Swimming Meets
Should my child attend swim meets?
All children are encouraged to enter swim meets (exceptions for some Racers, or special situations). Attending meets allows for your athlete to bond with other members of the program and the coaches. They give individuals the chance to demonstrate skills that have been learned at practice, acquire improved technique and help in motivation. In addition it lets the participant understand a little more about swimming as a sport and being a part of our team.
Where are the swim meets?
Most of the meets are local to get started. Our local area is called our Zone (Zone 1 North or Z1N) and starts in South San Francisco and extends to Cupertino. As the swimmers progress based on times, competitions occur in Northern California and part of Nevada which is Pacific Swimming (PC) which is called our LSC (Local Swimming Community) When entering meets it will refer to our Zone (Z1N) and our LSC (PC), which you will enter of the forms to swim. USA Swimming programs offer meets all over the country, and you can take your swimming on the road to visit relatives!
When and how long are meets?
SOLO attends meets about once per month in general. To get started it is recommended that swimmers pick one day of a two day meet which fits best in your schedule. Swimmers can enter one or two events that they would like to swim. Meets are required to be finished in a four hour period of time, from the start to finish of races. Picking a swim that is early allows for a shorter day. Picking a race at the end of the day will make the day shorter, but does require some additional tricks to accomplish the warm up and check in. As children get more experience swimming 3 events per day is best. Including some swims that are not the best or favorites is a great way to improve!
How do I know about swim meets?
The schedule of meets for the season that SOLO is planning on attending is listed on the home page of this website. Meets can also be found on the Pacific Swimming website at pacswim.org and swimmers need to check with a coach before entering meets that are NOT on the SOLO schedule. At times we might be able to send a coach from SOLO to the meet with your swimmer. At times we can also find another team who will be attending, and talk with their staff about assistance with diving and other help that is required by a coach.
What races (events) and information (meet sheets)?
All meets are required to submit and get approval for a competition listing all the plans for the meet. All the info you need including location of the meet, parking, warm up time, and the events to swim are in the "Meet Sheet". Meets often have a mix of gender and ages broken into periods of the day called sessions. Sessions will have a mix of events, and offer a variety of events on different days which are determined by the host team. If you cannot decide on what to swim your coaches will be happy to help with suggestions! Again keep it simple when starting out, but enter meets and ask questions later is a good way to make sure your in the meet as space is very limited.
The USA Swimming ID# for my child is required!
All SOLO athletes are required to pay the USA Registration upon signing up for our team. You will receive a card with the number from Coach Tom (usually he has them in his bag and never is fast enough to catch the swimmers to give them out) and is required to enter a meet. The code is based on the following (so you don't really need the card unless your traveling outside the Pacific Swimming area to race):
Birthday, first three letters of legal first name, middle I, and last four letters of last name. Use a * for any letters that you might not have. Example Feb 5, 2013 James Edward Lee would be 020513JAMELEE* and will be used to keep times of races.
Entry into a swim meets?
The best way to enter a swim meet is online. There are a couple small fees, but you will know that your child is entered. You should always print out a confirmation of events and bring it to the meet. All meets are listed, and most have a link to enter, on the Pacific Swimming Meet Schedule and includes locations and other info on the "meet sheet". When putting in the info required under Club Abbr. and Club Name you just put SOLO. The event #, stroke and distance will pop up as your info is input. If you have not swum an event you might be able to enter "NT" for No Time. Otherwise in general there are times at pacswim.org or make up a time, but make sure it is slower rather then faster. Groups of swimmers are split into heats based on entry time. Again if you enter a time the computer does not like it will tell you to make a change, based on your entry in most cases it is asking for a slower time. If you make a mistake your coach can usually change it at the meet. But Meets Fill Up Fast so just get the entry in and print the confirmation. New things take a few extra minutes to get the hang of, and you will have the lingo down quickly!
AT THE MEET:
When you arrive at the meet:
1) Swimmers must let the host team know they have arrived and what events they are swimming on that day by finding the check in station and signing in by circling the event number and initialing beside their name. This has to be done one hour before the race, and a coach can do this for a swimmer if your arriving later.
2) The time to arrive for warm up is one hour before the start of the session. Meet sheets might give you more time to warm up, however your coach will be on deck one hour before and you should be there ready with your suit on having completed the check in station.
3) Dives are an important part of swimming and should be done as part of warm up with your coach before the end of the warm up period.
4) Before and after each swim the swimmer should talk with the coach to get a plan and check on the performance.
5) LEARN and HAVE FUN! Every swim is just a chance to have fun. If you understand something new you have had a best performance. You cannot get past fear without a smile. I have always seen a smile on success, whatever that might be in the learning process!
GO SOLO SWIMMERS!
