Swim Meet 101
HOW TO WATCH A MEET
A swim meet is a competition of swimmers who swim different strokes, called events, and compete as a team against the other team. The swimmers also compete against themselves to swim faster than they swam during the last meet. You will see the swimmers ask for their times; that is important not only to the team but to the swimmers.
Each individual event has what are known as heats, which are sections of events. Heats are seeded fastest to slowest. In each heat, the swimmers with the fastest seed times are scheduled to swim in lanes 3 and 4, which are the middle lanes.
Relay events could have an A, B, and C relay - each relay is a group of 4 swimmers.
Swimmers are initially placed into heat levels based on their performance at the time trials meet. This is why your child’s participation in the TIME TRIALS is so important; it allows the coaches to place your child in the best position for both him and the team.
Swimmers are divided into age categories, based on the swimmer’s age as of May 31st. The categories are 8 and under; 9-10; 11-12; 13-14; and 15-18.
Sometimes you will see a swimmer “swim up,” which means that the swimmer competes in an older age category. Most often you will see this occur in a relay, where the age group is missing one swimmer of that age group. In order for the team to enter a relay team in that age group competition, it must have at least two swimmers of the correct age swimming in the relay. Without two, the team has to forfeit, which again underscores the importance of your checking with the coach before you leave the pool.
Meet Events (Events are numbered on the Heat Sheet in the following order)
Individual events are seeded fastest to slowest, with the fastest heat swimming first.
The youngest age group swims first, with girls preceding boys.
Except for the 100IM (Individual Medley), individual event distances are 25 meters or yards (one length) for 10 and under groups and 50 meters or yards (2 lengths) for 11-18 age groups.
Guppies (8 and under) – freestyle
Medley Relay (four swimmers each swimming a different stroke)
Freestyle
Backstroke
100 IM – Individual Medley (one length each of butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, freestyle)
Breast stroke
Butterfly
Free relay (four swimmers each swim 25 meters/yards freestyle)
Meet Scoring
Relays: 7, 5, 4, 3 points
Individual events:
1st place earns 5 points for the team
2nd place earns 3 points for the team
3rd place earns 2 points for the team
4th place earns 1 point for the team
Disqualification
Sometimes you will have a swimmer who is DQ’d which means "disqualified". In this case the Stroke & Turn judges saw and wrote up an infringement, which is usually an incorrect stroke technique, early start, or incorrect finish. The team rep and coach go through each DQ and work to correct the problem. If any member of the relay team is DQ’d, the relay team can earn no points.
Order of Events
