Stroke and turn Judge at B swim meets

[Anonymous]

Ugh! Seriously? DQing 4 kids in an 8 & under heat of 6? Bragging about, "I'm DQing so many kids, the officials can't keep up!"

Then the crazy swim parents actually justify this nonsense. But what do I know, I refereed Youth, HS and NCAA lacrosse and youth and HS football for a combined 20 yrs of officiating.

In ALL sports except swimming, the expectations from the officials are lessened for younger athletes. If youth hoops were officiated the way that swimming is, the scores would be 0-0 and the refs would be the only people that got to do anything. 20-30 traveling calls and 20-30 double dribble calls.....game over.

And the crazy swim folks wonder why they can't get kids to swim on the team....maybe officiate the way that every other sport in the world is officiated! A kid goes to check their time.....DQ! No time for you, go home, you suck.

And before the trolls strike, my kids have been DQ'd, but none were amoungthe 4/6 heat above.

[Anonymous]

Half the kids got DQ’d in my daughter’s event tonight (in a B me), including my daughter. It’s a good learning experience but I agree that it’s tough on the little ones.

[Anonymous]

Gonna guess breast stroke?
But really you’re right, experience with lacrosse and football really aren’t similar. It’s pretty cut and dried. Two hand touch. My kids never cared when they got DQ and fixed it the next time.
Bragging about DQs? Well that is pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Bragging about DQs is ridiculous.

But as a Stroke and Turn judge who had to DQ 12 year olds for flutter kick during butterfly, it's better to DQ them when they're under 8 and can learn the stroke properly. Especially when the kids then realize they aren't as fast as they thought they were, until they actually learn their dolphin kick.

[Anonymous]

What are you criticizing? You have to swim legal strokes to get your times. If you don't, then you get DQ. Parents DQ their own kids. That is why many teams stress legal strokes. No, it cannot be changed. Follow the rules. Why should your kid not follow the rules? Instead get them swim lessons so they can swim legal strokes. No sports bend the rules for complaining parents whose kids cannot do the sport properly.

[Anonymous]

If they get a legal time at a b meet, they might mistakenly be put in an A meet even though they cant swim the stroke legally.

It happened to my DD.

[Anonymous]

It’s rough dq’ing a kid but the standard is that you judge 8yr olds and 18yr olds the same way. The stroke requirements aren’t different due to age.

We are all parent volunteers and we all want all the kids to be successful and have fun, but that’s how swimming works.

[Anonymous]

Off topic but I did once see a parent fill in as a ref for an 8 yr old soccer game who awarded a penalty kick for an accidental handball. I thought that was a little rough.

[Anonymous]

Not dq-ing those kids would have been unfair to the kids who swam legally. Bragging about the dqs, if that really happened, is not cool.

[Anonymous]

I just hate sports around here. I was on a neighborhood swim team for years in the 80s, through my teens. We didn’t have turn judges and the only DQs I remember were the people who dove before the gun (and even then I think you got at least one false start do-over). People take themselves—or their kids—so seriously here!! Who cares what their kids’ times are? Do you think you have a little michael Phelps? Some of the kids I swam with later swam for Stanford, so I think they somehow managed to learn how to swim without being DQed by turn judges.
This is part of why I don’t let my kids do swim team. So ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just hate sports around here. I was on a neighborhood swim team for years in the 80s, through my teens. We didn’t have turn judges and the only DQs I remember were the people who dove before the gun (and even then I think you got at least one false start do-over). People take themselves—or their kids—so seriously here!! Who cares what their kids’ times are? Do you think you have a little michael Phelps? Some of the kids I swam with later swam for Stanford, so I think they somehow managed to learn how to swim without being DQed by turn judges.
This is part of why I don’t let my kids do swim team. So ridiculous.

Calm down...the kids have a blast and at least at our pool, everyone is really chill, despite DQs. My 8 yo was DQd and so I knew to have him check with the coach on how to do it right, and the next time he did it and was so proud of himself!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just hate sports around here. I was on a neighborhood swim team for years in the 80s, through my teens. We didn’t have turn judges and the only DQs I remember were the people who dove before the gun (and even then I think you got at least one false start do-over). People take themselves—or their kids—so seriously here!! Who cares what their kids’ times are? Do you think you have a little michael Phelps? Some of the kids I swam with later swam for Stanford, so I think they somehow managed to learn how to swim without being DQed by turn judges.
This is part of why I don’t let my kids do swim team. So ridiculous.

If you competed they probably did and you didn't know about it. The kids swimming in college were probably year round team swimmer. Once you get past 7-8 in year round team you don't generally DQ. I cannot imagine you swam that much and don't know.

[Anonymous]

Who cares if they DQ at a B meet? It’s just a way to learn. But DQing a swimmer who is not legal is a necessary evil because B meet times count for qualifying for A meets and the playing field needs to be level for collecting those times. A kid who swims breaststroke using a dolphin kick would swim faster theoretically than someone swimming the stroke legally. It’s just a requirement that everyone follows the same rules.

[Anonymous]

DQ'ing kids helps them learn. I'm a stroke and turn judge. It is helpful to the kids/coaches to write up what they did wrong. The coaches then know what to work on with the kid.
Also- at least in our NVSL pool, the referee/ team reps/ coaches set the rules for engagement at the B meets. It's pretty typical that we don't write DQ slips for 6 and Under. Sometimes the ref says not to bother to write a DQ on a really slow kid who is pulling on the lane line, etc. Typically, however, for something like Breast- which is a tough stroke for the little ones to swim legally, you do write the DQ slips b/c you want to make sure anyone who gets a time has a legal stroke. For many pools, any 8 and Under who can swim breast or fly legally is going to end up in the A meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh! Seriously? DQing 4 kids in an 8 & under heat of 6? Bragging about, "I'm DQing so many kids, the officials can't keep up!"

Then the crazy swim parents actually justify this nonsense. But what do I know, I refereed Youth, HS and NCAA lacrosse and youth and HS football for a combined 20 yrs of officiating.

In ALL sports except swimming, the expectations from the officials are lessened for younger athletes. If youth hoops were officiated the way that swimming is, the scores would be 0-0 and the refs would be the only people that got to do anything. 20-30 traveling calls and 20-30 double dribble calls.....game over.

And the crazy swim folks wonder why they can't get kids to swim on the team....maybe officiate the way that every other sport in the world is officiated! A kid goes to check their time.....DQ! No time for you, go home, you suck.

And before the trolls strike, my kids have been DQ'd, but none were amoungthe 4/6 heat above.

#1 The kids DQ themselves, the judge just see that they have not swum legally and marks it down
#2 The rules are the rules so lessening them gives no benefit to the swimmer leniency. They swim a shorter distance.
#3 The coaches really should not be putting in kids that they no are not legal
#4 If the don't get DQ'd in a B meet, they and the coach don't realize they can't swim legally and when the get DQ'd in the A meet it could cost points