Hi Starter/Referees-

I hope this note finds you all well and enjoying your season! I’ve had a great time running and attending RMSL meets this summer, and I hope you have too.

There’s are a couple of things that I’ve noticed at the meets I’ve attended (and run) that I wanted to call out. First, stroke judges need to stand at the ends of the pool, directly behind their assigned lanes of jurisdiction - not at the corners of the pool. In a 6 lane pool, that would be directly behind lanes 2 and 5, and in an 8 lane pool that would be in between lanes 2/3 and lanes 6/7. This puts the judges in the center of the action, allowing them to fairly judge all lanes equally.

Please also remind judges to watch for early take-offs during relay exchanges. I think I did a decent job of teaching how to watch for early take-offs at the START end of the pool, but judges probably need a reminder to watch for early take-offs in the shallow end of the pool on 4x25 relays. In the shallow end, a swimmer’s hand must stay on top of the wall until the inbound swimmer has touched the wall. Please, no interpretations here - we should all judge this the same way (and this is how prelims/finals will be judged).

Lastly, I do hope that you are all having an enjoyable time running your meets. I also work at USA Swimming meets, which are very competitive - I try hard to tone that back at these RMSL meets and just have fun. I truly believe that in this league it’s at least as important to cheer for the swimmers who are learning to swim as it is to cheer for those who are winning - swimming is a life saving skill and we should celebrate those that are learning it! Let’s all remember that the benefit of the doubt goes to the swimmer, and know that our positive attitudes will go a long way towards having a positive meet.

Have fun at your remaining meets! Please reach out if you have any questions.

Take care,

Kris Reese

[email protected]