Swim Meet 101
Swim Meets
Please arrive on time! Saturday meet time is 7:30AM. Wednesday Evening meet time is 4:30PM. Each private swim club MAY HAVE its own Covid regulations. The check in process may be a little longer than usual, so PLEASE make every effort to arrive on time. Upon arrival, your swimmer should speak to a coach and get checked in.
Swim Meet Etiquette
1. PLEASE do not approach the coaches during a meet. If there is an issue or you have a question, speak with one of your parent reps. If it is not something we can address ourselves we will find the answer or send a coach to you as soon as possible!
2. You MAY NOT be on the pool deck unless you are a volunteer and your duty includes the pool deck area. Please be respectful of that boundary as it is for safety reasons.
3. Recording of any kind from behind the blocks is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. This is a Safe Sport issue and is taken very seriously.
4. Please encourage your child to stay with the team during swim meets. This helps coaches to locate swimmers quickly so they won't miss races and also promotes binding and friendship!
5. ALWAYS CHEER FOR.... NEVER CHEER AGAINST!!! Good sportsmanship is PARAMOUNT to our program. Little eyes are watching you and little ears are listening :-)
Team Suit, Cap, Equipment
Sport Spot will have a table set up in the Swim Club during practice on Monday, June 22nd, 5pm - 6pm. You can purchase your team suit and any swim accessories (extra cap, goggles, bungee, towel pants) your swimmer might need. If you cannot be at practice on Monday, you could visit the store yourself! It is located in on Route 35 in Shrewsbury... near The Grove shopping plaza. You can, also, place your order over the phone with a credit card.
FINS ARE STRONGLY RECOMMENDED! 10 and unders should have the Finis z2 zoomers and the 11 and overs to have the Arena powerfin pro. If there is an 11-12 with very small feet and the powerfin doesn’t come in their size then the Z2 zoomers are fine.
Swim team t-shirts and gear are strongly recommended to show our team spirit.
Volunteering
WE NEED YOU!! Please offer your time. The best place to see the meet is from the deck and the only way to get on the deck is to VOLUNTEER! Here is a quick description of the volunteer opportunities waiting for you:
Across the Board: Tell in what order swimmers finish, heat 1 only. Write down the finish order on sheets provided. There are always 2 Across the Board people. 1 FROM OUR TEAM AND 1 FROM THE OTHER TEAM.
Data Entry: Enter times into the computer system (SwimTopia Meet Manager) to keep track and score the meet.
Event Turner: Flip the pages on our Event Board to display the current event and heat.
Hospitality: Hand out bottles of water to volunteers and officials.
Marshaller: Help bring the younger swimmers from the team area to the lanes for their events.
Ribbons: Hand a coveted "Heat Winner" ribbon to the winner of each heat. This is whomever you see touch the wall first. If it is "too close to call" you can give a ribbon to both :-)
Runner: Collect the 2 Across the Board sheets and 6 time cards (one from each lane) for the HEAT 1 RACE of every event and bring them to the recording table. There are 2 runners.
Swimmer Management: Help to keep our swimmers together with the team.
Timer: Assigned 1 lane for the meet. Time every race that occurs in your lane. Record these times on a sheet . There are always at least 2 timers in each lane.
Timer Backup: Time every race, but only needed if someone calls for backup timer. You are a safety net timer :-)
Water Donation: We need a donation of 2 Cases of 24 8oz bottles of water for each swim meet to hydrate our swim meet volunteers. (Costco Pure life for $4.99 per case.)
Swimmer Lingo
"Events" are the different strokes/age divisions/gender divisions (ex. Girls 8 and Under 25 Backstroke)
"Heats" are the individual races within each event.
"Lane" is the actual lane (or row) of the pool in which your swimmer will be swimming.
