*** New Officials Certification Program for 2025 ***

Certification Overview

Per the KISL General Rules; there are three levels of certification. All Officials must first be certified at the Stroke and Turn (ST) position. Once completed and with a full year of experience, an ST Official may become a Starter (SR). Following two years of certification at the ST position or one year of certification at ST and one year of certification at the SR position an Official may become a Deck Referee (DR).

For KISL Swim Season 2025 all Officials with certifications with the previous system expiring in 2025 will retain their certifications. The list of those Officials may be found here. All current certifications will expire on 8/31/2026. Recertification for the 2026 KISL swim season will follow the process below. If your certification expired last year you will need to go through the new process.

USA Swimming Reciprocity: As in years past, we will provide reciprocity between USA Swimming Certifications and KISL Certifications on an equal basis. If you are a USA Swimming Certified Official and your name does NOT appear on the Certified Officials list, please contact Nick Hall directly at [email protected]. USA Swimming DRs and SRs are required to attend a KISL SR/DR clinic each year.

Stroke & Turn

New in 2025 KISL has moved to an online clinic and testing procedure for Stroke & Turn Officials.The new service is hosted on a website appropriately named strokeandturn.com. This online service is a resource for learning the rules of swimming. The online clinic will contain full explanations of the rules as well as video content to test the Official’s understanding and application of the rules. The service will remain available to the Official for one year following initial login. During that time the Official is able to review the information at any time and has access to a test, which must be passed at no lower than a score of 80%. The Official will have unlimited opportunities to take the test to reach the 80% requirement. Upon completion and successful testing the Official will retain the ability to return to the site to review the information and continue to learn. The certification will be valid for three years following completion at which time a recertification, consisting of the full clinic and test will be required. In order to obtain a license for the class please email Nick Hall at [email protected]. You will receive a numerical key granting you access to the clinic. Instructions to login and use the key follow:

• 1) Navigate to the strokeandturn.com website
• 2) Activate the key using the ‘Activate Key’ link at the top of the page
• 3) With your key activated and subsequent account created you will have access to the ‘2025 Stroke and Turn Learning Course’. Access the course and complete the clinic and subsequent test.
  • No further action is needed as we will have league access to monitor all licensed activity for course progress and test completion.

Starter and Deck Referee

As no online service has yet been found or constructed, we will continue to hold clinics to train our Starters and Deck Referees as prescribed in the KISL General Rules.These clinics will be held online, at least twice per season on a schedule announced and posted to the KISL website.Upon successful completion of the clinic (suitable full clinic attendance) the Official will need to take the appropriate test linked below.

Starter and Deck Referee Clinics