Swim Meet 101
What Parents Should Bring and Do
The following is a list of tips to help make meets as fun and efficient as possible:
- Bring Sharpies for marking your child's event, heat, and lane info on their leg or arm
- Bring a highlighter to mark your child's event info on the heat sheet
- Bring folding chairs and shade devices
- RSVP for each meet
- Sign up to VOLUNTEER
- Know where your child is at all times and help them be ready to line up for their event when the ready bench volunteer calls for them
- Check in with Team Reps upon arrival or let them know (via text) if your child will not be at the meet
- Have your child at the meet on time with all equipment and be ready to swim their best and HAVE FUN
- Have cash (small bills) for the concession stand
- Parking is very limited; please try to walk to the home meets if possible
What to Bring to a Meet
- Team Swimsuit
- Team Cap
- Goggles (always a good idea to have an extra pair)
- Team T-Shirt
- Sunblock
- 2 towels
- Water
- Healthy Snacks
- Boredom Busters (books, card games, coloring books, etc.)
Rainy Day Meets
WHAT TO EXPECT ON A RAINY DAY MEET
1. If raining on the day of a meet, all teams must show up to the meet or
a forfeit will take place.
2. Only the meet referee can call a meet off because of rain. The decision takes place only on the day of the meet at the meet site.
3. Just because it is raining where you are at, do not assume that it is raining at the meet site.
4. A meet can take place during rain--but not if there is thunder or lightning. Thunder and lightning can cause a 30 minute delay during or before a meet.
5. If a meet starts and has progressed to or beyond event #38, and the meet must be halted due to thunder and lightning with no chance of finishing the meet, then the meet is considered completed and scored through whatever event was completed last.
6. If a meet is canceled, the host team is responsible for checking with the
visiting team-BEFORE THEY LEAVE-to set up a mutually agreeable date
for a re-swim meet. If no date can be agreed upon, then the meet is considered final with a score of 0 to 0.
7. If a meet is rescheduled, please send the league President an e-mail
with the date and time the new meet will take place so I can update the
meet schedule on the league's web site.
8. Ensure team parents are educated about rain day meet rules.
Typical Rules Broken/Reasons for DQ:
*6&U are not judged and will not be DQ'd
Freestyle
Pushing yourself forward off the bottom of the pool.
Pulling yourself forward with the lane line, other than those two things you are free to swim the style you choose.
Backstroke
Rolling on to your stomach (other than if you are about to doing a flip turn)
Pulling on the lane line
Pushing off the bottom of the pool
Breaststroke
Doing a butterfly, flutter, or scissor kick
Not getting your head out of the water every stroke.
Keeping the 1/1/1 ratio, 1 pull with your arms, 1 breath (don’t actually have to breathe but your head must come up), 1 breaststroke kick with toes out and feet flex for the majority of the kick
Arms going below belly button
Not touching the wall with two hands for your finish
Butterfly
Non-simultaneous arms (arms not moving together or in sync)
Feet coming apart (flutter kick or breaststroke kick)
Arms not coming out and going over the water after the pull
Not touching the wall with two hands for your finish
All Strokes
Moving on the block after the start says “Take your mark” and before the BEEP, this will cause a false start, the first false start of every heat is strike one for the entire heat, next swimmer to false start is DQ’ed
Not finishing a race
Stopping to fix goggles (excluding freestyle)
Pushing off the bottom of the pool
Pulling on the lane line
Swimming in another swimmers lane
Relay – Not getting out of the water fast enough (before the swimmer after you gets to the other wall) or leaving too early.
