Friday, January 15, 2016

Recommendation from the USA Swimming Officials Committee

As you all know, USA Swimming has adopted FINA's interpretation of the freestyle portion of the medley events (relay and individual), often now referred to as the "Lochte Rule". Briefly, the rules state that a swimmer must swim 1/4th of the race butterfly, 1/4th backstroke, 1/4th breaststroke and 1/4th freestyle. 

In transitioning from breaststroke to freestyle in the individual medley and butterfly to freestyle in the medley relay, the swimmer must be past vertical toward the breast once s/he has left the wall/block. (You may recall that Lochte, at the 2015 World Championships, preferred to streamline past vertical toward his back as this was his fastest streamline. As such, he would streamline on his back for the first 15 meters of the freestyle portion of the medley.) Under this interpretation (or clarification), FINA determined that he should have been disqualified for swimming backstroke for more than 1/4 of his race.

The following guidance has been provided by the USA Swimming Officials Committee:

Pertaining to the freestyle portion of the medley events 
Determination of the body position during the freestyle portion of the medley events (individual and relay) should be judged in a similar manner to other body position calls. Namely, the shoulders must be at or past the vertical toward the breast when the swimmer leaves the wall. The judge should watch the swimmer’s feet leave the wall and then look up to gauge the relative position of the shoulders to one another. It is important to consciously think about the position of the shoulders from the point of observation – forward in time and not project back in time to where the shoulders might have been between the time the feet left the wall and the observation was made. As always, the benefit of any doubt goes to the swimmer. This is particularly true when the judge is observing more than one lane as it may be quite difficult to ascertain the position of the shoulders when observing from a different lane. 

Suggested language for the disqualification slip 

Use Miscellaneous-Other (7T) “Swimming more that ¼ of the race in the style of backstroke.”

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

New Mini/Distance Meet Added to February's Meet Line Up

Hampton Dolphins have agreed to host a Mini/Distance meet on February 13-14, 2016. This had been a meet proposed by the AMS Age Group Committee but there had been no bidders.

Of course, we need officials for both the Mini and Distance portions. Mini sessions are in the AM and Distance sessions are in the PM. Use the following link to sign up for this meet...

http://vols.pt/SjUmzb

Our championship season begins the following weekend so while you're in the volunteering mood, take a look at our championship meets and sign up to do some sessions. Our swimmers have worked hard all season and these championship meets are very important to them, their coaches and families.

You can see all remaining meets by using this link...

http://vols.pt/q28pj3

As always, we look forward to seeing you on deck! Make sure your certifications and expirations are up to date.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Yes, It's 2016...Are Your Certification Requirements Up To Date??

As we've now turned to a new chapter and have closed out 2015, we look forward to the continuation of the 2015-2016 Short Course season. Once again, Pittsburgh proves itself to be a last minute community. We still have a number of AMS Officials who have registered with USA Swimming as non-athlete members but have either allowed their Athlete Protection Training to expire or not recertify for their various Official positions...or both.

Click here to see the latest list of officials, both certified and not, in club order. Is your name in red? If it is, you do now qualify as being fashionably late and can go ahead and take care of this as soon as possible. Our meets start up again this weekend and we need all the hands we can get to adequately cover our meet decks.

We have a number of officials who have retired as their swimmers have graduated and/or are no longer swimming. Please recruit your friends at your clubs to join us on deck. Good food and good company!