TIPS FOR NEW SWIM PARENTS

If your child happens to develop into a strong & fast swimmer, there is a good chance he/she will be competing at a "bigger stage".  So what are some of these "bigger stage" competitions when it comes to swim meets?   The below "pyramid" is a good visual aid to show a simplistic view of the different levels of swim meets within the US. Image source:  https://reachforthewall.org/2016/04/14/what-are-junior-nationals-and-futures/ The term "Junior Olympics" (JO)** seems to be more of a term that is used in the US West-coast, as I have never encountered that term here in Texas.  The LSC that my kids belong to, Gulf Swimming, hosts the Gulf "Age Group Championships" twice a year (one for Short Course and another for Long Course).  In order to qualify, the swimmer needs to meet the Gulf Age Group Champs Time Standards.  As the name "Age Group" Champs suggests, it is for swimmers who are 14 years or younger. Although not listed in...

In most of the Timed Final Meet s or during the Preliminaries where there are multiple heats for an event, the usual order is fastest to slowest heats (i.e. swimmers in Heat 1 are faster than those in Heat 5).  Each swimmer is seeded according to their previous best time.  If it's an event that the swimmer has never previously acquired a swim time, then the swimmer has a " NT " (No Time) and is usually grouped together in the latter heats with other swimmers who also have a NT. But how do the swimmers get assigned in their lanes for their respective heats? General rule of thumb:  the fastest swimmers are positioned in the middle lanes. Using the information available from 2020 USA Swimming Rulebook   (102.5.3, page 28), I created the below graphical table.  I highlighted two rows in yellow as the 8-lane and 10-lane formats are the most common ones you will encounter (the 8-lane format is most common for the US  SCY ).  <Lane assignments> So ...

I have previously covered various elements of a Prelims/Finals meet in my earlier posts.  One final term I would like to introduce about a Prelims/Finals meet is the " Swim-off ".   A swim-off is required to break a tie for certain swimmers who have finished the Prelims of an event with the same swim time for a certain seeding position. Using an example of a SCY Prelims/Finals meet where the top 16 qualify for the A/B Finals, a swim-off would be required in the following scenarios: a) After Prelims, two swimmers finished with the same swim time for the 8th position.  A swim-off is required to seed the faster swimmer as 8th (& hence qualifying for the A-Final) and the other as 9th (to be assigned to the B-Final) b) After Prelims, two swimmers finished with the same time for the 16th position.   A swim-off is required to seed the faster swimmer as 16th (& hence qualifying for the B-Final) and the other as the first Alternate . c) After Prelims, two s...