Swim Team FAQs
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Swim meets involve hundreds of children, parents and grandparents and can seem overwhelming to a newcomer. Parent volunteers and timing officials are on hand to ensure that all meets go smoothly. Any weather-related delays are properly monitored and communicated.
What are the volunteer requirements?
Every family, new and returning is expected to volunteer four times during the season, there are lots of opportunities during the meets and outside the meets. Volunteer slots will be made available at least one week prior to the meet. Sign-up is online through the Cherokee Swim SwimTopia website.
What time should I be at the swim meets with my swimmer?
• Please arrive by 4:00 pm to get settled and participate in a meet warmup.
• Once at the pool, please find your child’s bullpen parent in order to1) write each child’s name and age group on his/her upper back and 2) write the events/heats/lanes on his/her arm.
o The first column is “E” for EVENT.
o The second column is “H” for HEAT (if there are 24 kids swimming the 50 Free in an 8-lane pool, then there will be 3 heats).
o The third column is “L” for LANE.
• Meets will start as close to 5:30pm as possible (depending on the volunteers, the meet referee, and the weather).
What should my swimmer eat, if anything, before the meet?
- 1-2 hours before the meet, aim to feed your swimmer something with protein and carbohydrates. Also make sure that they are staying hydrated and drinking water during the morning and hours before the meet!
What should I bring to the meet, other than my swimmer?
• Swim suit
• Goggles (good idea to bring a back-up pair as well)
• Swim cap
• 2 Towels (one for use during the meet and one for after the meet)
• Water bottle- it’s hot out there. It’s important to stay hydrated!
• Snacks – please follow Coach's recommendations on healthy snacks
• Pen/paper- you may want to write down your swimmer’s times • Sharpie for marking
• Dry clothes to change into after the meet
• On cool nights, a sweatshirt to help them keep warm
• Sunscreen
• Lots of positive energy
How Does a Swim Meet work?
Swim Meets are made up of 60 Events, which occur in order of Event, Age Group and Heat: Click here for swim team order of events. All competition is age-group competition which means that children swim against others of the same age and gender. Heat Sheet produced by the Head Coach act as the team line up.
What is a Heat Sheet?
A Heat Sheet contains the line-up of swimmers and their events. There are 60 events and multiple Heats per Event depending on the number of swimmers participating in the Meet.
What is an Event?
An “EVENT” at a swim meet consists of a Age and Gender Group, Stroke type and Distance. For instance, the girls 25-yard freestyle, the boys 25-yard freestyle, the boys 50-yard freestyle, and the girls 50-yard butterfly are four separate events.
What are the Events?
Freestyle Relay
Freestyle
Backstroke
Breaststroke Butterfly
Medley Relay: Four swimmers participate, each of whom swims a different stroke. The first swimmer swims Backstroke (BA), the second Breaststroke (BR), the third Butterfly (FL), and the fourth Freestyle (FR). An easy way to remember this is: BA, BR, FL, FR are in alphabetical order.
100 IM (individual medley) is an event in which ONE swimmer swims four different strokes: 25 yards of butterfly, 25 yards of backstroke, 25 yards of breaststroke and 25 yards of freestyle, in this order.
What is the difference between the IM and the Medley Relay?
IM stands for Individual Medley. It is always swam in the following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. The Medley relay consists of the same strokes, but the order is different. The Medley relay order is backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle. Note that BA, BR, FL, FR is in alphabetical order.
What is a Heat?
Since there are usually more swimmers entered in each event than there are lanes, there may be several races, or “HEATS”, in each event.
How does the scoring work?
There are two point-earning or “live” swimmers for each individual event per age group and gender; and there are two point-earning freestyle relays and two point- earning medley relays per age group and gender (except for the 6 & Under Groups who do not swim the medley relay). Non point-earning individual swimmers and relays are entered into the meet as exhibition as indicated by an “X” in the meet program.
All finishes are judged finishes, which means that, the order of finish is determined by judges, NOT by times. Times for each event are used to help the swimmer and coach chart the progress of the swimmer. You can track your times in the meet mobile app.
Swimming is both an individual and a team sport. Each swimmer should thrive to better their personal times from previous meets. They should also cheer and encourage their teammates because the team score is determined by total number of points, NOT by how many first place finishes. Please stress this to your children.
How can I track my Swimmer’s times during the Meet?
• The score board will temporarily show the times at the end of each Heat.
• You may also download Swimtopia MOBILE APP on your Smart Phone.
When will I find out what events my child is swimming?
Once Heat Sheets are finalized, they will be emailed to each swimmer.
How do I make sense of the Heat Sheet you have emailed to me?
Your child’s name will be placed in each event that he/she is swimming. The time to the right of the event is the swimmer’s recorded personal best time for that event.
NT: Stands for No Time, meaning that the swimmer does not have an official time for the stroke/dist.
Relays: The number in parenthesis “(#)” indicates the leg on the relay your child is swimming.
Medley Relay: The order of the strokes are (1) Back, (2) Breast, (3) Fly, (4) Free. Example: “#3 Girls 7 & 8 100 Medley Relay (2) 1/2″, the (2) indicates that this swimmer will swim BREASTSTROKE in the SECOND leg of the relay.
Freestyle Relay: All legs of the relay are freestyle. Example, #67 Girls 7 & 8 100 Free Relay (1) 1/7, the (1) indicates that this swimmer will freestyle in the FIRST leg of the relay.
How long will the meet last?
Three to four hours is the approximate length of a meet. Swimmers report at 4.30 pm followed by warmups by age group and team. Barring any delays, the meet is supposed to start at 6 and run until about 9 or 10 pm.
Note: The 6 and Under groups swim early in the meet and are usually finished by 7:30, so parents, choose your volunteer assignments accordingly.
How will my swimmer know when to report for his/her race?
Each age-group will have a ‘Bullpen,’ and a Bullpen Parent will help line up the swimmers before each race. The kids will need to stay in their age group bullpens for the duration of the meet!
It is imperative that swimmers stay in the bullpen area so that the Bullpen Parents can easily and efficiently find your child. It is unfortunate when a swimmer misses his event because he was not in the right place to be lined up. Bullpen Parents are not babysitters, parents need to supervise their younger children at the swim meets. The Bullpen Parent position is a challenging job; let’s make every effort to make it as easy as we can for our parent volunteers.
At home swim meets, we will sit on the side of the pool farthest from the diving board. If your child is not going to sit in the bullpen area, then you are responsible for having your child to the bullpen parent in plenty of time for each of his/her events.
For safety reasons it is important to keep the kids out of the diving well and shallow end of the pool during the meet.
When will my child get official results/times from the meet?
Official results are sent out as soon as possible after the meet. Heat winner ribbons are distributed during meets. Other ribbons are placed in the Swimmer’s vertical file folder and distributed later.
