YMCA of the USA Competitive Swimming and Diving Fo: overlapping jurisdictions

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   There has been many occations where an infraction was seen by one official and a disqualification not made due to jurisdictiion (e.g. a turn judge witnessing a stroke infraction).  Is it acceptable to have overlapping jurisdictions to avoid this situation? 

Jim

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Harding New Member Joined: Nov/24/2009 Posts: 4	Topic: overlapping jurisdictions Posted: Nov/25/2009 at 12:36pm
	There has been many occations where an infraction was seen by one official and a disqualification not made due to jurisdictiion (e.g. a turn judge witnessing a stroke infraction). Is it acceptable to have overlapping jurisdictions to avoid this situation? Jim

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Ed Miller Moderator Group Moderator - Officials Joined: Apr/29/2006 Location: United States Posts: 159	Posted: Nov/27/2009 at 3:05pm
	You can have overlapping jurisdictions so long as no swimmer is subjected to any more scrutiny than any other swimmer. That is a decision of the referee, and is based on the number of available officials, the pool configuration, etc. However, when assigning jurisdictions, reason and common sense should prevail. The broader you assign people jurisdiction, the more they have to watch and the increased likelihood that they will miss something, which is what you are trying to prevent. At YMCA Nationals, we assign the turn judges the last stroke into the wall and the first stroke out, while the stroke judges are given wall to wall jurisdiction. Even with that set-up, we have had situations where an infraction may have been missed, but that happens at swim meets. Remember, we are observers, not inspectors. Ed Miller National Officials' Committee Chair
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