How do they detect if a swimmer goes too early in a relay race?

what equipment is used to detect if a swimmer goes too early in a relay race|||for most meets the officials decide if someone false starts but for large invitationals and championship meets they use relay judging pads. they are tied into the meet management computer system along with the starting horn and touch pads. the relay judging pads serve three purposes.





1. if a swimmer starts before the official starts the race then the person gets disqualified.





2. they have lights on the front called speed-lights that flash when the race is started because light travels faster than sound so you get a faster start.





3. they also help with relay false starts. if the swimmer on the block starts before the first swimmer hits the touch pad then they get disqualified.





contrary to the previous answers these pads do exist but they are very expensive and not normally used so that is probably they have never seen them before.|||there are starting line judges|||The swimmers stand on a sensor-pad,which is activated as the swimmer jumps into the water.If it happens before the gun,it automatically "flags it up".|||It depends on what kind of competition it is. Most of the time, for dual high school meets, it's determined by the one referee for the meet who stands near the starting blocks (by the 4m line by the backstroke flags) and he watches each finish/takeoff very closely to catch any early takeoffs (and he/she is usually very accurate through many years of experience).





For bigger meets involving multiple high schools or high profile meets (league finals, postseason, olympic) there are multiple refs who are typically positioned around the 4m line on the sides of the pool to watch the take off.





In my experience, even for high profile meets, I've never seen a pad on the diving block itself (the pad would be made of a different texture than standard blocks and would therefore influence, slightly, how the swimmer takes off). I've only seen refs/line judges who call early takeoffs.





I've swam for 7+years and I've participated in pretty big meets, but I've never dived off a block that had a pad on it so I'm not sure what the person who answered before me is referring to. I've also seen some high profile meets like SoCal Grand Prix (which a few Olympians swam in - Phelps, Kitajima, Katie Hoff), college meets, and plenty of big high school SoCal meets and I've never seen the pad on the diving blocks before.|||i have never seen a pad on the diving blocks, but the swimming officials(the people dressed in all white with a clipboard) watch the whole race from start to finish and they use their eyes and if a swimmer flinches or moves slightly then they make everyone stand up and say" swimmers, take you mark...beeep!!! and press the button (signal thing) for everyone to go and start the race. So, really it is only humans who can detect if a swimmer goes off the blocks too early


ihope this helps :)|||there arent any "sensor pads" on the diving blocks... there are officials standing there to watch and make sure the person swimming touched the wall before the person diving left the block.





^^ simple answer. and it's correct. hows that for a 14 year old girl? (: