and leaving the national program. Meet Referee Lucy Duncan spoke about USA Swimming's national certification program.

One of the most exciting racing was the Men's 50 Freestyle final. See if you can spot all the Minnesota officials in the video below. I counted eight.

Thanks to everyone. Great Job!

We're trying to get it right!

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?"

September Rule Changes

USA Swimming announced some minor technical rules changes which went into effect on September 23. These changes have also been incorporated into the online tests.

These edits to the technical rules, with one exception, don't change how we officiate the stroke rules. Rather they clarify the existing language.

"... at the finish", was removed from Backstroke because it was being confused with prior to the finish. The Backstroke rules allow a swimmer to be submerged for the first 15 meters from the start and turn along with during the turn. Other than that the swimmer may not be submerged. If the swimmer is submerged (completely below the surface of the water) at any other time then that is a violation. If the swimmer has "finished" then their race is over and we're no longer applying those technical rules to them. Therefore "at the finish" wasn't needed; especially since it was causing some confusion.

"immediate" was added to the Backstroke turn. This is to emphasize that going past vertical to the breast is only allowed as part of their turn. It reinforces that there cannot be a delay between going past vertical and an arm pull.

Language was add to Breaststroke and Butterfly to clarify that it is permissible, after the touch, to turn in any manner as long as the swimmer's body is on the breast when leaving the wall.

One change to Breaststroke and Butterfly is new ...

    The touch shall be made with both hands separated ...

I'm told that this new language originated from some FINA member countries which felt a touch with the hands together was the equivalent of a one hand touch. Dan McAllen (Chair, Rules & Regulations Committee) issued an interpretation on this rule. He wrote ...

At its Congress in 2013, FINA adopted rules changes requiring the swimmer's hands be separated at turns and the finish touch in both breaststroke and butterfly. Since the word "separated" is subject to interpretation, for purposes of the turn and finish rules in both breaststroke and butterfly the following shall be determinative.

(1) "Separated" means that the hands may touch each other at the thumbs (no visual separation required) but there can be no overlap or interlocking of the hands, including thumbs and fingers, whatsoever.

(2) A swimmer who simultaneously has the thumbs touching and the tips of the index fingers (picture a little triangle) is legal. Likewise, a simultaneous two hand touch with only the tips of the index fingers touching each other is legal.

(3) It is legal for the hands to be one over the other if there is space between them. However, one hand cannot be resting on top of the other, nor can the palms be pressed together in a prayer position at the touch.

(4) It is legal to touch with the fingers and have the thumbs under the hand or pointing downward, in which case the index fingers may be touching.

A little common sense will go far in applying this rule if one remembers that the goal is for the swimmer to touch with both hands separately and not joined in any way that could be construed as creating a single unit.

It's been my experience and that of others I've spoken to that we rarely see swimmers touch with their hands together. We're probably going to spend more time, over the next few months, talking about this than we will calling it.

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