Our Guide to Competing

The competitive aspect of swimming, the meet, can seem like a daunting and confusing prospect for new swimmers and parents. However, once you’ve experienced a couple, you will quickly get into the swing of things. We hope to be able to answer all of those tricky questions that parents new and old have about how competitive meets are entered and run.

Your coach is the definitive point of reference for matters relating to meets, and as with every other aspect of the club’s activities, there are plenty of people who have been involved in competitive swimming for years who will be happy to advise you. Just ask!

Competition Types

An Open Meet is where the swimmer decides what events to enter. Typically, the cost is approximately £8 - £10 per event. They are usually held over a single weekend although can sometimes be held over several weekends. Spectators generally pay to watch, but this is down to the discretion of the meet organiser. These costs help to cover the rising costs of hiring out the full facility, and other costs associated with running a meet.

Galas are typically where swimmers are selected to represent the Club. The Head Coach and Team Manager and/or other coaches decide who is swimming what. This could potentially be an individual event or a relay. There is no charge for swimming at these galas, but spectators are generally charged admission. Examples of this are Four Seasons, Mini Series, Cotswolds and Arena.

Competitions are either Open i.e. open to all or closed competitions which are for selected clubs. They can be Short Course (SC) - a 25m pool or Long Course (LC) – a 50m pool. 

For the majority of competitions, the club attends and stays together as a team, but the swimmers compete as individuals against other individuals. Usually, the top three positions in events receive a medal.

 

What QT, CT, UCT and NT all mean

Qualifying Time (QT) - the time that must be achieved to enter the event in a meet. If the meet has Consideration Times (CT) these are usually slower than the QT. Entries will firstly be selected from the swimmers who have achieved the QT for an event. Only if there are then places available will swimmers with a CT be accepted to enter the event.

Upper Cut off Times (UCT) are usually found in level 3 meets. Where UCTs are published, swimmers may enter where their PB for the event is equal to or slower than the published UCT. If their time is faster than the UCT, the entry will not be accepted.

Meets which permit No Times (NTs), are the first step in competitive swimming for new entrants. These are usually Level 3 meets and will allow entries for swimmers who do not have any qualifying times, there are also usually UCTs associated with NT galas.

 

Different Meet Levels

Level 1 meets are long course (50m) and level 2 meets are short course (25m). They cover National, Regional and County Championships. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve qualifying times for entry into National, Regional and County Championships.

A minimum qualifying time is required. A swimmer’s submitted entry time can be verified in Rankings and must be from Level 1 or 2 for National events, and from Level 1, 2 or 3 for Regional and County Championships.

Some County Championships and Open Meets may choose to accept entry times from Level 4 meets. Importantly, Somerset County Championships take qualifying times from Level 4 meets, including our own Club Championships.

Level 3 meets are long and short course 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. They typically have upper cut off times (swimmers may not enter if their times are faster than the specified UCT). Some of these meets are designed to encourage swimmers to enter who have no times, and who are starting out in their swimming career.

Level 4 meets are entry level events in pools 25m or greater. They include Club Championships and can include other smaller scale inter-club competitions.

 

Entries

Gala entry procedure is the same for all meets except for Nationals, where the top swimmers are invited to compete.

Our club website has the details of each meet and a meet pack (often titled Conditions). Please read the meet pack carefully, before you decide to enter a gala. We try to put the most important points in the meet description on the events page of the website. However, as a parent, carer or swimmer, it is important that you scan through it yourself. Many questions can be answered by reading this important document! The pack will have information such as:

• Meet venue
• Meet dates and times
• Meet level
• Whether the meet is long or short course
• The cost of entering an event at the meet. Please note that we will usually apply a surcharge per meet to pay for coaches’ passes. Different organisers charge different amounts for these. Coaches and Team Managers are there to support swimmers. There are strict Swim England ratios to adhere to.
• Sometimes there are some really important pieces of information such as a limit on the number of entries per swimmer, or a time period in which a swimmer must have achieved their qualifying time.
• Any other information relevant to the meet. For example, spectator entry fee, parking etc.

Once you have read the meet pack, ensure that the meet is suitable and that you do not have any other commitments on the relevant day(s). Decide which events to enter. Bear in mind that entering too many events is very tiring and may mean your swimmer can not be their best. Open Meets often have an early start and mean long days. If in doubt, ask your coach who will be happy to advise you, as they are the one who knows your swimmer.

When you first receive an email informing you of a new meet, there are instructions as part of the email on how to sign up on Sports Engine Motion (formerly Team Unify). You can complete your entry on our Clevedon website. Or, you may sign up using the app, On Deck, which is powered by Sports Engine Motion (formerly Team Unify) and uses the same password.

Please make sure that when you sign up for a single event, such as a distance race (e.g. 800m free, 1500m free etc.), that you tick the box to actually select the race, and not just click the ‘yes please’ commitment button.

Please be aware of the deadline to enter a meet. The deadline that is set by us, as a club, will be earlier than the deadline set by the meet organisers. This is because we have to check, approve (all entries have to be approved by coaches and/or the Competition Secretary), amend (if any) and process entries before submission. This takes time, and sometimes, with some popular meets, the space will fill up quickly so the organisers reserve the right to close the entry earlier than the deadline set on the meet pack. Unfortunately, if you miss the deadline, your swimmer will not be able to enter the meet.

 

Time Conversions

Some meets require times achieved in a 25m (short course) pool, and others require times achieved in a 50m (long course) pool. There are tools available to convert between the two. Our system does the necessary conversions, so if you see a time that you think is incorrect, it is usually because it has been converted to be able to be used for the meet. For example, if a short course time has been converted to a long course one, it will have an apostrophe after the L e.g. 3:12.86L’   If a long course time has been converted to a short course time, it will have an apostrophe after the S e.g. 1:25.83S’

Swimming a race in a 25m pool is quite different to a 50m pool as there are more turns in a 25m pool (more pushing off, streamlining and less swimming) so swimmers typically swim faster in a short course event (if they are good at turns)!

Times are shown on the British Rankings website with a conversion in the next column. There are also online conversion tools, although results vary and should be taken as a guide only. A really useful conversion site can be found here.

 

Invoice and Payment

Once the entries to the meet have been processed, an invoice will be generated through Team Unify and sent to the Treasurer who usually collects fees after the meet has occurred.

Nearer to the event, the meet organiser sends the list of accepted entries and scratches to the club. The organisers can reject (scratch) a swimmer. This is normally because there are too many entries for a particular race. Scratches are not charged for. This list will be made available to you along with any additional information such as session times, confirmed warm up times, and on-the-day info.

When you have entered a meet and the deadline has passed, if, for whatever reason, your swimmer is unable to attend, you will usually NOT be refunded your money, unless you have some sort of medical documentation such as an appointment letter of prescription with the date and patient’s name on. This is a condition set by most, if not all, meet organisers.

On the day of a meet, if your swimmer is unable to make it, please email, text or ring your coach ASAP so they are aware, and can withdraw your swimmer from the event. At some meets, failure to do so could result in a fine to our club by the meet organiser, and this fine will be charged to you.

 

Age Groups

Most competitions organise swimmers into age groups for awards. Sometimes these are single year age groups, sometimes double, with awards presented for the top swimmers in each event, in each age group. Heats can be spearheaded according to entry time, irrespective of age.

National, Regional and County competitions have age as of 31 December. Other meets can do this as well, such as our Club Championships, or they run on a system called “Age on Day,” which means that the age group a swimmer enters, is their age on the final day of competition. 

If a competition runs over several weekends, then the age is on the last day of the whole competition.

In addition to individual age groups, competitions may also be split into; Age is up to 14 for girls and boys. Youth is from these ages to 17 for females and 18 for males. Senior is all ages above these.

 

Meet Programmes

Meet Programmes or heat sheets are sometimes available for sale at a venue, listing all swimmers in each event, in order of seed time, and providing general information about the event. They are very useful if only to work out when your child is likely to be swimming and to schedule comfort breaks and trips to the café accordingly! Many organisers now prefer to go paperless, so ask you to print programmes off at home. Often, meets are on the app, Meet Mobile, which is very useful, but there is an annual subscription charge.

 

 Volunteering

It is a lot of work to put on a meet and you are only typically asked to help for a couple of hours.  If you enter your child for a meet you should therefore try to plan to be there to support and help. Volunteering makes the time spent at a hot pool go faster! Club meets and events are essential income for the club as we are not profit making. They raise funds which help to keep the training fees at a reasonable level. 

 

Preparing for a Meet

Before the meet, give your swimmer a sensible meal the night before they swim. They shouldn’t eat anything too heavy or completely out of the norm. The best plan is to eat something simple and easy to digest, similarly for breakfast. 

Make sure you know the venue and how long it will take you to get there.  Remember, sometimes clubs can host a meet at another pool than their home pool. Also, check online for the parking locations and whether you will need to pay and have change for it etc. Leave plenty of time spare so that your swimmer has time to change and prepare without rushing.  

Check carefully the FINAL published session times.  These can be subject to change from the original published times when you originally entered due to the number of entrants and how long the racing will take. Be aware that there is a warm up swim at the beginning of each of the day’s sessions, your swimmer will be expected to swim in each of these.  Note - if the boys’ races are first on the programme then they will warm up first / vice versa for the girls. You should always aim to arrive at least half an hour before warm up.

If your child has special needs please send all details to your coach before the meet so they can make sure they are properly catered for on the day. If you feel that they will need 1-2-1 assistance poolside please let them know.

 

What to take to a meet

1)         Swimsuit, cap and goggles – and then a spare of everything!  Swimsuits for racing should be reasonably tight fitting (you don’t want them filled with water to drag your swimmer down). You do not need a special racing swim suit until you are at a high level.  Girls should wear a training type costume, without any frills etc. Boys should wear jammers – not shorts.

2)         Two towels: one for drying off between races and one for changing at the end of the day.

3)         Clevedon swimmers should have a club top to wear poolside at competitions.  They should also bring shorts / joggers to wear whilst waiting.  

4)     Flip flops / poolside shoes as the floor can get very slippery.

4)         Enough food and snacks appropriate for the meet length: a packed lunch with sensible options (no nuts) and plenty to drink (not fizzy).  Your coach can give you guidance.

5)         Money – most meets have a spectator entry fee. You can often pay by card now.

7)         Some meets can be uncomfortable in very hot spectator galleries. There can be very long waits between your swimmer’s events – make sure you dress appropriately, bring things to keep you occupied and perhaps a cushion to sit on.

 

Signing in / Out

For some competitions, you need to sign your swimmer in when you arrive at a meet – check the Promoters Conditions/Meet Pack to make sure you know if this is a requirement and if it is, find the signing in sheet on arrival.  This is usually for long distance events. If you don’t sign in, your swimmer may not be able to participate.

For most competitions, if your swimmer needs to withdraw from a race they will operate a signing out procedure – you must tell your coach if your swimmer isn’t going to compete, and they will do the signing out for you.  If you do not tell your coach, the club may be liable for a fine and this will be passed on to you.  This is always detailed in the Promoters Conditions. This usually happens at County, Regional and National Level, but can happen at other meets.

 

What to expect during racing

Your swimmer will be expected to find their own way to their races – at all ages!

Race process

To help make sure they don’t miss their race you can make sure your swimmer (especially the younger ones) understands the process beforehand:

➢        Swimmers should report directly to their coach poolside on the day.  They should stay with their squad poolside except for races and toilet breaks. They can leave poolside when their session/races have ended and only when they have checked with their coach.

➢        Parents are not allowed poolside at meets unless you have been allocated a poolside job on the helpers list. Please respect this. All coaches and Team Managers have been DBS checked to safeguard our swimmers.

➢        A Coach or Team Manager will tell swimmers which events they are swimming in, and will call their name when it is time to head to marshalling for their race.

➢        The swimmers will then be sent to the marshalling area.  If they need to go to the toilet at this time they MUST tell the marshal who will tell them if there is enough time.  If they wander off, the meet can’t just be stopped to wait for them!

➢        Marshalls will call out the names of the swimmers and get them into order.  They will then line up in the order of the lane that they will be swimming in.  Make sure your swimmer listens out carefully for their name to be called – remember if their name is difficult to pronounce they might need to be extra careful.

➢        When it is your swimmer’s turn to race they will be sent to their lane behind the blocks. By this time, they need to have their hat and goggles on ready.

➢        When your swimmer’s heat is ready to start, the referee will give several short whistle blasts (three or four) – that is their cue to stand behind the blocks with their hat and goggles on ready to race.

➢        The announcer will then announce the details of the race – the Event Name and the Heat.  Example this is Event Number 1 – boys 50 metres freestyle, this event is swum over 10 heats and this is heat number 1. They will then hand over the race to the referee.

➢        The referee will then give one long whistle blast.  The swimmers then should step onto the block and get ready.  If they are not diving in, they should enter the water after the long whistle blast.

➢        The starter will then say “Take your marks,” A loud beep follows, and swimmers start racing!

➢        At most meets, the swimmers’ times will appear on the score board when they have finished their race.  The yellow pads in the pool are touch sensitive Sometimes the swimmer doesn’t hit the pad hard enough for the time to register or the pad doesn’t work.  Don’t worry! The timekeeper (official in white) at the end of the lane always takes back up times.  When there is a discrepancy, it will be checked so there is no need to panic if the time doesn’t come up on the board.

➢        Remember races (events) are organised into heats, and then swum in order of the swimmers’ entry times; usually slowest to fastest.   This means that swimmers that are competing with your child in their heat might not actually be in their age group – they could be older or younger. So, your swimmer might win their heat against the 7 other children they were racing against in the water, but not actually win a medal.  You will need to check the published results to know where they have come overall in the race, in their age category (see also the section on age up dates).

➢        Results – at most meets the results will be published in the spectator area soon after the event.  Many meets now use the Meet Mobile app which publishes the live results of the races.  This has a small annual subscription fee but is very useful.

 

When things go wrong – they often do!

➢        Keep calm!

➢        If your swimmer misses their race it isn’t the end of the world!  Please put it in perspective if this happens, there will be lots and lots of other opportunities.  Remember the marshalls, officials and coaches are all volunteers, and are other childrens’ parents who might be new to this too – please treat everyone kindly and respectfully, even if they make a mistake.

➢        It is a fact of life that swimmers may well be disqualified (DQ) when racing.  Like all sports, competitive swimming has its own set of strict technical rules which are there to make sure that races are run completely fairly. Whilst it can be upsetting when DQs happen, the club has to get the swimmers used to these rules from the start. It is extremely rare for disqualifications to get overturned.  Please support your swimmer by helping them to accept the decision.  It is good to understand the reason for the disqualification so they can learn from it, and your coach will discuss that with them, but getting upset or angry about it will not help your swimmer. Learn to see disqualifications as ‘Marvellous Mistakes’ - they are learning opportunities to be used to develop and grow.

 

Results

There is usually some form of electronic timing in use at meets. At many pools there is a back-up button for the timing pads. The third back up is the Time Keeper who records manually with a stopwatch. Occasionally, the electronic timing may not operate correctly, e.g. a swimmer may not have touched the pad hard enough to trigger it, which is where the back-up button and manual times come in to play. The results of each race are shown on the display board, but they have to be ratified by the referee before they are deemed ‘official’. At our club meets held at Strode, we rely purely on Time Keepers.

There may be disqualifications for the infringement of technical or stroke rules. Officials report these to the Referee who makes the decision to disqualify or not. Official results are usually posted on the walls after the events and are often available on the host club/organisation’s website or via Meet Mobile.

 

National Rankings

All the results from licensed meets are sent off, and uploaded to British Swimming, which maintains the National Rankings Database. This can be accessed on the British Swimming website. The website is really useful as swimmers can check all of their best times for long and short course. They can also see where they rank against other swimmers Nationally, Regionally and at County and Club level.

Wow! So much information!

But, once you’ve been to a few meets and galas, you’ll be a pro before you know it!                                                                           

Welcome to the world of competitive swimming!