This is not a rulebook, and you are not the judge
World Aquatics writes the stroke rules national federations copy. The live packet is the Competition Regulations — Version February 2026, updated 18 February 2026. Strokes sit in Part Two, Articles 5 to 8. Flags and the 15-metre marks sit in Article 15.9. I am quoting those numbers because they are printed. I am not inventing “about halfway.”
Swim England, USA Swimming, Swimming Canada, and Swimming Australia track that book; they do not reprint on the same afternoon. Club Saturday uses the host federation’s current rulebook, not a balcony consensus. If a sentence below is a recent finish clarification, I will say so. Do not shout it through the glass.
Event, heat, and lane still come off the start list — how to read a heat sheet. The chairs are marshalling and the call room. This page is what the person in white is watching once the horn goes. Official index: worldaquatics.com/rules/competition-regulations.
The 15-metre rule — fly, back, free. Not breast.
Parents treat “fifteen metres” as a rumour that applies to every stroke. It does not. Articles 5.3, 6.3 and 8.6 say the same thing: some part of the body must break the surface throughout the race, except the swimmer may be completely submerged during the turn and for a distance of not more than 15 metres after the start and after each turn. By the 15 metre-mark, the head must have broken the surface.
That is fly, backstroke, and freestyle. Lane-rope floats at 15 metres from each end wall should be a distinct colour (Article 15.7.9), with distinctive 15.0-metre marks on the pool sides and, where possible, on each lane rope (Article 15.9.1). Past that mark, still under, head not up: that is the call.
Breaststroke does not use that 15-metre clock. After the start and each turn they may take one arm stroke all the way back to the legs while submerged, plus the one dolphin below. The head must break the surface before the hands turn inward at the widest part of the second stroke (Article 7.1). A child can look “too far under” on breast and still be legal, or surface early and still miss that second-stroke test. Do not paste the fly/back/free picture onto a 50 breast.
Freestyle, on a designated free, may be any style (Article 5.1). The 15-metre surface rule still applies. The parent trap is thinking free has no underwater limit because “they can swim anything.” They can swim anything on the surface rules of free, which still include 15 metres.
A newer finish sentence: once some part of the head has passed the 5 metre-mark immediately before the finish, they may be completely submerged on fly, back, and free (Articles 5.4, 6.5, 8.6). In a metres pool the flags are that mark. Backstroke must still finish on the back; fly still needs two hands. This is a legal-finish clarification, not a cue to duck. Federations update on their own calendar — I am not promising every club session has reprinted it.
Backstroke flags, and the turn that looks like cheating
World Aquatics calls them Backstroke turn indicators. Article 15.9.1: flagged ropes, 1.8 metres above the water, from standards placed 5.0 metres from each end wall. In a US yards pool the same job is five yards — that is the yards book, not a conversion I am inventing. They are a stroke count because a swimmer on their back cannot see the wall. They are not a starting pistol for the flip.
The turn is the bit parents prosecute from upstairs. Article 6.4: they must touch the wall with some part of the body. Shoulders may go past vertical onto the breast, after which an immediate continuous single-arm pull or simultaneous double-arm pull may start the turn. They must be on the back again when they leave the wall. A pause on the breast or a flutter while facing down is how a legal crossover becomes a disqualification. The judge is watching the continuous part, not whether the roll looked early from seat 14.
The finish still wrecks a 50: they must touch while on the back (Article 6.5). Rolling to look at the pad, grabbing the wall on the front, or spinning early to “see the time” is how a good swim dies in the last metre. The flags warned them. They did not permit a front-touch finish.
During the swim they may roll up to, but not including, 90 degrees from horizontal (Article 6.2). Head position is not the test. “They looked at the ceiling” is not a rule. Past vertical toward the breast, except in that turn: that is the rule.
Two hands on the wall. Two feet is the kick.
Club shorthand is “two hands, two feet.” Half of that is the law. The other half is a kick cue parents have promoted into a wall requirement.
Breaststroke Article 7.7 and butterfly Article 8.5 use the same touch: at each turn and at the finish, both hands, separated and simultaneously, at, above, or below the surface. Hands cannot be stacked. Officials do not need to see daylight between the fingers; incidental contact is allowed. One hand then the other, or a single-hand stab because “the other one was close”: that is the age-group call.
After a legal touch, both strokes allow them to turn in any manner, provided they are on the breast from the first arm stroke off the wall (Articles 7.3 and 8.2). World Aquatics does not require two feet on the wall. An ugly open turn with two hands together can be legal. A pretty flip with one hand is not. The judge is grading the hands, not the aesthetics.
“Two feet” belongs to the kick. Butterfly Article 8.4: all up-and-down movements of the legs must be simultaneous. The legs or feet need not be on the same level, but they must not alternate. A breaststroke kick on fly is not permitted. A slightly uneven dolphin can be legal; a flutter, a scissor, or a whip on fly is not. Breaststroke Articles 7.5 and 7.6: legs simultaneous; feet turned outwards during the propulsive part; no downward butterfly kicks except the one on the pullout. Breaking the surface with the feet is allowed unless a downward dolphin follows — which is why a splashy whip is not automatically illegal, and why the extra dolphin after the whip has started is.
| What you shouted | What World Aquatics actually wrote |
|---|---|
| They went too far underwater | Fly / back / free: head up by 15 m after start and each turn. Breast: different test — head up before the inward sweep of stroke two. |
| They turned over too early on back | They may leave the back to turn, then must leave the wall on the back. Finish on the back. Flags at 5.0 m are a count, not a flip command. |
| Two feet on the wall | Breast and fly: two hands, separated and together. After that, turn any way; leave on the breast. Two feet is the kick staying together. |
| Too many dolphins on breast | One butterfly kick, at any time before the first breaststroke kick, after the start and after each turn. Then whip kick only. |
The fly kick, the breast kick, and the one-dolphin pullout
Butterfly from upstairs looks like “both feet together.” The printed rule is simultaneous up and down, feet allowed at different heights, no alternating, no breast kick (Article 8.4). Off the wall: one or more leg kicks and one arm pull, head up by 15 metres (Article 8.6). An extra arm pull still submerged is a different call from the 15-metre one.
Breaststroke is one arm stroke and one leg kick, in that order (Article 7.3). The head breaks the surface during each complete cycle (Article 7.5). The kick parents call frog or whip is the one with feet turned out. Flutter, scissor, and a sneaky dolphin after the first legal one are how the arm goes up on a 50 that looked fine from seat 14.
The pullout is the sentence coaches have repeated since 2014, and parents still hear as “they can dolphin as much as they like.” Article 7.1: after the start and after each turn they may take one arm stroke completely back to the legs while submerged. At any time prior to the first breaststroke kick, a single butterfly kick is permitted. One. It resets each wall; it is still one per wall. Then the whip kick. Then the head-up-before-stroke-two test. That is the whole underwater story on breast. There is no 15-metre get-out.
Last stroke into the wall on breast: an arm stroke not followed by a kick is allowed, and the head may go under after the last pull if it broke the surface during that last complete or incomplete cycle (Article 7.7). A legal finish can look underwater. A one-hand touch still is not.
Do not coach a turn through the glass. Do not file a legal ugly open turn as a robbery. Your job is the next marshalling chair, not a tribunal.
When the arm goes up
A disqualification means that swim does not count. Article 11.3: if they are disqualified during or after an individual race, the DQ is recorded and no time or placing is announced. It is not “they added time.” It is not NT — NT was the blank before the race. A DQ is a decision after the race.
The rest of the session is still on. They still need the chairs — marshalling and the call room — with the next event on the arm. One stroke call does not cancel the meet. Write the legal swims. Leave the DQ as a note for the coach, not a personality.
Two hands is the wall. Two feet is the kick. Fifteen metres is fly, back and free. One dolphin is breast, once per wall. The balcony is not a clinic.
The measurements are World Aquatics, February 2026. Officials will keep using the book. You keep the heat sheet, the chairs, and the next legal clock.
