Did you happen to see Ryan Lochte's gold medal swim in the 200 IM in Kazan at the World Championships? Well, you likely won't see his technique in the freestyle portion of the IM ever again as FINA ruled it illegal...
Turns out Lochte is faster streamlining on his back so he and his coach devised a plan for him to come off of the breaststroke portion of the IM on his back and swim the first 15 meters underwater while on his back. Of course, there's no question that this is a legal technique in both the Freestyle and Backstroke individual events. But there was some question as to whether the officials at World's would decide that he was swimming backstroke during the freestyle portion of the IM, which would be illegal. He gambled and the call was not made and he won his fourth consecutive World title in the event.
Enter FINA. FINA's rationale is that backstroke is defined by a swimmer traveling lying on his/her back. So, in underwater kicking on his back, Lochte, according to FINA, was technically swimming backstroke for the first 15 meters of his freestyle portion of the IM; a violation of the IM rules which require 4 distinct strokes.
Shouldn't be long before USA Swimming adopts a similar interpretation. Stay tuned.
Would you have considered his swimming underwater on his back for 15 meters as backstroke?
Monday, August 31, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
AMS Swimposium Schedule for Saturday, September 19th
As we all know, the AMS Swimposium is on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at Mt. Lebanon High School. There will be two Officials sessions with a lunch in between.
The session for Stroke & Turn and Chief Judge Officials will be from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The session for Referees, Starters and Administrative Officials will be from 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM. Our discussion will be led by Dan McAllen, currently the USA Swimming VP of Program Operations and former USA Swimming Chair of the Rules & Regulations Committee. It should be a very interesting discussion. Dan is a very good speaker and a great guy.
From 12:30 - 1:30 PM there will be an Officials lunch. This will be a great opportunity to spend some down time for your fellow AMS Officials. The early attendees are encouraged to stay for lunch and the later attendees are encouraged to come early for lunch.
While this meeting is not mandatory, you are strongly encouraged to attend. The balance of the Swimposium agenda has some interesting parts to it for swimmers, parents, meet directors, etc.
Please RSVP by clicking here. I know it's a Pittsburgh thing to wait until the last minute to commit, but early acknowledgement of your plan to attend would be greatly appreciated.
You are welcome to attend either or both sessions for Officials. Also, please let us know your plans for the lunch. This will be a very rewarding day so we hope to see you there. See you soon!
The session for Stroke & Turn and Chief Judge Officials will be from 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM. The session for Referees, Starters and Administrative Officials will be from 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM. Our discussion will be led by Dan McAllen, currently the USA Swimming VP of Program Operations and former USA Swimming Chair of the Rules & Regulations Committee. It should be a very interesting discussion. Dan is a very good speaker and a great guy.
From 12:30 - 1:30 PM there will be an Officials lunch. This will be a great opportunity to spend some down time for your fellow AMS Officials. The early attendees are encouraged to stay for lunch and the later attendees are encouraged to come early for lunch.
While this meeting is not mandatory, you are strongly encouraged to attend. The balance of the Swimposium agenda has some interesting parts to it for swimmers, parents, meet directors, etc.
Please RSVP by clicking here. I know it's a Pittsburgh thing to wait until the last minute to commit, but early acknowledgement of your plan to attend would be greatly appreciated.
You are welcome to attend either or both sessions for Officials. Also, please let us know your plans for the lunch. This will be a very rewarding day so we hope to see you there. See you soon!
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Officials Sign-ups for 2015-2016 SC Meets
The 2015-2016 SC season is right in front of us (well, don't get too uppity, you still have time to rest). Our season kicks off, as it always does, with First Splash, hosted by four teams spread over three weekends. And then the mayhem continues for months to come!
Once again, we'll be using Volunteer Spot for our AMS Officials sign ups. Currently, all meets leading up (but not including) the Christmas meet are ready for sign up. The rest of the season will be posted soon. Here's the link to our group page...
http://vols.pt/q28pj3
Sign up early and often. Please sign up at your highest level of certification. So, if you're a Referee, sign up as Referee. If you don't want to be the Referee for the sessions you sign up for, leave that as a comment.
It's important for our meet hosts to know where their deck stands as early as possible so they know where they need to focus. It's a Pittsburgh thing to be fashionably late (or even woefully late). If possible, we'd like to try and break that mold this year to give our meet hosts time to breathe deeply without having to freak out because they have too few officials signed up as their meets approach.
As always, see ya on deck!
Once again, we'll be using Volunteer Spot for our AMS Officials sign ups. Currently, all meets leading up (but not including) the Christmas meet are ready for sign up. The rest of the season will be posted soon. Here's the link to our group page...
http://vols.pt/q28pj3
Sign up early and often. Please sign up at your highest level of certification. So, if you're a Referee, sign up as Referee. If you don't want to be the Referee for the sessions you sign up for, leave that as a comment.
It's important for our meet hosts to know where their deck stands as early as possible so they know where they need to focus. It's a Pittsburgh thing to be fashionably late (or even woefully late). If possible, we'd like to try and break that mold this year to give our meet hosts time to breathe deeply without having to freak out because they have too few officials signed up as their meets approach.
As always, see ya on deck!
Friday, August 21, 2015
AMS Swimposium
AMS will once again be co-sponsoring (with USA Swimming) a Swimposium on September 19, 2015 at Mt. Lebanon High School.
As part of the AMS Swimposium, we will have a mandatory officials meeting with guest speaker Dan McAllen, currently USA Swimming's Program Operations Vice President and immediate past Chair of the USA Swimming Rules & Regulations Committee.
The tentative plan is that Dan will speak to our Stroke & Turn, Chief Judges and Administrative Officials in the morning and our Referees and Starters in the afternoon. We will host a lunch in between. AMS Officials are welcome to attend both sessions, if desired.
Details will be available soon and a sign up sheet will also be available once the particulars are ironed out.
We look forward to seeing you all soon as we prepare to kick off the 2015-2016 Short Course season. Should you have any questions, please contact Bob Mermelstein at bob.mermelstein@gmail.com or 412-867-6687.
As part of the AMS Swimposium, we will have a mandatory officials meeting with guest speaker Dan McAllen, currently USA Swimming's Program Operations Vice President and immediate past Chair of the USA Swimming Rules & Regulations Committee.
The tentative plan is that Dan will speak to our Stroke & Turn, Chief Judges and Administrative Officials in the morning and our Referees and Starters in the afternoon. We will host a lunch in between. AMS Officials are welcome to attend both sessions, if desired.
Details will be available soon and a sign up sheet will also be available once the particulars are ironed out.
We look forward to seeing you all soon as we prepare to kick off the 2015-2016 Short Course season. Should you have any questions, please contact Bob Mermelstein at bob.mermelstein@gmail.com or 412-867-6687.
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