Competition Jargon
Swim England rankings database – a website that publicly stores the licensed times of all SE registered swimmers. Can be viewed here: https://www.swimmingresults.org/individualbest/. There is also a database of national rankings here: https://www.swimmingresults.org/eventrankings/
Blocks – the things that swimmers dive off. Backstroke starting ledges are a ledge that hangs from the blocks to assist swimmers on their backstroke start.
Competition – also known as a meet or gala. A competitive swimming event.
Counties – Staffordshire ASA county championships (or equivalent in another county). An annual series of competitions, with qualifying times, where the best swimmers in the county compete to be county champion.
DQ – disqualification. If a swimmer breaks a rule of the stroke or race, they will be disqualified. Instead of a time, the results sheet will show a disqualification, along with a code to indicate the rule broken.
Gala – aka a meet or competition. A competitive swimming event.
Heats – the divisions of swimmers within an event. Often, there will be no finals and the times swum in the heats will be compared to determine the swimmer’s placings. Heats are usually run from slowest swimmers in the first heat to fastest swimmers in the last heat. The fastest heats are sometimes spearheaded.
J1/J2… - competitions are run by a contingent of officials (the people in white), all of whom are volunteers. These include the timekeepers, the stroke judges, the starter and referee. A minimum of 15 such individuals are needed for a competition to run and many are parents who find being poolside more engaging (and less hot!) than sitting and observing from the viewing area for hours. All officials must complete qualifications to be allowed to do the different jobs – J1 (judge level 1) qualifies you to time keep, for example, J2 to judge stroke etc.
Marshalling – the area where swimmers are sent before their race to be arranged into heats.
Medley – a race in which all four competition strokes are swum. In an individual race they are swum in the order butterfly-backstroke-breaststroke-front crawl and in a team race the order backstroke-breaststroke-butterfly-front crawl.
Meet – equivalent of gala or competition. A competitive swimming event.
Nationals – an invitation only meet for the top swimmers in the country (England) who are not at the British Championships.
Open meets – ‘public competitions’, for want of a better description, open to other swimmers from different clubs.
PB – personal best. The fastest time a swimmer has ever swum in an event. “I got a PB!” – I swam that faster than I’ve ever swum it before.
Regionals – as ‘counties’ but for the West Midlands region (or other equivalent).
Skins – a ‘last swimmer standing’ swimming event where swimmers will swim the same distance (often 50m) repeatedly on a fixed turnaround (usually 2 or 3 minutes), with the slowest swimmer each time being ‘knocked out’. Entry to skins is usually by qualification based on time swum in the 200m IM.
Spearhead – swimmers are arranged so that the fastest swimmers are in the centre lanes and the slowest in the outside.
