Swim Meet Guidelines
Swim meets can be daunting for new swimmers and their families, but we do our best to make it easy!
MEET SIGN-UP/REGISTRATION
You will use Swimtopia to declare your swimmers for meets & events throughout the season. Please visit our Swimmers tab to sign-up for meets as they become available.
The "Sign-Up" (registration) for each meet will open the Sunday before the meet occurs and will close the Tuesday before the meet occurs at midnight. An email reminder will be sent out when a Meet Sign-Up opens.
EXPLANATION OF "REGISTRATION STATUS"
"Pending" - event is scheduled, sign-up opening soon
"Open" - event is open for sign up
"Closed" - event is closed for additional entries
For each meet, regardless of whether your swimmer is swimming, please choose: Attending or Not Attending.
READING THE HEAT SHEET
Swim meets are broken up into EVENTS, HEATS, and LANES.
For example, your child may be swimming Girls 9-10, 25 Backstroke which is typically EVENT 15. Within that EVENT, the heat sheets will show what HEAT and LANE she will be swimming. Look for EVENT 15, then look for your swimmers name. The HEAT number (ex. Heat 2 of 3) and LANE number (ex. Lane 3 of 6) will be indicated for each EVENT.
MARKING SWIMMERS' ARMS
*The Age Group Parent on the day of the meet will mark up your swimmer(s) arm.*
For a 9 yo girl swimming EVENT (E) 15, HEAT (H) 2, in LANE (L) 5 and EVENT (E) 23, HEAT (H) 1, in LANE (L) 6, it should look like this:
E H L
15 2 5
23 1 6
For Relays, add a parenthetical next to the LANE (L) to indicate which leg your swimmer has. If your child is swimming the 3rd leg of the Medley Relay it should look like this:
E H L
3 2 5 (3)
For the Medley Relay (4 different swimmers, each swimming one stroke as a team) the order is Back (1), Breast (2), Fly (3), Free (4).
For the Individual Medley (1 swimmer swimming all 4 strokes) the order is Fly, Back, Breast, Free.
MEET DAY GUIDELINES
WHAT TO BRING
SNACKS
*Some Host pools offer a cash concession stand*
ENTERTAINMENT
There is a lot of down-time for swimmers between events. We recommend packing materials to keep kids occupied while waiting in their Age Group Tents between events. Electronics (I-pads, video games, cell phones, etc.) are strongly discouraged.
**PLEASE LABEL EVERYTHING YOU BRING TO THE POOL. ALL LOST AND FOUND ITEMS WILL BE BROUGHT TO PRACTICE FOLLOWING A MEET.**
About Those Relays...
Relays are a constant source of questions from parents. How are they formed? How do I know if my child is swimming? Does my child have to swim relays? Etc, etc.
There are two relays we swim in meets… the Freestyle Relay (all age groups) and the Medley Relay (ages 7 and above). The Freestyle Relay consists of 4 kids each swimming freestyle for one length of the pool. The Medley Relay consists of 4 kids each swimming a different stroke for one length of the pool. The order of strokes is Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, and Freestyle. Look at the event order to see when the events will be held.
Our policy is that relays are computer generated, but coach approved. This means that the computer system looks at which kids are registered for the meet, places them in relays based upon their times and then the coach will review the relays for accuracy and possibly make changes. This process is very thorough and the coach works hard to put these together. At most meets we will try to form 2-3 relays per age group. Obviously this depends upon how many kids are swimming at any given meet. Our goal is to get as many kids in relays as possible… which might also mean that your child will be asked to swim with older kids to fill out a relay team.
When registering for a meet you plan on attending, you have four options concerning relays:
- Attending this meet and available for ANY relays (willing to swim in both relays)
- Attending this meet BUT cannot swim EARLY relays (willing to swim only Medley Relay)
- Attending this meet BUT cannot swim LATE relays (willing to swim only Freestyle Relay)
- Attending this meet BUT cannot swim ANY relays (not willing to swim either relay)
If you do not opt out we will assume your child is willing and excited to swim in a relay for our team. Please note that "willing to swim" doesn't always mean "will swim" when it comes to relays. There are more swimmers than open spots on a relay. Most of all, relays are fun and are intended to be that way! They build team spirit and help kids really feel a partnership with their fellow Lazers!
Finally, if your on a relay, PLEASE SHOW UP. It's a scramble to fill relay teams at the last minute and many cases it may cause an entire relay team to scratch, leaving 3 other kids disappointed. If you don't think you will make it, please select no relays and try again a different swim meet.