As with any sport, business etc. there is terminology used to describe what is done, who is involved etc......
Outlined below is a developing list of terms used within the club and swimming as a whole, if you can't find what you are looking for, please email [email protected] and we will add items.
| Contents Swimming Structure in UK Types of Competitions Levels of Licensed Meets Types of Qualifying Times
Competitive Events Internal Meets BSC Team League Galas
External Meets
What is Club Night Handicap/Scoring Awards Night Meet Course Types (LC, SC etc) Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) Club Hats - Colours and Representation |
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| Term | Description | |
| Swimming Structure in UK | ||
| Governing Body |
Swim England (previously Amateur Swimming Association –ASA) run the sport in England split into 8 Regions with sub sections for every County.
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| British Swimming | Organise the Competition calendar for British Championships and for selection to teams to represent GB at International Championships. | |
| National | The Club is affiliated to Swim England and abides by its, Laws & Technical Rules and Code of Ethics. | |
| Regional | The Club is affiliated to the ASA East Region which includes swimming in East Region Championships. | |
| County | The Club is affiliated to Herts ASA, including swimming in the Herts ASA County Championships. | |
| Types of Competitions | ||
| Licensed Meets | These can be “open”, i.e. open to all individual athletes who meet the relevant age criteria and qualification times, or “closed”, i.e. restricted to selected groups and based on results obtained at licensed meets (e.g. East Region Age Groups or Hertfordshire County Championships). Times achieved at these meets can be used as official qualifying times for County, Regional and National competitions. These meets require qualified and certified volunteer officials to run these events. The Club normally has to provide officials to these events. There are many weekend meets each year, look for these on our Events page. |
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| Volunteers | At the majority of meets, poolside volunteers are required. Why? the ethos of the Club is that the coach is there to coach and help your swimmer through the meet, to get the maximum they can from it. At all meets you need to get swimmers to the marshaling area, deal with withdrawals, track swim times and stroke counts, i.e. we take all the admin away from the coach and allow them to coach, that is their expertise. At licensed meets there is normally a requirement to be DBS cleared and at Counties, Regionals & Nationals, to be Team Manager 1 qualified person to be poolside. If we are unable to get enough volunteers at a meet, the Club reserves the right to withdraw swimmers from the Session at no cost to the Club. |
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| Unlicensed Meets | These are run under the same Laws / Rules as Licensed Meets, but times achieved at these meets cannot be used as qualification times although they do count towards the athlete’s personal best times. Volunteer officials are still required to allow these events to run and they can be qualified or not. The Club normally has to provide officials to these events. There are many weekend meets each year, look for these on our Events page. |
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| Volunteers | At the majority of meets, poolside volunteers are required. Why? the ethos of the Club is that the coach is there to coach and help your swimmer through the meet, to get the maximum they can from it. At all meets you need to get swimmers to the marshaling area, deal with withdrawals, track swim times and stroke counts, i.e. we take all the admin away from the coach and allow them to coach, that is their expertise. At unlicensed meets there is normally a requirement to be DBS cleared, but not always, it depends on if this meet is internal or external. If we are unable to get enough volunteers at a meet, the Club reserves the right to withdraw swimmers from the Session at no cost to the Club. |
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| How Are Volunteering Assignments Managed | ||
| When you sign up to be a volunteer at a meet, there will be a number of vacant positions for you to sign up at each one of the sessions required. The Club pays for the coaches passes (normally 3) and they are assigned as follows;
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| Levels of Licensed Meets | ||
| All Licensed Meets are subject to ASA laws and regulations and the ASA Technical Rules of Racing. They are graded into four levels. For a detailed description of each level download our Open Meet Licensing Criteria PDF here. | ||
| Level 1 | Meets are long course (LC; 50m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve qualifying times for entry into National, Regional and County Championships. | |
| Level 2 | Meets are short course (SC; 25m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve qualifying times for entry into National, Regional and County Championships. | |
| Level 3 | Meets are LC and SC events. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve times for entry into Regional and County Championships and other Meets at Level 1 or Level 2. | |
| Level 4 | Meets are entry level events in pools 25m or greater. They are for inexperienced athletes and athletes seeking to compete outside their club environment. If times are good athletes progress to Level 3 Meets. | |
| Types of Qualifying Times | ||
| Qualifying times have to be archived within a timeframe in advance of the actual County, Regional or National competitions. As a rule of thumb, qualifying times must be achieved at Licensed Meets within a start and end date (the qualifying window). County Qualifying Times for 2018 must be achieved in a Licensed meet between 1st June 2017 to 10th December 2017. Regional Qualifying Times for 2018 must be achieved in Level 3 or 2 Licensed meets during a period to be advised. Nationals Qualifying takes place in a window specified by Swim England and March to May |
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| CQT | County Qualifying Time - a time achieved for a specific stroke at a specific distance. These must be achieved at Licensed Meets only. By achieving the time defined by the specific County, athletes may attend the Counties See Herts CQT Qualifying Times - http://www.hertsasa.org.uk/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=sections&Itemid=79 |
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| RQT | Regional Qualifying Time - a time achieved for a specific stroke at a specific distance. These must be achieved at Licensed Meets only. By achieving the time defined by the specific Region, athletes may attend the Regionals. See East Region RQT Qualifying Times - TBC for 2018 |
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| National Championships | Qualification is achieved for a specific stroke at a specific distance. These must be achieved at Level 1 Licensed Meets only, between dates announced by British Swimming & Swim England (towards the end of each calendar year, following completion of National Championships. athletes are ‘invited’ after the closing date (normally the final Bank Holiday weekend in May) as follows: British Champs (top ranked 1st to 24th in Britain) or English Champs (top ranked 25th to 44th in England) Dependent on various criteria, athletes can opt to be nominated as Welsh or Scottish Nationals to qualify for their Nationals. |
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| "Age as at" | There is not a standard definition for this, however for Counties and above, the current ruling is that a athlete will compete in an age group if they are of that age at 31st December. Example if Fred Bloggs is 10 on 1st Jan, then he will swim in the 9 and under age group. Some meets have a different "age as at" for example Peanuts Team Galas have age at 30th June to tie in with the last period of competition, but it can vary slightly from year to year. In some situations it is defined as the age of the child at the end of the competition. Example if Fiona Bloggs is 9 and enters a 5 day competition and is 10 on day 3 of the competition, then she will compete in the 10 to 11 age group. All of our Club Champs work on the standard of "age as at 31st December", with our Club 50s being age as at day. |
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| Rankings - https://www.swimmingresults.org/individualbest/ | ||
| What is Rankings? We use a system run by Swim England/British Swimming that has the results of every athlete for every stroke/race they have done at a licensed meet that is their best time achieved. The Rankings system is then used as a reference point for meet organisers and officials to verify a time for a athlete and stroke. Only times achieved at Licensed Meets will be captured on Rankings. When you enter a meet (normally licensed) you will be asked to confirm that the entry time required is valid and therefore the organiser/officials of the meet will check you submitted time against Rankings. |
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| Competitive Events | ||
| Club Event - Club Nights | Open to all members, we like to see all athletes attend Takes place on Sunday evenings normally fittign between our meet schedule. Just turn up to the appropriate session for your training group. Starting at 16:45 to 18:30 for Groups 1 to 3, 18:30 to 20:15 for Groups 4 to 8, DTC & Masters. We run a small friendly competition where we measure athletes improvements and award points based on improvement, See Club Night Handicap. The most improved athlete for each event per session is awarded a white swim hat, with a trophy to the athlete with the most points at the end of the year, along with age groups awards. These are currently unlicensed meets, we hope after sumemr 2024 to make thes elicensed, IF we get enough qualified officials. Entry is open to all, just register at the Event when we put it up. The history behind Club Nights is two-fold, firstly we use Club Nights as a way to introduce athletes into the competitive world of swimming but in an environment of a friendly and supported internal meet. Secondly our head coach uses times from some of these meets to help choose athletes for team competitions and Assessments. It is also an ideal way of seeing how athletes are progressing. We run a number of differing Club Nights, some aligned to Assessments (for which there are 3 a year), team Club Nights and specific distance Club Nights i.e. 800m & 1500m meets. We also put up two sets of results, actual results with disqualifications and "DQ Times" which are the times a athlete would have achieved if they had not been disqualified. Coaches will then work with swimmers to address any DQs you get as part of the session plans. |
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| BSC Team League Galas | ||
| How are teams selected? - In December we put out a survey to all swimmers notifying you of the dates of the 3 key team galas, Peanuts, Herts Major League and Arena League. We then ask families to commit to those meets and from this the teams are selected. Please make a not of these dates and be ready to attend with the rest of the team the gala you are chosen for. It you commit to this survey and then at a later date advise us you are now not available; you are letting down the rest of the team. We also put up an Event on our Events webpage showing the potential dates of the team meets, a "Diary Entry" if you like, we keep an upand coming Events Diary on the following webpage - https://uk.teamunify.com/team/erhbsc/page/events#/team-events/upcoming We then put up a Team Confirmation Event and ask the selected athletes to again confirm that they are still available to swim for TEAM BSC, we also ask for volunteers to help run the team on the day. We ask please that if you have committed to swim for the team, please keep these dates free, we spend a lot of wasted time confirming athletes and then having to find replacements. All of these team galas have three rounds and the Head Coach will try to ensure that those who have committed their availability, get to races as part of the team. If however you then relinquish your place when selected for a specific meet, there is no guarantee that you will get another opportunity for this meet. We do appreciate from time-to-time events occur outside of your control. However, because some organisations do not organise themselves in advance, they then apply pressure on swimmers to attend their event, not ours. In our view this is totally unacceptable and is no way to teach a child about commitment. |
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| Tape Trophy | The Tape trophy is run by Potters Bar Swimming Club. It is a single meet aimed at the junior members of the swimming club. It consists of a number of individual races and relays aimed at the individual age groups 9 to 12 as of 30th June of that year. BSC always enters a team as its an ideal way to introduce athletes into their first experience of external competitive meets in a friendly and supportive way. Selection for the team is outlined in How are teams selected. |
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| South Herts Trophy | The South Herts trophy is run by Potters Bar Swimming Club. Like the Tape Trophy it is a single meet aimed at the junior members of the swimming club. It consists of a number of individual races and relays aimed at the individual age groups 9 to 12 as of 30th June of that year. BSC always enters a team as its an ideal way to introduce athletes into their first experience of external competitive meets in a friendly and supportive way. Selection for the team is outlined in How are teams selected. |
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| Hertfordshire Peanuts League |
For athletes aged 12 and under. Events take place on three Saturday nights from April to July. We try and balance the team with experienced athletes and development athletes.
These are unlicensed meets. Selection to the team(s) is by invitation to represent the Club. An Event entry invitation will be sent to invited athletes. Please commit quickly to the gala under the Events Tab having received your invite. Depending upon the size of the team, we invite 4 athletes in each age group providing every athlete with 1 individual and 2 relay swims. Selection to the team is based around a mix of athletes to give as many athletes as possible an opportunity in the gala. Club Night are ideal ways for the less experienced athletes to achieve times that can be used to help selection. As an attending club, we must "host" and record one meet normally every other year, this cycles between all the clubs. This requires the club providing a lot of volunteers to do various roles and manage the meet. In addition, at each meet we must provide one timekeeper and one J1 or above. |
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| Hertfordshire Major League |
For athletes of all ages (9 years and upwards). Events take place on three Saturday nights from January to March.
These are unlicensed meets. Selection to the team(s) is by invitation to represent the Club. An Event entry invitation will be sent to invited athletes. Please commit quickly to the gala under the Events Tab having received your invite. Depending upon the size of the team, we invite 4 athletes in each age group providing every athlete with 1 individual and 2 relay swims. Selection to the team is based around a mix of athletes to give as many athletes as possible an opportunity in the gala. Club Night are ideal ways for the less experienced athletes to achieve times that can be used to help selection. As an attending club, we must "host" and record one meet normally every other year, this cycles between all the clubs. This requires the club providing a lot of volunteers to do various roles and manage the meet. In addition, at each meet we must provide one timekeeper and one J1 or above. |
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| National Arena League |
For athletes of all ages (9 years – relays only; and upwards). Events take place on three Saturday nights from October to December, across a wider geographical area.
These are normally Licensed meets, we swim in the London League. Selection to the team is by invitation to represent the Club. An Event entry invitation will be sent to invited athletes. Please commit quickly to the gala under the Events Tab having received your invite. For this league we select athletes to get the best possible result for the club and, occasionally, a athlete may be invited for just one relay as a result, but as a general rule we endeavour to provide each athlete with at least 2 swims. As an attending club, we must "host" and record one meet normally every other year, this cycles between all the clubs. This requires the club providing a lot of volunteers to do various roles and manage the meet. In addition, at each meet we must provide one timekeeper and one J1 or above. |
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| Local Development Galas | ||
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For younger novice athletes. Great for gaining competition experience, events take place on Saturday nights.
These normally consist of local clubs putting on these events, i.e. Hemel Hempstead Spring Development Meet. These are normally Licensed meets. Selection is normally open to all (sometimes by invitation) to athletes to represent the Club. An Event entry invitation will be sent to invited athletes. There are usually ‘No Faster than’ times thus preventing top athletes ‘pot hunting’ so are ideal for newer athletes. Keep your eyes out on our Events page for these galas. |
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| "County Junior Team Championship" |
For athletes aged under 14 (age as at 31st December). Event usually takes place in December on a Saturday night. Selection to the team is by invitation to represent the Club. An Event entry invitation will be sent to invited athletes.
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| Open Meets (based on Rankings) | Open Meets are events run by swimming clubs (primarily for additional revenue) that can be one evening or run over several days. Each club tends to have a specific focus regarding the events that they provide. Any athlete can attend these meets, but must have a time achieved at a Licensed Meet which is reflected in Rankings. Additionally these meets may also have Entry Time limitations, meaning you can't be any faster or slower than the time stated, or variations of. In each Event we put on on out Events page we will guide you to who this meet is aimed at. Times achieved at these meets are then provided to Rankings. |
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| Open Meets (not based on Rankings) | These are similar to those Open Meets above, but do not require a time that is achieved at a Licensed Meet and therefore not on Rankings. Again they may set an entry times but they will not be from Rankings or from a Licensed Meet. |
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| Time Trials | Sometimes promoters at Open Meets will offer swimmers the option of a Time Trial. This is when they will make an opening for a swimmer to race with the primary focus of getting a Rankings time for the stroke/distance. These usually occur when a meet has spaces left in a specific race. Sometimes they do this in advance, other times you have to turn up on the day and hope that there is a space still, you will already have to be registered at the meet to be able to do a trial. There is a an additional cost for these. You will sometimes find that Time Trials still require the qualification time for that race, as defined in the Meet Conditions. Other times promoters will wave the qualficiation requirements, please refer to the Meet Conditions for the specific meet. Why would you want to do a Time Trial? If you need a time to meet a specific requirement, example you are looking for a Counties Qualification time for a stroke/distance but have been unable to race at any other meet to acheive this. Or the time you have is just short by a few seconds and the swimmer feels given another opportunity, they could achieve it. |
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| County Championships "Counties" |
Hertfordshire County Championships take place over three weekends in January. Selection is via achieving County Qualifying Times (CQT) from Licensed meets (currently from 1st June to 10th December 2017) of the preceding year but subject to revision annually are required. |
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| Regional Championships "Regionals" |
East Region Championships normally take place over the 2 Bank Holiday weekends in the Spring at two ages events 11 to 14 years (Youths) and 14 years to Open (anyone older than 16). Selection is via achieving Regional Qualifying Times (RQT) from Licensed meets in the preceding qualification period as decided by East Region and Swim England.
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| British Summer Championships | The British Summer Championships normally takes place across six days in July. athletes will be invited based on the national rankings. The top 24 in Britain in each age group and event will be invited to compete at the Summer Championships. The qualifying window will run from 10th March – 29th May inclusive.
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| Swim England National Summer Meet | The National Summer Meet is Swim England’s biggest domestic swimming event of the year. The Summer Meet forms part of a swimming competition structure in Great Britain whereby the top ranked athletes in each event are invited to compete at the British Swimming Summer Championships. Selection is 25th to 44th ranked athletes at English affiliated clubs – or those who have chosen to be ranked as an English athlete – are invited to compete at the English Nationals. The rankings are on athletes’ performances at level 1 meets between a qualification window, typically between March and May of the same calendar year. |
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| Club Champs BAGCATS |
Based on the old BAGCATS (British Age Group Categories) set up and with points awarded from FINA (International Governing Body) points based against world record times. Using these points across 5 ‘Pots’ (50m sprints; 100m swims; 200m From strokes – i.e. Butterfly, Backstroke & Breaststroke; Distance free – i.e. 200, 400 & 800/1500m races Individual Medley) with the best points score from each pot counting towards the athlete’s total points.
This rewards the athlete who enters events ‘across the board’ rather than just their ‘favourite' events. By the Club Awards evening the totals are added up and an awarded given per age group and gender (9 & Under Girls, 9 & Under Boys, 10 – 11 year Girls, 10 – 11 year Boys, 12 - 13 year Girls, 12 – 13 year Boys, 14 - 15 year Girls, 14 – 15 year Boy, 16 & Over year Girls, 16 & Over year Boys). |
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| Club Nights Handicap | The objective is to encourage the hard work and training athletes put in and their development in a friendly supportive competition between their peers. Points are awarded 50 to 1 based on the improvement time of the stroke and distance achieved by the athlete. The most improved gets 50 points, the least improved gets 1 point.
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| Club Records |
A Club record will be accredited to the athlete if they are swimming under the Club’s name plus if they swimming for their University or school. If however they are swimming under the name of another Swimming Club, then any record will not be accredited to them in the BSC Club Records.
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| Awards Night | Assuming we get enough people who wish to attend, each year we run an Awards Night where we recognise the achievements of swimmers. We structure Club Night races to give every swimmer the opportunity to achieve awards, irrespective of how fast they are. | |
| Meet Course Types | ||
| SCM or SC | Short Course Metres - is the length of the pool that the competition is going to take place in. In these events SCM/SC refers to the pool being 25 metres long. Note - SCY is US based and is Short Course Yards, 25 yard pool. |
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| LCM or LC | Long Course Metres - is the length of the pool that the competition is going to take place in. In these events LCM/LC refers to the pool being 50 metres long. |
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| Long Term Athlete Development - https://uk.teamunify.com/erhbsc/__doc__/Long%20Term%20Athlete%20Development.pdf | ||
| Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) is a sports development framework that is based on human growth and development. In short, it is an athlete centred approach to swimming development. The athlete's Pathway is based on the LTAD framework and should be used to review and shape swimming programmes in Scotland so that we are all pulling in the same direction and ultimately to get more people swimming, to get existing athletes swimming more frequently and to add increase to our growing pool of talent. athlete's Pathway incorporates the following: FUNdamentals Structured play, organised games and fun with an emphasis on developing generic movement skills across a range of activities. SwimSkills Building on the generic movement skills developed through FUNdamentals, this starts to shape those skills to an aquatics specific context. Participants learn how to train in a structured environment alongside participation in complementary activities i.e. other sports which use similar energy systems and movement patterns. This stage coincides with a period of peak motor co-ordination. Training to Train This stage coincides with a period of rapid growth spurts and peak endurance gains. Training to Compete: Optimising the Engine – 14 to 16 years (female); 15 to 18 years (male) There should be a continued emphasis on maintaining high skill levels and high volume, but with increasing intensity. The emphasis should be on developing individual strengths and weaknesses through race practice, simulated race situations and starting to specialise in a particular stroke or distance, but not both. This stage coincides with a period of rapid strength and weight gains. Training to Win: Maximising the Engine – 16+ years (female); 18+ years (male) There should be an emphasis on specialisation and optimising performance. athletes should be trained for specific events and competitions. As a result, all aspects of training should be individualised with the maintenance of high skill levels and variations to both volume and intensity. |
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| Club Hats - Colours and Representation | ||
| The swimming club has a selection of hats representing various situations, these are as follows;
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