Whats the big deal with phones on the infield of the track?

They want kids to be adequately potty trained, and phones are just too distracting to be able to hold your cacca and deposit it at the designated place.

It’s not phones. It’s electronic devices. Officials do not want to stop a meet to have a paramedic team pull a javelin from your gut because you listening to “your music” and not being alert.

So don’t stop the meet, then.

Also, other athletes can collide into each other while warming up.

I think a lot of officals overdo it (same case with many other rules), but theres a good reason behind the rule - there is a ton going on in the infield. Depending on the meet, there could be throws, runners warming up, practice relay handoffs, ect ect ect.

Why do you talk about scatalogical and fecal things on every thread? You seem obsessed with this topic and you try to connect it to every thread you post on.

Are you not aware of how others perceive your feces-related posts?

I am the clerk of the course for our local school and we don't have this rule. Or if we do, we don't enforce it. The javelin area is roped off, so you can do you warm-ups with music on the other end of the infield.

Ruxton Towers XC,

All T&F governing bodies have such a rule. If your meet officials simply ignore it, what other rules do they ignore?

World Athletics 6.3.3

USATF Rule 159

NFHS Rule 3 Article 8

Exactly. Responses here are revealing to the mass ignorance of this topic and others.

Such as: make sure the javelin, disc, shot know to stay only in the roped off areas.

Practicing relay exchanges on the grassy infield in your flats is sure to make for great exchanges on the track in spikes.

The rules are mostly for you guys so the last thing you dont hear is "Hey Dumba$$, Look Out"! right before it gets dark with a loud ringing noise in your ear that doesn't quite go with your music.

So I will blame the adults in charge again when things go wrong, not the kids. They arent allowed to get in those positions of poor decision without consequences in well run organizations.

Gegagedigedagedago

I don't disagree with the rule (for safety) and would be happy to enforce it if I thought anyone else could/would. In our era, that is 100% futile.

I am not a "phone guy" and I am not one of those people who "needs" music. But honestly, if kids are sitting around behind the HJ apron (100m away from the Jav and shot) stretching before their event, I don't see anyone walking over and telling them to take their airpods out. That is not going to happen in real life.

my guess would be safety from throwing implements, if it's used for that; safety from each other if people are warming up there; so you can hear announcements or at least have no excuse not to have done so; and if it's a grass field so that when it's all done (a) the mowers aren't finding them and (b) the football/lacrosse/soccer players who might also use the field don't land on them.

With camera phones, I'm pretty sure that snapping crotch shots of runners who are stretching is a real if unstated concern.

This might be your interpretation, but not what these rules state.

The problem with those darned kids is they just dont stay put for very long, do they? The problem is, again, adults that dont want to enforce rules with consequences that change behavior involving safety. They can listen to their electronic devices all they want to while sitting in the spectators seating area. Im trying to imagine basketball players and football players listening to music on the sidelines during a game since they may not be immediately involved.