How Swimming is Organized

Not all teams and swim meets are equal. There can be a big difference between the coaching ability, competitiveness at swim meets and how hardcore the team can be. If you want to learn more about these differences, this section is for that.

There are a lot of different organizations that offer swimming memberships and competitions throughout the country and the world. The reason these exist are to provide a standard way for different swim teams to compete against each other, offer coaches certification and training, and also offer insurance for swimmers in case something bad happens. Having a brief understanding of how these work, how things are organized and the level of competition in each organization can help you decide where you fit best. Let's briefly go through these one by one:

Summer Rec League

This is where most swimmers start their careers, including many Olympians and world record holders! These swim teams are usually very local, involving small towns or large neighborhoods with their own pools. Seasons only run a couple of months long and coaches are usually parent volunteers or high school coaches on summer break.

The competition and training level is very low, and the fun factor is dialed to the maximum. This is what gets most kids excited about swimming from the beginning. 

Swim meets are very laid back and very small. There may be an end of season championship meet. Most of the time you're racing time won't count as an official time for the other organizations.

This is probably one of the most popular swimming organizations in the USA with around a million kids getting involved each year. 

High School Swimming

This is probably the next most popular swimming organization with another million high schoolers getting involved each year. Usually, there is a boy season and a girl season which lasts 3 to 4 months each. Teams are usually divided into a junior varsity and a varsity squad, mostly based on how fast you are. In general, swimmers who make it to the varsity squad usually swim year-round on club swim teams which we will detail below.

Swim meets during the season are usually between one or two teams, called dual meets. These swim meets are standardized around the whole country with the following events:

The big goal is to make the State meet which is the big end of season championship meet. Qualifying for this meet differs from state to state. You either have to hit a certain qualifying time during the season or there is a regional swim meet where only the top 24 or so swimmers are selected for the state meet.

While high school swim teams don't usually faceoff between teams of different states, there are national standards for All American status. High school teams from around the country can get ranked against each other to see who would virtually be the best in both swimming times and academics. Below are some examples:

High school swim teams are usually led by a teacher or parent volunteer with some swimming background experience. These are usually very high energy teams with swimmers fighting for their school. There's often a question of whether a year-round club swimmer should take time away from their regular coach to swim with their high school team. We feel that for 99% of swimmers it is very good for them to spend time on their high school team. Like we said before, swimming is hard and we often need to be reminded who we’re fighting for, and there's no better way to do that than on a high school swim team!

USA Swimming

While the number of swimmers who participate in this organization is only around 400,000, USA swimming is the official national organization that runs year-round swim teams and offers the big yearly swim meets of Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals and the Olympic trials every 4 years. This is where you will find most of your serious, year-round swimmers.

USA swimming coaches are required to undergo several hours of training and learn the basics behind coaching swimming. That does not guarantee that they are any good, but it is better than nothing. Most coaches and USA swim teams that operate are year-round businesses and coaches/swimmers have very high goals of reaching their full swimming potential, swimming in college and training for national and international swim meets. In order to reach these high standards, a lot of money has to go into the team every month to pay for good coaching, good training, swimming equipment and pool space. These teams usually have a fairly high monthly cost per swimmer and racing in their swim meets can be expensive as well. At the end of the day, and in general, you get what you pay for.

USA swimming divides the entire country into four regions which becomes important when we talk about the larger, more competitive swim meets. In addition, there are just over 50 local swimming committees (LSC) throughout the country that operate like individual state and set the rules and regulations for the teams under their jurisdiction. They decide what team can run what swim meets and when, set qualifying standards for their regional and state meets… and many other bureaucratic boring things that organize swimming in your area. 

By definition, all USA swimming meets are official which means all the times are official and can be used to report your lifetime best achievements as well as qualify you for various swim meets. Other organizations, such as high school swimming, can have their swim meets become official only if they apply for USA swimming sanctioning and meet all of the criteria from the official’s standpoint.

Swim meets under USA swimming are not standardized and can be extremely variable. The host team gets to decide how they want to run their swim meet and they can make up the rules however they want, as long as it is sanctioned by the LSC. These meets can range from a single 2-hour session to an entire week of racing. Some swim meets require you to hit certain qualifying times before you can attend. Below is a list of common USA swimming meets ordered from least competitive to most competitive and what to know about them:

1.     Intersquad meet. This is only for the host swim team. Other swim teams are not invited. These can be used as introductory swim meets for new swimmers to learn how meets operate. They are also used to host certain events that are uncommon, like the mile, so that the swim team gets an extra chance to swim an official time in a race that is not often provided.

2.     Dual meet. Just like a high school swimming, a host team can invite one other team to race against.

3.     Invite meet. This is the most common type of USA swim meet where multiple teams either sign up or are invited to come race. These usually occur on the weekends and run 2-4 days. These can be very large swim meets with over a thousand swimmers racing! The events offered, the sequence of events, age group separations… are all determined by the host swim team and the details are shared with all the teams signing up months in advance. Qualifying times may or may not be required and are chosen by the host team.

4.     Regionals. This swim meet can be called many different names, but in essence it is the last regular swim meet of a season that does not require a qualifying time to race in. The purpose of this is to help those who do not have a qualifying time for state get one. It also acts as the championship meet for those who do not qualify for state.

5.     State/Junior Olympics (JOs). This is the championship swim meet that is held by each individual LSC. State meets can look different depending on the LSC with various qualifying times and event lineups. Many states split the swim meet into two depending on age groups, keeping the younger kids in one meet and the older kids in another. If you want to swim an event at State, you have to hit the qualifying time required. These qualifying times are set by the LSC and are divided by age, gender and event. Fors instance, you may be a 12-year-old boy who needs to swim the 50 freestyle in 30 seconds or faster in order to qualify for state. However, if you turn 13, the qualifying time may change to 27 seconds. In that case, you will have to qualify again as a 13-year-old if you are not fast enough already. Once over a certain age, there is usually an open category for 15-year-olds and older. And once you qualify for that, your time counts forever.

6.     Sectionals/Zones. USA Swimming divides the whole country into four regions. The

 championship meet for each region is called Zones for younger age group swimmers and Sectionals for older swimmers. These meets are more exclusive and have tougher qualifying times than state meets.

7.     Futures. This meet was created as a steppingstone between Sectionals and Junior Nationals. It becomes more exclusive still and tougher to get into!

8.     Junior Nationals. These are swim meets provided by USA swimming themselves for swimmers who qualify and are 18 years or younger. In the past there used to just be one meet for the whole country, but it has grown so big that there is now an east and west Junior national swim meet in the winter. The qualifying times are extremely difficult and the swimmers who race are the best in the country for that age.

9.     Senior Nationals or US Open. This is the highest yearly level swim meet USA swimming offers. It is an open meet meaning any age can swim. While you technically don't have to be over 18 years old to qualify for this swim meet, the qualifying times are even harder than Junior Nationals. There is only one senior national meet for the whole country and it brings together the best swimmers in the USA!

10.  American Olympic Trials…aka The Dream. Once every 4 years, senior Nationals is replaced by the Olympic trials. This week long, prelim/semi/final event is considered one of the fastest swim meets in the world. While only the top two swimmers of each event are selected for the Olympic team, American swimmers often have the top three or four swimmers in the world racing in each event. Since third and fourth place don't get to go to the Olympics, this means that for many events the American Olympic trials represents an even higher level of competition than the Olympics. If you are lucky and fast enough to get to this level just remember this: even if you are the slowest person at this meet, if you have a lane, you have a CHANCE!

USA swimming divides the year into two seasons: a winter short course yards season (SCY) and a summer long course meters season (LCM). That doesn't mean you can't have a mixture of meets throughout the year. All it means is that the big swim meets at the end of the year like State, Junior Nationals and Senior Nationals are run in those formats. The Olympic trials are only run in long course meters because the actual Olympics are only in long course meters.

Around these different events and ages, USA Swimming develops motivational time standards to encourage swimmers to constantly improve their time in different events. These motivational time standards change every four years with the Olympic cycle. Below is an example set of motivational time standards:

As you can see, each event has a number of times that are progressively faster ranging from BB to AAAA. Beyond that, you get into the futures, nationals and Olympic trials cuts. These times help keep you motivated and always aiming for the next goal. They also help teams who want to decide on what the cuts should be for their swim meet or state meet. For instance, they may say the qualifying times for their meet are AA times.

You may be wondering what is the fastest motivational time you can achieve? That would be the national age group records. These are the records for each event which are also divided by age. So, there is a 14-15 boys national age group record for the hundred backstroke and a separate national age group record for the 16-17-year-old boys. On and on for each age and each event.

If this is all still very confusing, USA Swimming has an app you can use to track all your best times and you can always look up your times and how you rank nationally. USA Swimming also provides a point system for your time to see an estimate of how your swims match up against different strokes and other swimmers. For instance, your time in the 50 backstroke may earn you 80 points, but your time in the 50 breaststroke may earn you 130 points. This way, even though the times of those two events are difficult to compare, you can compare the points and tell that you are relatively better at

 breaststroke and need to work on your backstroke. To give you an idea of how high the points go, many Olympians race in the 900 - 1000 plus range.

NCAA- National Collegiate Athletic Association

If you choose or are able to swim in college, you are now under the NCAA organization. As you probably know, there are three levels of the NCAA with division 1 swimming being the most competitive. If you reach this point, you are well beyond this swimming handbook so we won't go into the details of the NCAA organization. 

FINA- Federation Internationale de Natation

FINA is the international organization that operates the swimming world. Together with USA Swimming and many other swimming organizations, they dictate the rules and requirements behind the sport. They also run international swim meets such as world championships and the Olympics. Moreover, they manage other water sports like water polo.

Professional Circuit, International Swimming League (ISL).

On top of all those organizations, there are several that run sponsored swim meets and teams for swimmers to earn money and swim on a professional level. The pro series is an example of a USA based circuit of meets, and the ISL operates a worldwide competition between various teams which are made up of swimmers from all over the world. They each have their own rules, and swimming times are not necessarily important to win the competition for your team.

USMS- US Masters Swimming

Master Swimming is only for those who are 18 years and older. Usually however, most of these swimmers are well over 18 years old. These are usually semi-retired swimmers as well as just regular people who want to compete together and have fun swimming. These are swim meets that need to be sanctioned specifically by USMS to count. There are also national USMS championships which are held at the end of the seasons and can be very competitive filled with Olympians and college-age swimmers who just missed the cut for their own teams. Is this important to you? Probably not. But if you ever felt like you had unfinished business in swimming after you graduate high school or college, this is the place to finish the business.

Swimmer's Starter Guide book here!