Officials, a situation recently was asked of me concerning shoe laces, in the scheme of things this is really no big deal but probably needs to be addressed for clarity.

An official indicated to me that some teams from southern Arizona were taping their shoe laces in a tassel type way, this as a means of meeting the criteria in our rule book. rule 4.1.3 indicates “if the shoes have laces, the laces shall either be taped to the shoe or secured by a locking device on the wrestling shoe in an acceptable fashion”. I know the rule as stated is pretty straight forward, if not secured by a locking device over the laces which is usually a longer flap that covers the knotted lace then the laces must be taped to the shoe. However as experienced officials we often look at “what is the intent of the rule” and if the intent is met then the rule is satisfied.

The intent of taping the shoe laces is to keep the flow of the match going by not allowing wrestlers from gaining an unfair advantage by taking a rest, or to break a wrestlers rhythm, very often by untying and then tying their shoe laces.

In this situation does taping the shoes in two tassels keep the laces from becoming untied if so the intent is met and the rule is satisfied.

However if the official is a stickler for the rules (black and white) the fix for this is easy, in pre meet duties or when addressing coaches in the coaches meeting prior to the meet, tell them that the shoe laces must be taped.
Officials hope this helps