January, 2013
| Happy New Year!
We wish you health, prosperity, good fortune, and fast times in the New Year!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Upcoming Meets January 2013 |
|||
| Date | Meet | Location | Officials Contact |
| 5-6 | PVS January Distance Meet | Lee District | Suzanne Marron |
| 5-6 | MAKO Winter Invitational | GMU | Tony Fitz |
| 6 | RMSC
Frosty Pentathlon |
Germantown | Tim McIlmail |
| 12-13 | Winter Senior Meet | Fairland | Lynne Gerlach |
| 12-13 | Polar
Bear 14 & Under Meet |
South Run | William Deniston |
| 12-13 | Green & Orange Bowl Invitational | Madeira | Stewart Gordon |
| 12-13 | Speedo Eastern
States Senior Circuit |
Washington-Lee HS | Chris Palmer |
| 19-20 | PVS January Open | Audrey
Moore Rec Center Germantown Fairland-1 Fairland-2 |
Stewart Gordon
Scott Witkin Randy Bowman Mark Harris |
| 19-20 | Snow Dude Mini Meet | Mt. Vernon | John Kost |
| 26-27 | NCAP Invitational | Georgetown Prep | Art Davis |
Have
You Recertified?
Were you due to recertify this year? Many local PVS certifications expired
on December 31, 2012. To find your expiration date, go into OTS, the
Officials Tracking System on the USA Swimming website, and click “My
Certification Card.” Certification is not
the same as USA Swimming registration.
To review the recertification requirements, go to the Officials section on the PVS website: http://pvswim.org/official/recertification_requirements.html. There you’ll also find the link to contact the Certification Officer to request your recertification.
Background Check
For those officials who were in “the first wave” of completing
the USA Swimming criminal background check in 2011, you will need to
renew your background check in January or February of 2013. Check your
registration card on OTS for your expiration date. Keep in mind that
you are not permitted to work on deck as an official if you do not have
a current background check.
The criminal background check is an integral part of USA Swimming’s efforts to foster a safe and positive environment for our athletes. Renewing your Level 2 background check is easy. Simply go to the USA Swimming website (Member Resources > Safe Sport > Screening and Selection). Complete directions can be found at http://usaswimming.org/backgroundcheck. Assuming this is a renewal, you will choose “Option 2: If you need to renew your USA Swimming background check” and follow the prompts. As was the case with the initial screening, a fee is charged by AISS for the background check. Once again, the PVS Board of Directors has generously committed to reimbursing qualified officials who request reimbursement using the form on the PVS website.
Don’t
Forget
Don’t forget to add clinics, mentoring
experiences, Swimposium participation, etc. in the Activity History
area of the online certification application. The requirements for National
Certification include continuing education, mentoring and training.
These experiences are listed in the Officials Tracking System as “other
activities,” and are generally added by the official himself/herself.
If you forget to include these activities, your application for N2 or
N3 certification will be rejected. You’ve attended the clinics,
you’ve helped mentor new officials on deck — make sure you
get credit for these activities by adding them to the Officials Tracking
System.
You Make the Call
There are yellow buoys on each lane line to mark the 15-meter distance
but some buoys shift and slide haphazardly up and down the lane lines.
The swimmer's head in Lane #6 breaks the water surface at the edge of
the buoy in her lane but the marker in Lane #7 is passed. Is this a
DQ?
See the answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
Did
You Know . . .
In 1961 at the Indoor Nationals at Yale University, the 1500M freestyle
final was one of the last major races conducted without lane lines.
Avoiding head-on collisions was a part of the race.
Upcoming Clinics
| Date | Clinic | Location | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday January 5 |
Referee Recert | Kings Park Library 9000 Burke Lake Rd. Burke, VA 22015 |
10:15 AM - 12:15 PM |
| Saturday January 5 |
Chief Judge | Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library 7584 Leesburg Pike Falls Church, VA 22043 |
12:00 - 2:00 PM |
| Saturday January 12 |
Stroke & Turn | Georgetown Prep | 9:00 - 11:00 AM |
| Saturday January 12 |
Starter | Kings Park Library 9000 Burke Lake Rd. Burke, VA 22015 |
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM |
| Saturday January 12 |
Stroke & Turn | Kings Park Library 9000 Burke Lake Rd. Burke, VA 22015 |
12:30 - 2:30 PM |
| Tuesday January 15 |
Starter | MLK Swim Center | 7:00 - 9:00 PM |
| Tuesday January 29 |
Stroke & Turn | MLK Swim Center | 7:00 - 9:00 PM |
Diving
with the Stars
Fox is taking celebrity reality television to the pool. The network
announced a one-time special “Stars in Danger: The High Dive”
that pits B-list celebrities against each other in an Olympic-style
diving contest. The contestants will compete in a series of Olympic-style
dives, including solo high diving and synchronized diving from various
heights, Fox said in a statement. The show will be hosted by U.S. Olympic
diving medalist Troy Dumais. Contestants include “Jersey Shore”
star Jennifer Farley, football star Terrell Owens, former stars of the
TV show “Baywatch” David Chokachi and Alexandra Paul, surfer
Bethany Hamilton, who lost an arm in a 2003 shark attack, “Real
Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast members Kim and Kyle Richards,
and daytime soap opera actor Antonio Sabato Jr.
The contestants will compete in a series of Olympic-style dives, including solo high diving and synchronized diving from several heights, Fox said in a statement. Host Dumais, who competed in four Olympics (2000-2012), won the bronze medal in 3-meter synchronized diving with Kristian Ipsen at the 2012 Summer Games in London.
The two-hour special, which will air on January 9, follows popular reality shows such as “Dancing with the Stars,” and the short-lived “Skating with the Stars,” both on rival ABC.
Questions? Suggestions?
Do you have a question about officiating or a tip you’d like to
share? Is there a rule that you’d like to have clarified? Do you
have a suggestion for a future item in this newsletter? If so, please
send your questions/comments to the newsletter editor, Jack
Neill.
Staying
on Top
If your son or daughter is among the Top 16 when they are 10
years old, shouldn’t they be in the running for a national championship
when they turn 18? In fact, quite the opposite is the case. Improvement
is not a steady positive slope, especially for swimming prodigies. A
study by USA Swimming using the All-Time Top 100 swims in each
age group found that only 10 percent of the Top 100 10-and-Unders
maintained their status through age 18. Only half of the swimmers among
the Top 100 in the 17-18 age group had made any top-100 list when they
were younger. “Those winning races at 10 probably won’t
be winning races when they are 20,” says John Leonard, the executive
director of the American Swimming Coaches Association. “This is
one of those things that is obvious to coaches but can be a mystery
to parents.”
FINA
Magazine Now Online
The latest issue of FINA’s official publication, FINA Aquatics
World Magazine, is now available in electronic format here.
Enjoy the latest articles on the greatest stars of swimming, diving,
synchro, open water swimming, water polo and of the Masters movement
by downloading this latest issue of the magazine to your PC, tablet
or smartphone.
Resolution to
‘You Make the Call’
No. Placement of distinctive colored floats or markers on every lane
line must be uniformly set at the 15-meter distance. However, floats
“float” and the swimmer should be given the benefit of the
doubt by judging the 15 meter mark by the most generous of all the appropriate
floats in the pool.
