Many parents are just beginning their swim team experience this year, so we have developed a brief guide to help get them through a regular swim meet.

What to pack?

Many parents and swimmers never seem to know what to pack for competition day, and if they do, they often forget. Here is a list of important things to remember.

- A bathing suit. This is vital if you want to compete.

- Towels. (I recommend two!)

- Swim cap and goggles, if your swimmer uses them. I recommend both; Goggles protect your swimmer's eyes from chlorine while caps keep long hair out of the way during a race.

- Sweats. It is summertime, but there is an unspoken rule that it MUST be rainy and cold on scheduled swim meet days.

- Extra change for the bake table. Chances are high that your swimmer will be hungry during the swim meet.

- A deck of cards or travel game. Your child could be waiting an hour or two between events and may get restless.

- Sunblock. We don't want our kids to get fried!

- A tent or sleeping bag, if you have one. Kids may want to rest between events.

Order of Events

Each meet is run in the same order every week. There are some basic things to remember: in each event, the boys swim before the girls. The meet begins with the 15-18 freestyle relays, then the medley relays for each age group. The age groups swim in order from youngest (8 & Unders) to oldest (15-18) in each event. After the medley relays are the freestyle events, I.M. (Individual Medley), Backstroke, Breastroke and Butterfly events, and finally the freestyle relays.

How does my child know when to swim?

The announcer will announce each event when the clerk of course is ready for it. It is very important to listen to the announcer, because no one wants to miss their event. The clerk of course will be pointed out to the swimmers prior to the start of the swim meet. At the clerk of course, the volunteers will place the swimmer in the heat and lane that they will be swimming in for that particular event.

Who choses my child's events?

Each week, the coaches enter your child in the events they will swim at the meet on Saturday. To place your child in events, the coaches look at the child's strengths and weaknesses, overall athletic ability, and the number of times the child has swum the event. They also try to enter each event evenly. For example, we would not want 20 kids doing freestyle and 2 doing I.M. Relays are determined by the top times from as of the previous week. The A relay is the top 4 swimmers, B is the next 4, and the C relay is the next 4. If your child is not on a relay, it simply means that they did not qualify for one of the relay positions that week. Just because the child is not on a relay one week does not mean the child will never be on a relay.

Can my child leave yet?

If you and your swimmer must leave the meet early, PLEASE NOTIFY A COACH. This is very important because the swimmer could miss important information, or possibly miss a relay. If your swimmer is on a freestyle relay, we ask that you stay for the entirity of the meet if possible. Even if your child is not on a relay, we would like all swimmers to remain at the meet to cheer on the rest of their team.


I hope this was helpful. We'll see everyone at the meet!



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