USA Swimming approved national standards for certifying officials while also preventing LSCs and clubs from requiring any additional certifications on Saturday at its Annual Business Meeting in Colorado Springs.
The national standards will be “set by USA Swimming with a recommendation from the National Officials Committee in conjunction with the Coaches Advisory Council.” The proposal was supported by both the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) and the Coaches Advisory Council.
“This change ensures a standard by which all officials are certified and trained and should allow increased access and entry/participation with officials, which in turn means more opportunities for competition, specifically lower-level meets,” ASCA said in its endorsement of the legislation.
4-9 102.10.2 Officials amendment:
“All officials acting in the capacity of Referee, Starter, Stroke and Turn Judge, or Administrative Official, or Stroke and Turn Judge at a sanctioned or approved USA Sswimming meet shall be certified and trained in such position by their LSC to the uniform and consistent standards set by USA Swimming with recommendation from the National Officials Committee in conjuction with the Coaches Advisory Council prior to being assigned to officiate in that capacity. LSCs and clubs shall not cannot require any additional certifications. Uncertified trainees may perform the duties of such positions when they are under the direct supervision of a certified official in said position. See Article 202 and the Corporate Bylaws for USA Swimming membership requirements.”
“ASCA fully supports the decision of the House of Delegates today to create a uniform standard for officials,” ASCA added in a statement to SwimSwam on Saturday. “This will help clubs run more meets and serve more swimmers. What’s good for our clubs is good for swimming.”
The issue became a financial burden on clubs and coaches because some onerous LSC requirements made it difficult to find enough officials to host meets. One coach told SwimSwam that it took a year to certify an official for club-hosted meets and required those officials to travel several hours each direction in order to meet his LSC’s requirements, where the certifying was concentrated with a single individual.
The coach lamented that the current roster of meet referees “average in their 60s” and no longer have children swimming, but that antiquated certifying processes meant that the next generation of parents were unable to take over.
The vote passed with 58% approval, clearing the required 50% threshold. USA Swimming’s current standards for officials are available here.
Other Votes
- USA Swimming also voted to remove some limits on its Development Competition Program, such as scheduling requirements and a maximum of four Development meets per season. The 12-and-under age limit remained a rule, which ASCA said did not go far enough in expanding access to Development Competitions. “ASCA agrees with the changes being suggested to create greater flexibility for these meets, however the rule continues to define Development Competitions as 12 and under,” ASCA said in its voting recommendation. “Many clubs have athletes that are developmental level/first time swimmers, and are not allowed within Development Competitions. Multiple LSC’s are required to offer Development Competitions, but must follow USAS definitions, and therefore cannot offer meets to a large demographic. ASCA supports this proposal but would like to see the age group broadened to be more inclusive.” Over the summer, SwimSwam reported on how some clubs are considering a dual membership system with USA Swimming for their competitive swimmers and AAU for their non-competitive swimmers.
- Rules regarding virtual LSC-level house of delegates meetings (already approved at the national level) were also approved. Now LSCs can hold virtual votes, though they are not required to.
- The threshold for optional wetsuits in non-national championship open water competitions was lowered from 20 degrees celsius to 18 degrees celsius.
- A few stroke rules, previously announced, were updated to reflect the latest World Aquatics rules.
You can read a full list of proposed amendments to USA Swimming’s rules and regulations here. All of the proposed updates were approved. USA Swimming’s House of Delegates also elected former American record holder Sabir Muhammad to a four-year term on its Board of Directors. They also reelected Kathleen Prindle to another four-year term on the Board.
Psychologically speaking, people will repeat a behavior if they are rewarded for it over if they are punished for not doing so. Our club has fundraising requirements for each family. We then incentivize our parent volunteers by having a monetary value attached to each “job”. If they work those jobs, they get money off their fundraising requirement. We have seen better success with a reward system like this over a punishment system for those that don’t.
This is great news. The certification process has become crazy in some places. I’m am official with 20+ years experience, 10+ as referee/meet referee. Trying to switch LSCs. With all the requirements of the new LSC, it will take attendance at 2 clinics, 2 online courses, 2 certification tests, work multiple sessions as a ref then find a meet with an evaluator who will evaluate me, do at least one session each as AO, Timing operator and Computer operator under supervision. So, even though I have worked multiple sessions in this LSC in the past and can be a ref for their meets as an official from another LSC, I can’t actually be part of their LSC without A LOT… Read more »
This is all just silly.
I have officiated for well over 20 years. The drop in the number of volunteer officials reflects societal and cultural shifts towards volunteering. The Chronicle Of Philanthropy recently published an interesting article/report on this issue of diminished volunteerism. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking about scouts or band activities or anything else that may involve kids. All of these activities are challenged to get volunteers to step up and help.
Being a volunteer swimming official is hard work – on your feet for hours; hard surface; hot and humid environment; noisy; oftentimes multiple issues at the same time; sometimes coaches in your face; even the occasional bellicose parent…
To think that somehow lowering… Read more »
Try moving to a new state and having to start over as an official. That happened to me. Also, when I started over, the requirements were different (number of sessions, not just at your club team, prelim/final, etc). Sounds like you are fortunate to be in an LSC where they take officiating seriously and have a pretty clear standard of procedures. Not all LSC’s are like that. In fact, many are not. Michigan and Illinois pay their officials, and have the lowest number of registered officials. Many officials in Michigan no longer have kids on the team and use officiating as a part-time job. Paying officials does not automatically raise the standard of performance. Regardless, this new legislation is a… Read more »
One comment – I’m not sure if Illinois Swimming pays their officials, but as of 2021, Illinois Swimming was the LSC with the largest number of registered officials. https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/governance/governance-lsc-website/membership-demographics/2021-membership-demographics-report.pdf?sfvrsn=80510b32_10
It’s also the 1st or 2nd largest LSC (might still be SoCal, but they do officiating an entirely different way.
Illinois Swimming does not pay its officials. We recruit hard and make training easy. We moved to completely online training pre-covid.
Southern California is the worst.
Great to see this legislation. Long overdue.
LSC’s have the best intentions. But in some cases their Officials Chair and/or Officials Committee would indeed enact burdensome hoops to jump for certifications (unreasonably too many shadow sessions, onerous sign-off officials who would flunk people for spite, etc.). Many new/young parents seeking to become officials would simply give up. Now, making certifications uniform and reasonable throughout USA Swimming fixes that (and prohibits personal agendas from the more experienced officials).
I’m a 70-year-old Meet Referee and would be glad to step aside gracefully if there were anyone else to take my place. Our LSC has a critical shortage of certified officials, in spite of reducing the apprentice hour requirements for new Stroke & Turn officials. Part of the problem can be attributed to COVID, but there is always going to be the inherent turnover as parent officials leave when their kids age out. I just don’t see much of an effort by many clubs to recruit new officials, and I don’t see how standardizing qualification requirements is going to solve that. Our LSC has a rule that each club should have one certified official for every 30 swimmers, but it’s… Read more »
100% agree. This legislation was well intentioned, but doesn’t solve the root fo the problem, which is an apathy towards volunteering. Livestream and technology like cell phones make it easier to pass time while at swim meets for parents. Like it or not, it takes time to be a qualified Meet Referee, especially for larger meets. This legislation may make it slightly easier for clubs to host smaller intrasquad/dual/development meets, but putting a Meet Referee who is a brand new Deck Referee out for a larger timed final meet won’t be good for anyone, coach, athlete, or official.
I don’t think that saying “this doesn’t solve every hurdle” is a good reason to not remove one hurdle.
I would volunteer as a meet official. I don’t think I’d spend a year driving 3 hours back and forth for training/shadowing/mentoring to do it.
Bingo.
You hit the nail on the head, Braden. You have a willingness to participate but your time commitment is the determining factor. Taking care of our new and existing volunteers is at the root of this legislation. We can create a process parents are willing to step in to. AND- we take care of our existing officials by having more officials to split the overwhelming workload at the grass roots. This is the FIRST hurdle we’ve removed. The hope is everyone can work together to make sure hurdles aren’t a repellant to our volunteer parents. Let’s welcome them in to our amazing sport.l with their needs in mind.
Mark- part of the issue is parents are not stepping into the certification process of becoming an official because of the localized certification requirements. Clubs are having trouble recruiting because parents don’t even want to get started. They are unwilling to devote the time required.
I am probably the second youngest certified official in USA swimming (currently 18). I fully support this! My LSC (PC) official chair once said this is “almost impossible to get passed,” and his dream came true!
Fabulous! We really needed this in our LSC. Trying to navigate the process is crazy town.
Next, destroy the practice of officials being compensated for working at meets. There a a couple LSCs doing this. Officiating needs be a volunteer activity.
I agree with you, but I’m beginning to reconsider the position. There are a lot of entitled parents that have zero interest in helping. It makes you think twice when walking through a pool parking lot before a session looking at rows and rows of luxury cars. As you walk through the doors you realize you’ll be working for the next five hours with the same small group of volunteers, most of whom don’t even have kids swimming in the session.
Agree. There are a select few that do it for the love of the sport, have a genuine interest, or a just those people that truly want to do their part. Most clubs have had to go to incentive programs to recruit officials (pay their membership fees, waive usual volunteer requirement, or waive meet fees for one of their swimmers). That is sad that we need to find a way to “make it worth someone’s time.” So much easier to drop your swimmer off, go to Starbuck’s, sleep in the car, be glued to your phone, or gossip in the stands. Been an official for 11 years and am now a head coach as well. Seen it all. If we… Read more »
Yup. Welcome to the Cell Phone Generation. And now they are parents. Most swim parents today grew up with a cell phone from a young age. Instant entertainment/gratification, instant purchase power, instant communication, hyper-convenient existence, glued to the phone.
Can’t be “bothered” to volunteer, or otherwise invest time. They would rather pay someone to do it. There are clubs who have steep volunteering fees that are collected from those don’t volunteer. And many parents gladly write the check instead of spending any time helping.
Psychologically speaking, people will repeat a behavior if they are rewarded for it over if they are punished for not doing so. Our club has fundraising requirements for each family. We then incentivize our parent volunteers by having a monetary value attached to each “job”. If they work those jobs, they get money off their fundraising requirement. We have seen better success with a reward system like this over a punishment system for those that don’t.
It’s the other way around: if you want professional officials and you want enough of them, you should pay them.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this.
I’ve never actually been paid for officiating, but I have gotten gas money on occasion and have been comped with hotel rooms a couple of times when working at championship meets.
The only time I was actually offered to be paid was when I was asked the night before to work as Meet Ref at an out-of-town three-day meet….and they stiffed me.
The fact is that most meets are money-making ventures for teams and I don’t see any problem compensating lead team officials, particularly if the host team is relying on officials from other teams in order to make the meet legal.
I would also add that working National decks… Read more »
Why does it need to be volunteer? Many lsc’s/teams are down to very few officials. Seeking the idea of officiating is next to impossible due to the time requirements/certification process. If it takes money to get people to do the job, so be it. Increase meet fees and pay the officials. Who cares. Altruism is BS anyway.