Swim Meets    

Seasons

In competitive swimming, there are two seasons, short course and long course. The short course season takes place from September through mid-March and swim meets are held in 25-yard pools. Summer leagues, high school, and college swimming also use the short course format for their competitions. From mid-April through July, the long course standard (50m) is used for summer meets. This format is also used in major international competitions such as the Olympics, USA national team meets like the TYR Pro Series, or for qualifying for Team USA camps.

In the summer, our competitions are primarily long course, with Divisionals being the only short course meet. Not all teams have access to long course pools, and those who do are at an advantage because they can get the training benefits of both formats. The transition from short course to long course can be difficult without good endurance and proper technique. Therefore, our brief break after the short course season exists to provide a mental reset, but will not lead to a loss of conditioning or feel for the water. 

There are different physical demands of both seasons, with short course being wall-focused and long course being technique-focused. Swimmers have the opportunity to gain a lot of strength in their stroke pattern during long course, which allows them to be more effective as they transition into short course training. This allows swimmers to more easily focus on improving skills that are valuable in short course, such as speed, starts, turns, and underwaters.

 

Short course and long course swimming can be quite different in many aspects, but they both work together to make our athletes better swimmers. Swimmers should gain experience in both seasons to support their overall development. Each season is meant to build on to the next season before, as we work to help your swimmer reach their long-term potential in the sport.

 

 

 

Meet Types

 

Type

Length

Qualifying Times

Intrasquad

1-day

No

Timed Finals

2-3 days

No

Prelims - Finals

2-3 days

No

Championship

3-5 days

Yes

 

Intrasquad meets are competitions only held with members of your home team. These are excellent meets to attend if you are looking for a low-pressure, fun atmosphere to compete in.

Timed Finals and Prelims-Finals meets are larger than Intrasquad meets and take place over the course of a weekend. In Timed Finals meets, each swimmer gets 1 opportunity to swim their race. 

In Prelims-Finals, swimmers swim their Prelims races as if they were Timed Finals. However, if they are in the Top X in the Prelims (ex. Top 8, Top 16, Top 24) then they will have an opportunity to swim the race again to place higher.

Championship meets are held in a Prelims-Finals format, but require swimmers to qualify using time standards. These time standards are set by Indiana Swimming for meets within our LSC, but meets hosted on a national level have standards set by USA Swimming.

Time Standards

Time standards are used to qualify for Florida Championship meets, National meets and events, and International meets. In addition, every four years, USA Swimming establishes “motivational” time standards ranging from B to AAAA times. These standards are intended to motivate swimmers to work their way up from a B time to BB and then to A, AA, AAA, and finally to AAAA. There are 2021-2024 national standards for age groups and also for single ages across the various sizes of competition pools, i.e., long-course meter (LCM) pools, short-course-meter (SCM) pools, and short-course-yard (SCY) pools.

Check-In

At some meets, swimmers will be required to do a “positive check-in.” This allows the meet host to determine which athletes are present for a swim meet and they will release heat sheets with only athletes who highlighted their names at a check-in table to swim in the meet. It is very important you check with your coach to see if a meet you are attending uses positive check-in, as you will NOT be allowed to swim if you do not sign in!

Psych and Heat Sheets

Psych sheets are rankings for each event based on seed times for a swimmer. Heat sheets are documents printed at the start of a meet that contains swimmers’ events, heats, and lanes. These are posted around the pool space and given to Coaches and Officials. Some meet venues distribute these to families or sell them for a small fee at an admissions or concessions table. Below is an example of what a Heat Sheet looks like:

Event - Heat - Lane

When at a swim meet, it can be challenging to remember what event number, heat, and lane you are in. To help, swimmers can write on one of their arms with a Sharpie which heat and lane they will be in for each event. Using the Heat Sheet on the previous page, we can see that the arm for Rachel Burke (one of your FFST Coaches!) would look like this:

Meet Mobile

Some swim meets use an app called Meet Mobile (available in Google Play and Apple App Stores) to post psych sheets, heat sheets, and result sheets. The app allows you to follow swimmers in real-time and look at a swimmer's historical meet results. There are some features you will have to pay for to unlock information.

OnDeck

As SSC uses TeamUnify for our website, you will be able to download and use the OnDeck app (available in Google Play and Apple App Stores) to see your account, events, team news, jobs, and more. You can see information regarding your swimmer’s best times, attendance, meet entries, and the time standards for their age group. 

Swim Meet Official

An official is someone at a swim meet (wearing a white shirt) who is responsible for ensuring that the rules of swimming are upheld and that all swimmers have the opportunity to compete fairly in whatever events they swim in. They are trained to know all rules and regulations regarding USA Swimming that are found in the USA Swimming Rulebook. 

Meet Etiquette

Meet Attire

Swim Suit Requirements

  • A team suit ordered on Team Store- SwimOutlet is required for standard meets.

  • Technical suits can be worn in place of the team suit for:

    • Championship meets (ie Age Group State, Senior State, Divisionals)

    • Last Chance meets - the team designated final meet for achieving championship meet time standards

    • Staff designated exceptions (ie In-Season national-level travel meets, substitute meets for a last-chance opportunity, etc.)

  • 13 & Over Technical Suits: You may wear any of the Speedo tech suits available at Elsmore or online. If for some reason you need an alternate brand suit, you will need clearance from your group coach before purchase. 

  • 12 & Under Technical Suits: Effective September 1, 2020, you may only wear USA Swimming 12 & under approved tech suits. Again, we expect you to purchase the Speedo brand of the allowable suits, if at all. Please understand it is the SSC Coaching Staff position, in line with the philosophy of the USA Swimming rule, that tech suit purchases should be delayed until 13 & over. What suits are allowable under the 2020 rule?? Click here to redirect to the USA Swimming suit page. Also, Elsmore Swim Shop is a great resource and they will help you find the correct suit. As a general rule, if you are absolutely set on purchasing a tech suit for championship-level meets as a 12 & under, we recommend the most affordable Aquablade suits for both males and females.

Swim Caps

  • Caps of any design are fine for practice

  • For meets, all athletes who choose to wear a swim cap are required to wear our team FLUiD cap

  • Silicone Team caps are available from coaching staff (cost is $10, will be billed to your account)

FFST Team Shirts

Please wear Team apparel to meets. Parents please purchase T-shirt or Team apparel to support our swimmers.