SWIM MEETS WITH STUTTGART PIRANHAS
Welcome to the world of swim meets! Swim meets are an excellent opportunity to learn good sportsmanship and self-discipline while developing athleticism and competitiveness. Swim meets allow our swimmers to gauge their improvements by competing in events, improving their times, and competing against all levels of swimmers within the EFSL.
If this is your first experience with meets, you will find that they can be fun, exciting, and perhaps a bit overwhelming at first. If you have swum in summer league meets, you will find that there are differences in summer league and EFSL sanctioned meets. This meet packet is designed to introduce you to swimming meets with the Piranhas. The information from this packet comes from STUTTGART PIRANHAS and the EFSL. If you have additional questions, please ask your coach. Piranhas parents will also be happy to help you.
- Red & Black Swim suit, (2) goggles, and Piranhas swim cap. If you wear a swim cap, it must be a Piranhas cap. If you do not have a Piranhas cap, you may get one at the meet from your coach. You will be billed $5 for the cap.
- Towels, at least two per swimmer. Keep one dry until the end of the day’s events.
- Clothes to put on over swim suit between events. Swimmers can easily become chilled. Good choices (depending on the season) include warm-up suits, flannel pants, sweat shirts, shorts, T-shirts, and jackets.
NOTE: Parents, although swimmers can get chilled, you will probably get hot. It is typically warm and humid in the pool area no matter where the meet is or what season it is. If it is cool or cold outside, dress in layers.
- Blanket or sleeping bag for swimmers to sit on.
- Chairs for parents.
- Food. Swimmers will be at the meet for several hours. They will expend a lot of energy. There is no magic list as to what to eat. Carbohydrates for energy are suggested for fast swimming; heavy, fatty, or rich foods are not. Examples of good snacks are pretzels, crackers, dry cereal, fruit, granola bars, trail mix, and sports drinks like Gatorade. Snacks must fit inside of a swim bag.
- Water. Swimmers need to stay hydrated. Although it is hard to tell that they are sweating, they are losing water. Bring a water bottle filled with water, and drink water throughout the meet.
- Games/music. Bring something to occupy your time when not swimming. Examples of things to bring are electronic games, cards, travel games, coloring books, personal CD or MP3 players with headphones and upbeat music.
- Sharpie marker to write event and heat numbers on the swimmers’ arms.
- Highlighter to mark your swimmer’s events in the heat sheet.
- Arrive at the meet about 15 minutes before warm-up time. Warm-up times are usually posted on the web site; you can also check with your coach. It is very important for the swimmers to warm up their bodies in preparation for racing. Please be on time.
- Find a place to put your stuff. The team usually sits together, so look for familiar faces.
- After dropping off their stuff, swimmers in suits with their goggles and caps should find their coaches for warm up instructions.
- The meet normally begins about 15 minutes after the completion of warm ups. It helps some swimmers to write their event, heat, and lane numbers on their hands or arms with a Sharpie.
- Swimmers are responsible for getting to their events on time. Parents of younger swimmers need to help them determine when and where they need to be. Captains and older swimmers will assist the younger or newer swimmers to their events. Older swimmers are responsible for getting to the correct block at the right time.
- After swimming the race, the swimmer must immediately report to his/her coach to discuss the swimmer’s performance and to get warm down instructions.
- After any warm down, the swimmer returns to the seating area to await his/her next event.
- After a swimmer has completed all of his/her individual events for the day, he/she must report to his/her coach to find out if he/she will be swimming on a relay. DO NOT LEAVE THE Meet UNTIL CHECKING WITH THE COACH ABOUT RELAYS! It is unfair to your teammates if they wait to swim on a relay that you are expected to swim on, but you do not show up to swim.
What is My Time, and What Place Did I Come In?
- Swimmers’ times are collected in three ways: 1) on stopwatches by the volunteer timers, 2) electronically by a plunger that is pressed by the timer, and 3) by the swimmer hitting the underwater touch pad at the end of the race. The touch pad time is what is displayed digitally on the Electronic Board. None of the individual times are official until officially posted.
Why are so many times taken? It’s the fairest way to place the meet. The touch pad time will be the most accurate way to determine time, and thereby place. However, sometimes (although rarely) the electronics will fail or a swimmer will not hit the touch pad hard enough for the pad to register the completion of the race (this happens often, especially with younger swimmers). If all three times are not within a certain range, the swimmer’s official time will be determined by the predetermined method, throwing out the time that is “out of family”.
The thing to keep in mind is that the official time is the posted time. Piranhas posts event results in the pool lobby. A swimmer may ask the timer what his/her time was, but remember that it is not the official time, although it should be close. You may be certain that your swimmer won his/her event, but the Electronic Board says fifth. Your swimmer may not have hit the touch pad hard enough. If that’s the case, the touch pad time will be “out of family” with the other two times, and the official time will not include the touch pad time. Check the posted results. If you disagree with the time/placement that is posted, talk with your coach.
What if My Swimmer Has a Disappointing Event or is Disqualified?
One of the wonderful things about swimming is that there are many ways to succeed. Swimmers need to have different types of goals. Everyone always has the goal of winning; however, placement goals are the hardest to achieve because they depend on the performance of other swimmers, which you cannot control. All swimmers should have personal performance goals, such as making a goal time, swimming a personal best time, or even completing a new event. Even with different goals, a swimmer can have a disappointing race. Parents, try to keep your race post-mortems to a minimum. Your child’s coach will discuss with your child what needs to be improved. Help your child understand that he/she will not always swim his/her best race every race. Help your child focus on the next event. If your child is disqualified, please let your child know that it happens to every swimmer, even the most experienced, at some time or another. Swimmers were disqualified in the Olympics. Please do not blame the officials. The officials must judge the events according to EFSL & USA Swimming rules, regardless of the age or experience of the swimmer
