Welcome
Florida Gold Coast LMSC is your local masters swim committee for southeast Florida. For more information about masters swimming or joining Florida Gold Coast LMSC please see About Us.
2012 USMS Registration - Register now and be prepared for the exciting 2012 season!
For online registration click here
2012 USMS Club Registration
Get the 2012 USMS Club Registration form here
Upper Keys Winter Invitational - CANCELED
February 4-5, 2012
Founders Park Aquatic Center, Islamorada, FL
Masters Challenge. Ft. Lauderdale FL
Information coming soon
Important USMS Rule Changes for 2011
It is important to note that all changes to USMS rules take effect on January 1, 2011. Changes to USA-Swimming rules do not take effect for USA-Swimming meets until later in the year, so please ensure that meet referees are aware of this difference. Even the changes adopted by USMS to conform to USA-Swimming changes will take effect on January 1 for USMS sanctioned meets.
Qualification of Officials
Starting January 1, 2011, all referees must be certified at this level by USA-Swimming, USMS, YMCA, NCAA, or High School Federations. Officials who are only certified as Stroke and Turn Judges or Starters may serve as referees only if they receive additional training on the specific duties of the referee. As LMSC Officials Chairs, you all are responsible for ensuring that this standard is met and for providing the additional training needed if you wish to have individuals serve as referees who are not certified at this position. The material included in the LMSC Guide to Operations can serve this purpose. You could elect to hold a clinic or simply review this material face-to-face or over the telephone prior to a meet as a means of satisfying this requirement.
Also starting January 1, 2011, all stroke and turn judges and starters must be certified at these positions by USA-Swimming, USMS, YMCA, or High School Federations. Previously, there was no such requirement in the rules. However, non-certified officials may still perform the duties if they receive training on the specific duties of these positions and are under the supervision of a certified official. The certified official may be the referee provided the referee is able to work closely with other officials during the meet. In larger meets where the referee needs to delegate many duties, a chief judge or other official should ensure that any non-certified officials are assigned and supervised appropriately. The pre-meet briefings may be used for training purposes, but it is important to allow enough time to cover rules, duties of officials, assignments, and other instructions if this is the case.
Administrative Referee
The positions of timing judge and recorder have been eliminated and assigned to the administrative referee. This means that the administrative referee is responsible for the determination of official times and placements to be recorded in the official results. This includes resolution of timing system errors. The administrative referee is also responsible for resolving errors in entries and seeding and verifying documentation for records and top ten.
There are several ways to satisfy this requirement and still provide for efficient operations of the meet.
At some meets, the meet referee could also fulfill the duties of the administrative referee. The referee could still delegate the routine work of examining the timing data for each heat and recording the results, either by hand or in a computer program such as the Hy-Tek Meet Manager, which is commonly used at USMS sanctioned meets. The meet referee could assign a knowledgeable official as the administrative referee to perform these duties. At larger meets, a dedicated administrative referee could oversee all of these functions with a support staff as needed.
The important point is that the administrative referee is responsible for making the decisions on applying the rules regarding seeding, official time determination, and placement. This person should be assigned prior to the meet and meet referees must ensure that all officials (including administrative officials) are properly briefed on the rules. If the duties of the administrative referee are delegated, the meet referee or the administrative referee must provide the appropriate guidance for routine functions and should personally review and make the decision on any questions or situations that depart from the routine. Meet referees should make these instructions part of their standard pre-meet briefing.
Split Times with Two Watches
Relay lead-off splits and intermediate splits in individual events may be recorded using a minimum of two hand-held watches for USMS Top 10 purposes. Note that the rules have not changed regarding the requirements for records in individual events or through the use of relay lead-off and intermediate split times. The requirements for Top Ten times from individual events have not changed.
It is important that we continue to exercise “preventive officiating” and guard against possible errors in order to ensure that swimmers receive the most accurate time and placement that we can provide with the timing systems available at any meet. Therefore, the general guidance for referees is that the best way to ensure accurate split times and finish times for all swimmers is to assign separate timers to a lane if a swimmer desires a split time to be recorded with hand-held watches. The use the “split function” on watches which are being used to obtain a finish time is not advised.
Record Applications
Note also that USMS record applications must be submitted within 90 days of the end of the season. It is important that you ensure referees are fully aware of the requirements for USMS and world records. The best advice would be to have all record documentation completed prior to the end of the meet. If additional records are identified after the meet, documentation should be completed as soon as possible to ensure that the deadlines are not missed.
Bulkhead Confirmation
The rules now require that bulkhead placement be confirmed at the start and finish of each session. We previously advised that the bulkhead placement should be confirmed prior to the start of each session, but it now a hard requirement in the rules. Referees should verify the placement and record the measurement on the pool length measurement form. The bulkhead placement could be completed prior to the general warm-up period to avoid any disruption in the meet. If this is not possible, be sure to leave enough time to perform this function.
Charlie Cockrell
USMS Officials Chair
Swim and Triathlon Clinics!
Several LMSC Clubs offer swim or triathlon clinics. Please click here for more information
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