Well, from my experience, back in my youth, you actually have to hit the board or it wouldn't register touch in so many cases. Then you have to rely on whoever

Well, from my experience, back in my youth, you actually have to hit the board or it wouldn't register touch in so many cases. Then you have to rely on whoever is making the manual measurements for corrections and that is messy. Not every swimming competition can blow cash on slow motion photo finish cameras. I guess the rules are in place to make most for most swimmers.