Understanding Swim Meets

Issaquah Swim Team is a member of USA Swimming and we are part of the Pacific Northwest (PN) Local Swim Committee (LSC).  The LSC determines the type of meets that will be held on specific weekends.  Teams bid to host meets throughout the year based upon the meet schedule that is published from our LSC.  Once all of the meets are bid on a master meet schedule is posted.  The coaching staff will then determine which meets our athletes will attend throughout the Short Course and Long Course seasons.  Our meet schedule is divided into the Short Course Season (SC) and the Long Course season (LC).  The Short Course season is conducted from September through March in 25 yard or meter pools and the Long Course Season is conducted in 50 meter pools.  There are exceptions to this as there may be long course meet during the short course season and short course meet during the long course season. 

Swim meets are a great way for coaches to observe the hard work and dedication each athlete has put into each of their workouts to improve.  Workout is essentially a rehearsal of what an athlete wants to do at the meet.  It’s also a great way for athletes to increase camaraderie with their teammates while hanging out between events at the meet.  A swim meet are comparable to the tests athletes take in school.  It helps to see if athletes are mastering the skills they learn in practice and can apply those skills during a race.

Our Short Course meet schedule is posted on the website and the long course meet schedule will be available in January.  The meet schedule does include the qualifying times for each meet.  These qualifying times are based upon the previous year and are subject to change.  Qualifying times for Silver/Gold, Champ, Regional, Zone and National level meets can be found on the website.  Some meets may have their own time standards which can be found in the meet announcement when it becomes available.  Each meet has a meet announcement which will give you all of the information about the meet like the date, time, location, qualifying standards, event limit, venue amenities and all other information about the meet.  If there are other questions that are not covered in the announcement be sure to ask your coach or your group liaison.

Coaches will determine the events that an athlete will swim at a meet.  This is to ensure that an athlete will have 2-3 chances to swim each event before their championship meet.  On some occasions the coaches will ask their athletes for input on events they want to swim at a specific meet.  For championship meets the coaches will let their athletes decide the events they want to swim at the meet.  This will give the athlete a little more ownership in their event selection for the meet.  Our LSC offers championship meets in December, March and July.  USA Swimming also offers Regional, Zone and National meets that are conducted in parallel with the LSC calendar.

Please be sure to look at the meet schedule and register for all of the meets that your group is scheduled to attend.  We know that not every athlete qualifies for every meet on the schedule.  In some cases you will have to register very early for a meet so we can guarantee our team gets into a meet.  If you are unsure whether or not your athlete will qualify as there may have a couple of meets between now and the meet it is recommended to register them for the meet.  If an athlete does not qualify for a meet but is registered they will not be entered into a meet.  But in the case of an athlete who qualifies for a meet but has not registered they will not be entered in the meet either.  So to be safe register your athlete for all of the meets that their group is scheduled to attend so we can be sure they are entered into a meet they qualify for.