rules to play finswimming

In Freestyle events, the competitor may swim any stroke. The stroke most commonly used is sometimes called the crawl, which is characterized by the alternate stroking of the arms over the water surface and an alternating upanddown flutter kick. On turns and finishes, some part of the swimmer must touch the wall. Most swimmers do a flip turn.

The swimmers are not allowed a false start. If they jump the start and the starter thinks they are trying to get an advantage whether intentional or notit does not matter, they will be taken out of the race. This is not like the Olympics where they are allowed two false starts.

Trained officials observe the swimmers during each event to ensure compliance with these technical rules. If a swimmer commits an infraction of the rules, heshe will be disqualified from that event. This simply means heshe will not receive an official time, nor be eligible for an award in that event. Disqualifications may result from actions such as not getting to the starting blocks on time, false starting, walking on or pushing off the bottom of the pool, pulling on the land line, or unsportsmanlike conduct.

The four competitive strokes are 1 freestyle, 2 backstroke, 3 breaststroke, and 4 butterfly. Events are held in all of the competitive strokes at varying distances depending on the agegroup of the swimmer. In addition, there is a combination of the strokes swum by one swimmer called the individual medley IM. Other swimming events include relays, which are a group of four swimmers who either all swim freestyle freestyle relay or each swim one of the competitive strokes in the order of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.

As of 2007, CMAS directly oversees the following four competitions at international level: the World Championship, Continental Championships, the World Cup and the CMAS Junior Trophy.