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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our Divisionals starter was the slowest, most inconsistent starter I have seen all summer. 
There were more ‘stand’ pauses than I have ever heard in my many years at any pool. 
I felt for the kids, many of whom jumped in hearing ‘stand,’ probably expecting to hear the start. 
Fortunately, those kids were able to swim and get a time; but that was likely not their best after having been startled on the start. 
I asked if he was new and was told he was a seasoned league starter, who also trains others :-/[/quote]

Starters are not trained to be "consistent."  They are trained to respond to the swimmers.  Quick starts aren't necessarily fair starts (if the field isn't coming to set).  If your starter was slow, it's because the field wasn't coming to set.  If the starter gives the starting signal too quickly with a field that is not coming to set, you are going to have many more false starts.  Stand commands often save kids from being DQ'ed for false starts, and so you're lucky you had a starter that was trying to avoid false starts. I'm PVS-certified as a starter (which requires hundreds and hundreds of starts before nationally certified officials).  I've been around a lot of summer pools.  NVSL/MCSL requires only a two hour class, and many summer starters are horrible.

A kid that jumps in response to the stand command is not disqualified.  If the swimmer is moving and cannot regain his or her balance and falls in after the start command is given is disqualified.  There are many US Swimming scenarios describing this clearly.

As someone who has been starting for years and has been repeatedly evaluated, I can tell you starting is not as easy at it looks.  I didn't see the meet you are describing, but it sounds to me like you don't understand the rules of swimming.  Perhaps you should take the starter course.

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+1.  You could have said that about the starter at our Divisionals, but then you weren't closely watching the kids.  I'm a team rep and we were all commenting on what a good job he was doing being responsive to what was happening.  A lot of them had the yips and were having trouble getting set, even in the older age groups.  He did everything he could to ensure there weren't any false starts and in at least one event had them stand 2 or 3 times because one or more kids were still wiggling.

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