Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics

Swim meet officials are an essential part of our sport. They maintain a safe environment for our athletes and help ensure a fair competitive environment for all athletes.

Swimming officials are always volunteers. Many officials are parents who offer their time and energy to help support their child's team and chosen sport.. Some of them continue to officiate years after their own children have left the sport. Others "do their time" and then quit.

Officials are volunteers, and volunteers are always welcome, appreciated, and necessary. Please consider doing your part to help PASA athletes.

Stroke & Turn Judge

Stroke & Turn judges verify that each swimmer uses proper technique. If your child is disqualified, your job is to wipe away the tears and tell funny stories about the time it happened to you, or your sister, or your brother. The coach's job is to be sure the child learns from the experience.

The most common errors in novice swimmers are as follows:

Backstroke

• The swimmer must finish on his or her back. If a swimmer turns over onto her stomach at the finish of a race to avoid bashing her head, she is disqualified.
• The flip turn. This turn has been difficult to explain to parents. The basic idea is that the swimmer can roll over and do a freestyle turn. Once the swimmer has begun the turn, he or she cannot do any additional freestyle motions. The whole turn must be continuous.

Breaststroke

• Breaststroke kick is a motion that's difficult for some kids, especially those who are pigeon-toed. Many kids are frustrated by this kick, because it seems so easy for some and so very hard for others. Be supportive. It is common for young breaststrokers to be disqualified for adding in occasional flutter kicks or dolphin kicks (usually unintentially).
• The turn and the finish must use two hands, simultaneously.
• At the start and turn, the swimmer can do a "pull-down," which means one pull and one kick underwater. More than one pull and one kick is not legal.
• Arms can't go past the hips during the pull. This occurs with beginners but is uncommon in experienced breaststrokers..

Butterfly

• The turn and the finish must use two hands, simultaneously.
• The kick must be simultaneous. If it starts to look like a flutter kick, that is a disqualification.
• The arms must be simultaneous. If it starts to look like freestyle (first the right arm lunges over, and then the left), that is a disqualification.

Freestyle

• Disqualifications in freestyle are fairly rare. Sometimes a new swimmer will be disqualified during a flip turn, if he or she misses the wall and never pushes off. While a disqualification here seems cruel, the point is that swimmers can't turn around in the middle of the pool. They really do have to touch the wall, with some part of their body.