Swim Meet 101
Swim meets typically begin at 6:30 make sure you check your email for warm up time for our team.
What does my child need for meets?
- Team Swim suit
- Towels (2)
- Snacks for themselves, although most teams have concessions
- Swim Cap
- Goggles and Back up Goggles
If your child cannot attend a meet, please notify us as soon as possible. Once events have been scheduled this may affect relays.
Heat Sheets:
Print the heat sheet that will be emailed out before the meet, or keep it handy on your phone. A heat sheet lists all the events that are going to be swum. It lists the swimmers in each event and it tells the heat and lane that the swimmer will need to be in for their event. The pool itself is divided into lanes. Each lane is designated by a number. Typically lanes 1-6.
Events are listed by a #. The name of the event is spelled out beside the number of the event on the heat sheet. Ex. Event #5 boys 9-10 25 yard freestyle.
Depending on the number of swimmers in an event, an event might have multiple heats. A “heat” is the group of swimmers swimming in the pool at the same time. If there are more swimmers in an event than lanes to swim in, we need to create multiple heats for that event.
In the picture above, let’s use Laniyah as our example. (She is highlighted in yellow)She is swimming in the Event Name “Girls 8 & Under 25 Yard Freestyle”the “event” is #13.The “heat” is #2The “lane” is #6
Now that you know how to read the heat sheet, let’s talk about how to keep your swimmer ready for their events.This is really easy. Simply draw a grid (like a tic-tac-toe board) on your swimmers arm.(usually with a sharpie pen) With the 3 numbers that we talked about above, we write those #’s in the grid and your swimmer now knows exactly when and where they need to be for their events.
Volunteer Roles:
It takes LOTS of volunteers to run a swim meet. Typically a meet needs 15-20 volunteers for EACH TEAM. Most of these jobs are very easy. I will explain what each role does so you know what you are signing up for.
Timer: Being a timer is one of the easiest jobs and doesn’t take any special skills. Most pools have 6 lanes and there are always 3 timers per lane. There will be a brief timer meeting before each meet to go over what a timer does.
Runner: The runner will collect the time sheets from the timers and take them to the scoring table. You only have to be able to carry paper, but it is a lot of walking.
Table worker: Table workers sit at the scoring table and help the computer worker verify results. This is a good job for someone who likes math, it is very easy.
Strokes and turns: Strokes and Turns judges go to a special training to learn this position. If you are interested, ask about attending training. Strokes and turns judges watch the swimmers to see if they are performing the stroke correctly
Clerk of course: The clerk of course should be very familiar with how a swim meet runs. It is also helpful to know most of the swimmers. The clerk of course makes sure each swimmer is in place and ready to go at the start of their event.
