By Staff
Athletic Management, 18.3, April/May 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1803/wugoodstart.htm
Swimmers take the starting blocks, adrenaline pumping. The official’s whistle sounds, and they take their marks. The starting gun cracks, and they throw everything they’ve got into the water, driving for the other end of the pool. Several meters out, a rope drops: false start. Momentum sagging, they make their way back to the blocks to try again.
At high school swim meets in Ohio this year, that letdown was a thing of the past. Under an experimental rule, there were no recalls for false starts, the race continued, and a swimmer who false started learned afterward that he or she had been disqualified. The NFHS has made the experimental rule optional for any state that wants to try it.
The rationale behind the rule is that swimmers who have not false started should not be penalized by someone who has. In addition, the rule makes false starts more like other disqualifications, which don’t stop the race or prevent the violator from finishing. This makes meets flow more smoothly and allows disqualified swimmers to be timed in their event (even though their time is not counted).
Jim Brower, Head Swimming and Diving Coach at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, which won last year’s Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I Boys’ Championship, liked using the rule this season. “Especially in a shorter race where there is a lot of adrenaline off the start, it is difficult to begin all over again,” says Brower. “In my opinion, it’s a very good rule.”
Brower also experienced the downside of the new procedure when one of his athletes notched a great time only to learn that a false start had disqualified him. “It’s tough to go all out, perform well, and then find out it didn’t count,” Brower acknowledges. “But at least he got to swim the race, and his mistake didn’t hurt anyone else. That’s much better than having to walk away.”