What is a Dual Meet?
A Dual Meet consists of events in every stroke for every age group as well as relays. Events for dual meets will be chosen by the coaches. If you have a preference of what your child wants to swim, you can note that in the comment box when accepting the meet. Please know, coaches use dual meets to get times for each swimmer in every event. If a swimmer has a "no time (NT)" in an event that will take priority over other races.
Running a dual meet takes many volunteers. This is a great way to earn your team points! We need timers and officials for every meet, both home and away. At home meets, we need additional help with set up and clean up, as well as volunteers for the snack stand. Our parent group has a representatiive who organizes work assignments. Please reach out to our board with any questions you may have regarding work assignments/ volunteer points.
Our Dual Meet teams need all our swimmers at every meet. If swimmers do not show up, relays cannot swim, and coaches are left scrambling to fill in empty lanes at the last moment when they should be concentrating on warm-ups. Please make every effort to attend all required dual meets. If you know in advance that your family cannot make a dual meet, please email Coach Josh as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly. If something unexpected happens—even if you are just running late to warm-ups—please reach out to coach Josh. We count on your swimmer as a member of our team.
What Is an Invitational Meet?
An Invitational Meet is a much larger meet where swimmers from many different teams compete, sometimes even teams from other states. Every invitational meet is different, some are geared specifically towards certain age groups; some are open to all ages; some have qualifying cut times (i.e. you have to be faster or slower than a certain time to participate). May of these meets require entry times and "NT" (no time) will not be accepted. Please read the meet description when choosing events to determine if/what your child can swim.
Invitational Meets are not mandatory, however, they are strongly recommended. These are the meets your 'escrow account' will pay for. An Invitational Meet is a great opportunity for your swimmer to try out events they might not swim at a dual meet. Our YMCA Championship Meets at the end of the season (in February and March) are all Invitational Meets, so it is also very beneficial for swimmers to get used to that kind of meet format during the course of the season.
GMY attends both YMCA-sanctioned Invitational meets and USA meets. For YMCA invitational meets, your child will swim the age they are as of December 1st of that season. However, for USA meets, the athlete swims the age they are on the first day of the meet. So, for example, if your swimmer is 10 in December, but turns 11 in January, he/she would be 10 at Y States in March (age as of Dec. 1st) but 11 for USA's Junior Olympics, also in March. One more difference: at a Y meet, there will only be Y swimmers; at a USA meet, you will see swimmers from other aquatic clubs as well.
Every time your swimmer swims at any meet, their times are recorded. These times will help them to qualify for other invitational meets as well as championships at the end of the season.
Invitational Meets that our team will attend will be posted to our website. Invitational meets tend to close out quickly so it is imperative that you frequently check the website and enter your swimmer’s availability as quickly as possible. Please either reply that your swimmer is available for the meet or that he/she is not available. Parents are permitted to choose events for invitationals. If you do not know what to sign your child up for, please reach out to the coaches and we can pick the events. Also, please note that the coaches have the final decision as to what individual events swimmers will be entered into and the only decision with regard to relays.
If your swimmer attends an Invitational Meet, you can expect to receive a timing assignment, as every club attending has to help out. Timing Assignments are mandatory at Invitational Meets. If you can no longer attend a meet please reach out to our parent representative ASAP so they can find a replacement for your assignment. Failure to show up for your job will result in a fine.
Remember, your swimmer’s coach is always available to answer questions about which meets your child should attend, or about the various Time Standards. Don’t hesitate to send an email with any questions.
