In the aim of helping our young swimmers understand and learn the rules of their sport and giving them the confidence to adhere to those rules, the Electric Eels Committee are implementing a swim rule process over the course of the remainder of this swim season.
We hope our swimmers will be confident in their knowledge of the swim rules to avoid disqualifications at swim meets, be it by invitation, nomination or school swimming carnivals in the future.
As a member club of Swimming Queensland, we are governed by a number of overarching policies and regulations. This includes requiring our swimmers to comply with the swimming rules for each stroke.
We are committed to all our swimmers, whether Recreational or Competitive members, learning the rules of the sport and avoiding any penalties.
In 2016/17, we sought to comply with these regulations by enforcing the swimming rules at the Club Championships and disqualified swimmers who breached the rules at this event.
At the Annual General Meeting on 29 July 2017, the Committee resolved to provide a greater opportunity for our swimmers and give them time to learn the swimming rules throughout the season of 2017/18.
In order to do this, our club will take a proactive and incremental approach and work with swimmers identified as not complying with the swimming rules over the course of the season.
The approach described below will allow all swimmers to work with their coaches and parents to address any identified issues earlier in the swimming season.
As a first step, I draw all club members’ attention to the Electric Eels Swim Rules (Attached), which describe the criteria by which our Race Referee is governed.
It is important to note that the Electric Eels Swim Rules (as directed by Swimming Queensland) apply only to swimmers aged 8 years and over.
| Week 1 – 3
Term 1, 2018 Process |
Where a breach is observed by the Race Referee, the swimmer will receive a correction form indicating the breach (eg. False start, incorrect technique etc).
I strongly encourage all swimmers who receive a form from the Race Referee to provide it to their parents. In weeks 1-3 of Term 1 2017, there will be no disqualification of any swimmer for a breach of the Swim Rules. The club will use this time to identify breaches and work with swimmers to understand and address these. |
| Rest of Term
Term 1, 2018 Process |
Where a breach is observed by the Race Referee, the swimmer will receive a form indicating the breach (eg. false start, incorrect technique etc).
Swimmers who receive a form indicating a breach will be disqualified from the event. As per Swimming Queensland rules, any disqualification will not count towards Club Championship points. |