The ADSC guide to open meets for parents and swimmers

This guide is to provide a friendly reminder or introduction for swimmers and parents when considering and attending Open Meets. It is not intended to be exhaustive and if you have any detailed questions then please contact your coach for more information and support, or email the club competition secretary on [email protected].

Swim meets and competitions are a great opportunity for our swimmers to test their abilities against those from other clubs and to enjoy the benefits of their training, hard work and commitment, all whilst representing Alton & District Swimming Club.  Whilst sometimes meets are long and can be a test of endurance and patience (for both parents and swimmers!) they provide a fun, competitive and rewarding environment that allows our swimmers to develop both their swimming and inter-personal skills.

At Alton, we pride ourselves in always ensuring that our swimmers ENJOY themselves whilst at a swim meet.

Preparation / Before the Day

You should consult with your swimmer’s squad coach about which events to enter.  You may need to choose events carefully, especially for younger swimmers.  Each session at a meet is several hours long and children may do two (or sometimes three) events per session.  If they are only doing one event per session there will be a lot of waiting around.  If they are swimming in all sessions it can be a long day and swimmers will need to be prepared to this experience with appropriate drinks, food, dry clothing and calming activities (such as music to listen to).

Please make sure that the Club has your up-to-date contact information and that you have provided information about any medium to long term health conditions (e.g., asthma, epilepsy, severe allergies) that your swimmer has along with a treatment agreement if relevant.  The club Team Manager on the day of the meet will have all this information with them for use should the need arise.

You should follow your coach’s guidelines on preparing for your racing.  In-season meets are ‘progress’ meets and will be beneficial for your long-term development, regardless of whether swimmers have recently swam Personal Best times.  Discuss the purpose of the meet with your coach beforehand and agree what you should be seeking to achieve.

The Day of the Event

Should illness or any unforeseen circumstance prevent your swimmer from attending, please contact the Coach or Team Manager to withdraw your swimmer. If you have any concerns about your swimmer that may compromise their experience (e.g., child is taking cold medication or is facing an emotional difficulty), please inform the Team Manager at the first possible instance on the day of the meet.

Please ensure your swimmer has plenty of food and water available, appropriately balanced nutritionally to help performance and recovery, and pack plenty of warm clothing and towels.

You should keep your mobile phone on and make sure you can be contacted during the session.  Even if you are staying in the location of the meet club staff may need to contact you in the event of a medical issue or an incident requiring your attention on poolside.

The ADSC Coach and Team Manager(s), and other volunteers, are responsible for your swimmer whilst on poolside only.  Here they help and encourage our swimmers to prepare for racing, debrief after racing, and support other team members.  The Coach and Team Manager must stay poolside and cannot look for or supervise children around the changing rooms, café area or balcony.  Swimmers must check in with a Team Manager if they are going somewhere away from poolside mid-session or if they are leaving the session.

The ADSC Coach and Team Manager(s), and other volunteers, do not supervise breaks between sessions at Open Meets.  Children 12 years and younger should be met by a parent (or authorised adult) between sessions.  Parents can decide if their swimmer over the age of 12 can be unsupervised during breaks, but please understand that there will be many other swim clubs and members of the public at leisure centres, and ADSC cannot be held responsible for safeguarding or any accidents that take place during Open Meets when swimmers are away from our direct supervision.

Whilst at meets swimmers are representing both themselves and ADSC, and it is expected that they demonstrate positive behaviours that promote competition.  Misbehaving during sessions or breaks may lead to swimmers being asked to leave the meet.

Please remind your swimmers that they are not to use cameras poolside or mobile phones in changing rooms (we recommend that phones are not openly carried whilst in the changing rooms); we are obliged to report to the relevant authorities any inappropriate use of photography equipment.

Finally, support is positively encouraged, be it on poolside or from the spectator gallery.  Please show your encouragement to all our swimmers in a manner that is family friendly and positive for all.  At Alton, we pride ourselves in always ensuring that our swimmers ENJOY themselves whilst at a swim meet and return home having had a positive experience.

Disqualifications

You will inevitably be disqualified (DQ’d) from a race, it is just a question of when!  From the right way to turn during butterfly to the wrong way to do a backstroke start, swimming has lots of rules. If you break one of these rules during a race, you’ll get DQ’d and your swim won’t count.  However, the DQ only applies to an individual race.  If you have more races after the event you were disqualified in, you can still swim them.

The secret is not to be upset, but rather to understand why the Referee has chosen to DQ you and to work on ensuring it does not happen again.

The other secret is to always practice legal swimming technique during every workout and make sure you understand the rules for your races.  Building proper muscle memory will reduce the chance that you slip up and get disqualified during those races you have trained so hard for!  Non-simultaneous hand touches (fly and breaststroke), plus poor backstroke turns are the ones the turn officials will be looking out for, so make sure you always practice these elements correctly.

Finally, if you goggles slip or come off, or your swim hat moves, leave them alone!  You will not be DQ’d in such circumstances as long as you keep swimming.  There are certain circumstances in which it is permissible to adjust your equipment after the start but you will lose so much time doing so it is really not worth it.  Someone will retrieve your equipment after your race has completed!

For more information on the rules of racing relating to starts, strokes and finishes refer to the document on this section of the ADSC website titled “World Aquatic Start and Stroke Rules”.