Okay, parents, you are watching your child swim during a meet and suddenly an official (those people wearing blue shorts and white shirts) raises a hand. What does that mean?
Basically, the official has seen what is called a stroke infraction. USA Swimming has a list of rules that must be followed for each stroke. This ensures everyone swims the same kind of stroke without any unfair advantages.
If you are like me, a few years ago I didn't even know the names of most strokes or even how to swim them. That however changed and I am now one of those swim officials. From my experiences having to disqualify swimmers so far, I am offering you the following basic reminders that you can give your first-time swimmers before they go out to swim each event.
1. Remind your child what event they are swimming. I often have children ask me what event they are about to enter the water for. Often a child begins swimming the wrong stroke and unfortunately is disqualified.
2. If it's butterfly, remind them to touch the walls with both hands at the same time. It doesn't matter where the hands are on the wall, just as long as it is simultaneous.
3. When doing backstroke, remind your youngster to remain on their backs until they've touched the wall with some part of their body.
4. Breastroke requires touching the wall with both hands at the same time. Again it doesn't matter where the hands are relative to each other.
5. Freestyle is hard to get disqualified on. Any kind of touch is acceptable.
There are of course other stroke rules, but these are the basics that any level of swimmer can easily master. The rest will come with your child's individual progress in mastering the strokes.
Happy Swimming - Karen Palmer
