What Should I Do During Meets?

This is what swimmers live for… The Race! All the hours of training, sacrifice, and early mornings are distilled down into a few minutes where you get to show off the results of all your hard work. For once, you will no longer be a slave to the clock!

Swimming competitions can be very overwhelming. There are usually hundreds of kids racing, there's a complicated and tight schedule in order to get all the swimmers in their races and being in a swimsuit in front of a bunch of strangers doesn't help either. For this reason, many new swimmers usually dread swim meets. Our goal in this section is to convince you that swim meets are really the best time in your swimming journey! It's a time when you get to actually put a number on your improvement, you get to spend a lot of time with friends, you help build a team and a legacy that can last for generations after you leave, and you get to travel to all kinds of places! It’s like being on an adventure.

The more you know how swim meets are run and what the expectations are for you, the more fun you will have at the meet. Let's start with everything you need to do before the racing actually begins:

1.     Obviously show up early. There's a lot more that goes into getting ready for a swim meet than for practice so you will need to show up at least 30-60 minutes before warm-ups start.

2.     Nobody rises to the occasion. Everybody falls to the level of their preparation. If you want to be confident at a swim meet, you have to put in the training to build that confidence.

3.     What to bring with you on deck:

a.     Racing goggles.

b.     Extra pair of racing goggles.

c.     Racing suit.

d.     Extra racing suit.

e.     Racing cap. Of course, two or three extra racing caps.

f.      Dry towel.

g.     Extra dry towel or a small shammy towel that you can ring dry. There will be a lot of getting in and out of the water and one towel can get very wet very fast.

h.     Healthy snacks. More details later.

i.       If it is an outdoor meet, bring sunscreen and make sure to stay well hydrated.

j.       Music and headphones to get ready before the race.

k.     A book to read.

l.       A good attitude that supports your teammates! Nobody wants negative vibes, no matter how well or bad you're swimming.

m.   Team merchandise and clothes. Swim meets are a team sport, and it raises everyone's attitude and effort if we all look like we belong to the same team and work towards the same purpose.

n.     Warm clothes for in between races. Sweatpants, sweatshirts, parkas are all very good.

o.     Lawn chairs or bleacher chairs to sit in. Many times, pools do not have enough seating for everyone.

p.     Make sure to have your swim meet ID on you at all times. Most swim meets restrict access to the pool deck to make sure swimmers are safe from strangers. If you don't have your ID, you can be denied access.

4.     What not to bring with you:

a.     Electronics and screens. Swim meets are a time to focus on friends and the swim team and to learn from your own racing. Coaches are not there to babysit you while you take a break from your video games to pretend like you care about your race. If you're going to be at a swim meet, be at the swim meet 100%.

b.     A bad attitude. Some swim meets just don't go your way. That is normal. Sometimes you don't win the race you think you're going to win. That is normal. These are opportunities for you to learn, discuss with your coach, and plan future training. If you insist on pouting every time a race doesn't go exactly your way, make sure you do it somewhere no one is around you and come back to the team when you are ready.

c.     Junk food. Garbage in garbage out. The last thing you want is a garbage race because of garbage food!

5.     Before warm up starts, you will want to mark up on your arm or leg with a sharpie what races you are in. We will talk about how swim meets are organized in a little bit, but for now what you need to know is that it is your responsibility to keep track of

what races you're in and when they're happening. To help with that, swimmers all over the world use a charting system that they draw on themselves to keep track. This tells swimmers what event number they are racing, what the race is, their heat and their lane.

6.     All this information can be found on the heat sheet which some meets either sell, provide for free or your coach will have. If you don't have one of these, make sure to talk to your coach well before warm-ups begin so that you can get yourself organized before the swim meet starts.

7.     Sit with your swim team. Many new swimmers are timid and don't have very many friends yet and so they tend to sit with their parents. This is a mistake. You won't make friends if you're not around your swim team. You won't have fun if you are just hanging around the old people for hours. You won't feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself if you don't take part in the activities of your team. The first step towards accomplishing all of this is being around your swim team.

If you see yourself as part of a team, you want to identify with that team’s values and beliefs. We do it all the time in real life; it’s called brand loyalty. When you wear a Nike shirt or drive a Tesla, you are (at some level) saying you identify with what those companies believe. You “Just do it” for instance.

Being part of a team is similar, and everyone should clearly see this part of you. Wearing a team cap to practice is like wearing a uniform. If all the players on a football team wore different colored shirts and logos, you won’t think they are part of the same team, right? 

How are Swim Meets Organized and Run?

There may come a time when you attend a swim meet with over a thousand swimmers each swimming four events a day, everything from the 25 freestyle to the mile. This is an organizational nightmare for the people running the meet! This is why it is often confusing and difficult for new swimmers to understand what's going on. We will try to break it down here.

In order to give all those swimmers a chance to show off their skills, big swim meets are broken down in the following way:

1. Days: Smaller swim meets may be just one day long; most are 2 to 3 days and bigger events like Olympic trials can be up to a week long. Each day features one or more sessions.

2.     2. Session: Not all races or all ages are swam every day of the meet. Certain races or ages of swimmers are grouped together into sessions. This way, swimmers are not waiting all day to do their race. For instance, there may be a 12 and under session in the morning and a 13 and over session in the afternoon. These sessions contain the events those swimmers will race in that day. Here is an example:

3. Events: A swimming event is what is actually being raced. For instance, event number one may be the girls 50 freestyle. Event number two will be the boys 50 freestyle, event number three will be the girls 100 breaststroke…on and on. These events are usually numbered so that it is easy to keep track of them. Not all meets have the same event lineup. This will change from meet to meet.

4. Heats: If there are 100 swimmers in each event, but only eight lanes to race in, that means every eight swimmers will have to take turns swimming the event in individual heats. A heat is made up of the swimmers who are racing at that moment. There are usually several heats for each event. So, you may be swimming in event number three, the girls 100 breaststroke, and heat number four. This means you will be the fourth group of swimmers racing that event.

5. Lane: Obviously during races we don't want to share our lane with anyone else. In your heat, you'll be assigned a specific lane to race in. The number of lanes available is determined by the pool design. This can range anywhere from four lanes to 13!

Let's take a break to review and summarize what we have so far. First off, all this information will be available in the meet packet which is made available before the meet starts. This will explain exactly how the swim meet will be run by the host team. Secondly, all the events, heat and lanes that you are assigned to will be available in the Heat Sheet. Heat Sheets are usually distributed to coaches or available for purchase (sometimes for free) before each session begins. This will list all the events, heats, lanes and swimmers for the entire session. Looking through this before warm-ups to find out where you are supposed to be for each race is essential. Here's an example of what this looks like.

Another way to get this information is through an app called Meet Mobile. Although not as official as the heat sheet and possibly not as up to date, the app makes it very easy to estimate when your event will occur and lists out the personal events that you are in. The app also updates in real time during the meet to show unofficial results, placement in the race, and time drops.

This information is a good start and will get you through most swim meets just fine. There are more details which can also be nice to know:

1.     Psych sheet: Similar to the heat sheet, the psych sheet lists out all the swimmers in each event and their times. The psych sheet does not include heat and lanes, but simply lists the swimmers from fastest to slowest. This is usually available earlier than the heat sheet so swimmers can see what events they are in and how they compare to other swimmers.

2.     Pre-seeding: A psych sheet is turned into a heat sheet by using the submitted times of each swimmer to list them in each lane from fastest to slowest or slowest to fastest. For instance, the first heat may be the top eight fastest swimmers, with the number one person in lane 4, number two person in lane 5, number three person in lane 3…So on and so forth.

3.     Circle seeding: During a prelim/final swim meet, the top few swimmers, usually the top 16 or 24, are seeded in a circle fashion. What this means is the number one person by time will be in heat 1 lane 4. The second fastest person will be in heat 2 lane 4, and the third fastest person will be in heat 3, lane 4. This continues on and on for those top three heats until all the spots are filled. This usually creates that wedge pattern where the fastest swimmers are in the middle and everyone around them is progressively slower. This is done in the preliminary session, and then the top eight or 16 swimmers will go on to swim again in the final session which is not circle seeded.

4.     Timed final versus prelim/final: A timed final race means that this is the only time you will race that specific event and whatever time you receive is final for the swim meet. However, some swim meets are run in a prelim/final manner. What this means is that there is a preliminary session where swimmers race an event like the hundred-yard freestyle, and then if they are fast enough, they will race that same event again in a final session either later that day or on a different day. Each session is either a timed final session or a prelim/final session. The swim meet can have a mixture of both types as well so it can get confusing sometimes. Some of the very big national swim meets like Olympic trials include a middle session of semifinals as well.

5.     Positive check-in: Some races are very long and the host swim team wants to run the meet as efficiently as possible which means filling up the entire pool for these races. This means they need to know exactly how many swimmers are going to race that event so that they can minimize the number of heats as much as possible. Sometimes they require swimmers to check in about 30 minutes before the race starts or at the beginning of the session to acknowledge that they intend to race that event. After the host has a final list of swimmers, they will then assign a separate heat sheet showing who is racing where for that race. If you do not check in for the race, you will be scratched!

6.     Scratches: Sometimes the host team allows swimmers to “no show” for a race without penalty. But most of the time, the host team wants every heat filled up to the maximum. If you do not plan to race an event, it is nice to let the officials know that you are scratching that event. This way they are not waiting for you to show up to the block, or they can substitute another swimmer into your place. Beware! Some

teams institute penalties for no shows when you are expected to scratch an event. For instance, if you are supposed to scratch, but instead don't tell anyone and just don't show up to the race, you can be fined actual money or you may not be allowed to race your next event. Make sure you tell your coach and ask what you are supposed to do if you don't intend to swim a race.

7.     Q- Time: Short for Qualifying time. Many of the advanced swim meets like state, juniors or the Olympics have certain times you have to swim in order to be able to race that event at that swim meet. For instance, if the Q-Time for the 50 free at state is 30.00 seconds, you will have to swim that race faster than 30s to qualify for state in that race. Each race will have its own Q-Time, so if you want to swim those events, you will have to earn those times.

8.     Bonus Cut: Some swimmers only get one or two Q-Times, and traveling across the country to only swim those events isn’t worth it. So, host teams can offer bonus cuts. These are a set of Q-Times that are slower than normal, and if you qualify, you will be allowed to swim those races, as long as you have earned a real Q-Time to begin with. That way, a swimmer with only one Q-Time can travel to a meet and still swim 3-4 races.

Next, let's take a closer look at how a swim meet is run on the pool deck by the host team. This is not completely essential to know so if you want to skip it, that's totally okay. Swim meets are not just an opportunity for you to race, it is a chance for the host swim team to make some money so that they can keep their doors open. Without going into

the details, swimming pools, facilities, coaches and equipment are very expensive and making swimmers pay for all of that on a monthly basis would run many teams out of business. Unless you are at a large national meet, everybody you see helping run the swim meet is a volunteer. They are taking time out of their weekends to give you this opportunity to race. Please be respectful and try to help them run as good a swim meet as they can!

Here is a list of people that most swim meets will have running the show and what they are responsible for:

1.     Officials. These are the people you see walking around the edge of the pool watching the swimmers as they race, usually wearing blue bottoms and white tops. These are the people judging your race and making sure you are sticking to the rules. They can further be broken down into start/turn judges if they are standing at either end of the pool or stroke judges who usually walk along the edge. We will go over how these officials judge and disqualify swimmers in a little bit.

2.     The Starter. This is the person who actually starts every race. They will give you instructions on when it is time to get on top of the blocks and they will hit the button that frees you to race!

3.     Meet Manager. There is usually a desk full of computers and electronics where one or two people sit. These are the ones who are running the show in the background. They manage electronically what race is happening, who is in what heat and lane, and they also control the scoreboard. If things need changing through the meet, these are the people you or your coach will need to talk to.

4.     Concessions. Of all the adults running the show, these are the most important to you! They have the food and swimmers are always hungry!

5.     Meet Marshall. These people usually wear a bright orange jacket and patrol the pool deck making sure everyone on deck is allowed to be there. For some swimming organizations such as USA swimming, not everyone is allowed to randomly roam the pool deck. These organizations want to protect the kids as much as possible and to keep strangers away. Everybody on the pool deck must have a badge that allows them to be there. The badge which signifies that they have gone through the background check processes or that they are a swimmer in the meet.

6.     Meet timers. Behind every lane, there is usually one to two manual timers who time your race with stopwatches. Electronics don't always work, and these timers act as a

backup in case something happens. Whatever they have on their stopwatch is an unofficial time, but it may become the official time if a glitch occurs. There are all sorts of rules which dictate when a swim meet can use these times. These meet timers also have a list of who is supposed to be in each heat and in each lane, so if you are ever confused about where you are supposed to be, you can always double check with them to make sure you are in the right place at the right time.

Swimmer's Starter Guide book here!