You’re right in one sense but,often, people get uptight after a false start as they must re-focus in a shorter time than they had the first time and tactics can still be used. Imagine competitors losing initial focus after ten matches in a row with the same guy false starting each time- and then he doesn’t!.
There are many other issues at big comps, including flash bulbs and noises that aren’t there at smaller meets. There is also the issue of over-reliance on the automatic recall devices that may be set to too high a sensitivity- like at the WCs in 2003 where normal movements trigger the alarm.
I would like to see the stats on false starts since the new rule has been in place. I’d assume that there are now more first false starts for the reasons that Charlie identified.
The no-false start rule was used this winter during the Paris indoor meeting, and it was a catastroph. The banked track is linked with the wood structure of the indoor hall, and movements in the crowd made the signal ring anytime. Heats provided all kind of reaction times, in final a clear false start was not recalled, a Brazillian smashed his PB with 6.52 with a RT well under 0.100 but the starter could not rely on the headphones and didn’t noticed the Brazilian moving in lane 1.
There may alsobe the accumulation of delays caused by false starts. In a major championship where there are many heats, especially in the opening round, there can potentially be a long delay for the guys in the last heat as the delay spills and builds. So not only do the last guys get mucked around, so does the programme (sometimes, depending what follows) and the television schedule - and TV is what it’s mostly about.
Makes sense.
How about the no false start rule in big games until the semis and then the old rule kicks in.
With the no false start rule, would a starter in an invitational meet have the balls to kick Bolt out after the meet pays him 250,000? He might go for it thinking they wouldn’t dare- and he might be right. What would they do about a record?
I wouldn’t be comfortable being the starter with the new false start rule in a non-championship meet. With big payments already having been made (presumably), that would be a high pressure job.
Out of curiosity, can the starter call a false start but after reviewing the data, charge a false start to neither the field nor an individual? Basically, can they indirectly say “I screwed up by firing the gun again”? Is the system automated to fire again after a RT<0.100 in a big meet?
I am passionate about this. Starting is supposed to be a reaction. You hear the gun you start running, its simple. You start running before the gun goes and you are not reacting to the gun, which starting is supposed to be. I accept there are other noises at big meets but they arent like a gun. So I say bring on the new rule, it works ok in swimming…
The JA Boyz might answer with gunfire of their own:rolleyes:
Swimming feels very different though. Being on swimming blocks for some reason just doesn’t have the same urgency that sprinting does - perhaps its body position, perhaps something else.
One thing that I am certain of is that they need to revise the reaction time threshold now that the new starting rule is inplace. It’s redundant. If you make first false start a DQ you have already removed any incentive to anticipate the gun.
This article has information about reaction times in the Beijing Men’s 4x100 Freestyle (the race in which Lezak of the USA chased down Bernard of France).
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/olympics/2008/08/mens_4x100_freestyle_relay_som.html
I don’t really know much about swimming. Is there a higher threshold? Reaction times as stated in the above article are 0.7xs, which would obviously be a false start in athletics.
The reason I bring this up is the history of indoor meets in Toronto in my day, when the American “guests” would deliberately false start and, if called back, do it again, knowing they wouldn’t get kicked out. As a result, hand timed WRs were tied or broken with obvious FSs.
One time in Hamilton, when called back after a blatant flyer, Mel Pender turned on the hapless starter and shouted: “You just did that cause I’m black!” This intimidated the starter enough to let him get away with it the next time. Just total bullshit all the way around.
Joe Young, the 76 Olympic starter came in and kicked out a miscreant in the Toronto indoor meet and was banished from future games by the meet director because of the cost and loss of a record.
and that’s a bad thing? 
I don’t think he said it was bad. I thought he was saying that the no false start rule would stop people from trying to anticipate the gun and they would instead rely on their reaction to the gun. This in turn would make having a minimum allowable reaction time less important since everyone would be reacting to the gun and not anticipating it.
ahhh, makes sense thanks.
I think you’re off a decimal place here. The swimming times were things like 0.75 seconds. Track times are things like 0.15 seconds.
Swimming reaction times of 0.75 seconds makes question how that is being measured. There is no way it’s taking elite swimmers 3/4 of a second to begin their movement. Perhaps it’s 0.75 until they are clear from the “blocks”.
Lezak went 46.06, and the world record is 47.24. The only difference, as far as I can tell, is reaction time (you’re not already moving or anything like that, like you are in track).
Even if he was actually faster in the water than the world record, and I am pretty close to certain that he was, that difference is huge.
I understand .04 and .06. I don’t understand .38 (on a relay leg) and .75. I am sure there is a reason, or Olympic swimmers wouldn’t have those numbers, but I do not understand why it happens.