freeze the rule book

[Horton]

It has always been my understanding that AWSA became a mature organization at a time when waterskiing was growing and popular. Skiing needed rules and structure. 35 or 45 years later we have a ton or rules and structure.

 

AWSA is still an organization about rules and structures. As a competitor that is also what I mostly care about. The problem is that the world has changed and AWSA has not evolved or has evolved in the wrong direction.

 

I propose the first step to rebuilding the sport is to freeze the rule book.

[thager]

@Horton Mine's frozen right now. Want to use it in the spring?

[Jody_Seal]

De regulate!

[klindy]

@Horton the two major changes this year were ZBS and the L9/L10 issue. Both of which set the stage for Ability Based competition (rather than age based groupings). And both of which are part of @JeffSurdej master plan. Another big addition was officially incorporating the new team concept tested last year at the Nationals. Again, something designed to improve things.

 

I (still) don't know whether all the proposals passed but my read on all the rest of the proposed changes are either essentially clean-up issues (eg: language changes required since 4 rounds are now available under one sanction) or changes required by rules changes at IWWF (eg: outside the line front flips).

 

I think there's plenty of room to simplify things and freezing the rule book would eliminate that potential. Perhaps identifying proposed rules changes that are more burdensome and making sure there's adequate reason for making the change would be a better approach.

[sunperch]

@klindy I quit skiing the INT years ago (when my nickname was "26 long line"). If I wanted ability based competition, I would not have moved on to AWSA tournament skiing. Improvement in my skiing began when I started to ski AWSA tournaments and I wanted to be more competitive in my division. When I got around better skiers, I learned how to ski better. Granted I had to give up my participation trophy, but traded it for a second place finish at Regionals 20 years later.

[walleye]

 

[Ilivetoski]

One thing I notice at almost every tournament I go to, is that when you are around a group of volunteers they spend more time discussing and debating what rules really mean than anything else. Not to say if that necessarily means we need less rules, but I have definitely noticed there is a lot of room for debate with the way a lot of the current rules are written

[Edbrazil]

A 2017 change by the IWWF is removing the distinction (w/ separate points) between front

flips inside and outside the towline. Only the outside will be allowed now. Expect that the

AWSA will follow on that one.

In the Back When, rule changes were common each year. Some of them dealing with the

creative ways that competitors found to circumvent rules. These days, rule changes tend

to be dealing with tuning up things, like speed control settings, or rules (IWWF) for Senior

divisions.

[Horton]

I got a lot of negative feedback on the original post so let me bring this back.

 

In the case of ZBS - most skiers are unaffected. A small group who were previously mostly happy are now happier and another group who was also mostly happy is now S***ting bricks mad. If no change had been made, no one would be super angry and everyone would just abide by the rules they way they were. There would be no unintended consequences.

[ToddL]

Depends on the type of changes... Freeze the book for any additional complexity. Simplification, rules reduction changes allowed and encouraged.