Officials and Training
Thank you for your interest in becoming an Official for the Breakers. Being an official is a great way to learn and understand the sport of swimming. The officials committee consists of our head official, officials, starters, and referees.
Head Official
John O’Conner ([email protected])
What is an Official?
Officials are the stroke and turn judges at a swim meet. Officials stand poolside during each heat to monitor the correctness of a swimmer's stroke and/or turns. They observe the swimmer's start, stroke mechanics, turns, and touches during the course of heat and record any violations/disqualifications when they occur.
All officials scheduled for a meet also have to attend that meet's officials meeting. This meeting is held poolside, approximately 15-20 min before the start of the meet.
Being an Official
The official's job is good for someone who enjoys watching the meet poolside. It is also a good job for someone looking to gain more knowledge about the strokes and sport. This is not a good job for someone who has small children that need to be supervised as doing so while officialing is not possible.
Becoming an official does fulfill the Breakers job commitment we require each family to do. Sign ups for officials to work individual meets will be done separately from the rest of the team's meet job signups. Training is provided. Officials must partake in training prior to the swim season and officials may only trade shifts with other NSC/USA swimming trained officials.
If interested in being an official or have questions about officialing, reach out to John O'Connor, Head Official .
NSC Training Information
It is requirement by the Naperville Swim Conference (NSC) that all officials attend training with the exception of already certified USA Swimming/USA officials (credentials needed to verify).
Every swim team in the NSC conference needs certified officials to operate home meets. While some people pursue USAS/YMCA certification, most volunteers simply attend one of the three training sessions listed below to earn their certification. It's that easy!
If you are interested, there is one last chance to attend a training and it will be ONLINE!
Wednesday 5/28/25
7:00-9:00 pm
via Zoom
Sign up here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4CA5AD22A4F9CF8-56974628-officials
USA Swimming/YMCA Officials
Email your current and valid credentials to: [email protected]
NSC Training Resources
The NSC facilitates training of our officials and has a great deal of information available in addition to the official trainings mentioned above.
USA Swimming Training Resources
Below are the USA Swimming stroke briefing and videos on how to judge each stroke.
Freestyle
Backstroke
Butterfly
Breaststroke
Relay
