In swimming, why do they rely on relay take-off judges on exchanges, shouldn't it be automated?

I hate the automated ones in track, swimming has it right

“a senor in the pool”? That is so racist

They do.

swimswam.com

Why Was Australia's -0.03 Relay Start Not A DQ? A Rules Deep Dive

Jared Anderson

Zac Incerti's relay start registered on official results as a -0.03. We dig into the rules on why that exchange didn't call for an automatic disqualification.

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I believe they do have sensors for it now. They went into detail the other talking about the timing of the exchanges and I noticed on relay where they were showing the reaction times. The best are leaving the blocks one tenth of a second after the previous swimmer touches. I wish they had this technology when I was swimming in the 90s!

Employment. Most of a brain. A moral compass. Your nap.

sexist as well

That’s the best you can do? you don’t have to be here.

Welp. I'm a moron like rojo my bad

Okay, I LOLed.

Automatic timing for relay takeoffs began in the 70s at the NCAAs with a take-off pad on the top of the starting blocks synchronized to the touchpad in the water. As the story is told, Indiana University's medley relay got DQd that way and their legendary coach, Doc Councilman raised such a stink claiming his flyer touched over the gutter (not activating the touchpad) causing a malfunction in the automated relay exchange reading that that equipment was shelved until 2000ish.

Hence, the human takeoff judging added to the auto judging is to provide "justice" when irregularities in the auto system take place.

si senor

as mexicans are taking all the pool jobs now? wow as the radical left is out control

Would’ve thought he’d strictly want only senoritas in the pool in women’s swimming.

they should have a baton

Amazing article. So the timing system in swimming is only accurate to .03 according to Omega - yet we are supposed to believe eveyrthing was 100% accurate in Eugene for track and field in 2022. Lol.

The systems are trying to solve two slightly different problems, but the difference makes automatic judging for early take offs in swimming more difficult than for false starts in track.

For the relay takeoff in swimming, the outgoing swimmer can be moving before the incoming swimmer touches the wall. They only need their big toe touching the block when the touch occurs. The accelerometer on the block will feel the block move back suddenly as the swimmer pushes against it, and at some point the block probably rebounds and starts to move forward as the swimmer is leaving. I've never seen an actual measurement, but it might not be that easy to pinpoint the exact time the feet leave the block. I could see the time history being different for men vs women, and it will depend on the stiffness of the block, too. I think that's why there is some allowance for noise in the takeoff time.

The false start in track is looking for the first motion, so that is the initial signal from the block being pushed back. This is likely a much easier thing to determine from an acceleration history.

They do have touchpads on the blocks that are linked to the touchpads in the pool. Judges can tell within .01 if a swimmer leaves the blocks before his teammate touches.