Meets

What to expect at meets!

Day of the Meet

Arrival: Meet Check-ins
It is important to arrive at the swim meet at least 15 minutes before your swimmer's warm-up begins. Find the team sitting area and place your swim bag and other gear there. All swimmers are assigned to heats and lanes for their events prior to the beginning of the first day of competition. Heat sheets are made available (sometimes at a cost) to coaches, athletes, and spectators that show the order of events, the number of heats and the seeding of swimmers in each heat. Checking in for each session of the meet may or may not be required, or may only be required for long distance events. For these types of meets, a “scratch and add” period is typically provided where coaches may inform the meet director of swimmers not in attendance or those deciding not to participate in the event. The coach may also attempt to add swimmers to events where open lanes are available, subject to the daily limit on individual entries (often called "deck entry").

Warm-ups
After you have arrived and checked in with your coach, get ready to swim warm-ups. Have your suit on, take a towel, goggles, a cap (if needed) and report to the coach. He or she will be ON POOL DECK. If your main coach is not present, find another Streamline coach on deck. Once the swimmer has reported to the coach, the coach is responsible for the swimmer until warm-ups are over.  After warm ups the swimmer will need to rest until the meet starts or the first event they swim. They may rest with family, in the sitting area or anywhere they find comfortable. They usually will want to eat something healthy at this point and drink some Power Aid/Gatorade.  Resting the body is a good idea to conserve energy for the meet. They should not be up running around or working at the meet. Card games, electronics, reading, etc. are good ideas to keep them busy but not tired. Old blankets and towels are great for the sitting area to keep the swimmer dry and warm. Many parents bring folding chairs and tents, if space allows. The sitting area is where your swimmer can relax and wait for their next event. You should be in a good spot to know what event and heat is currently in the water. The best place to watch your child swim is on the pool deck as a timer. Please volunteer for this fun position. 

Start of the Meet
At some meets the National Anthem is played to start the meet. The first event will follow or begin at the designated time based on the meet information. It is best to report to your coach 15 minutes before they race to receive proper warm up and strategy feedback.

During the Meet
The meet always starts with Event 1, Heat 1 and progresses from there. The first heats of an event are typically the slower swimmers or swimmers that have no time for an event. Now your swimmer is ready to swim his/her race. The referee will blow a whistle for 3 blasts, which is the swimmers instruction to be ready. The referee will then blow the whistle for 1 blast, which is the swimmers instruction to either step up on the block or enter the water for the backstroke. The starter will announce: “This is Event #5, Women’s 9-10 50 Freestyle.  Take your mark."  At this time a swimmer should be in the starting position and motionless. The swimmer will then hear a BEEP and a flash of a strobe. They should then enter the pool with their dive and swim their event. 

Disqualification
A swimmer may be DQ’d or disqualified by an official for performing the stroke incorrectly, false starting, or performing a turn incorrectly. There could be a number of reasons why a swimmer is DQ’d. The swimmer will be told why and what they did wrong by an official and the coach. Swimmers shall not be too upset by DQ’s, rather be used as learning experiences. Every swimmer has been DQ’d a time or two, even Olympians!

After Your Swim
Once your race is over the swimmer should report to their coach so they can review their swim with them. The coach will then instruct the swimmer what to swim in the COOL DOWN pool. There will be a designated pool or lane(s) where kids may cool down during the meet. This allows your swimmers muscles to relax slowly after the race. After you cool down then you are free until they call your next event. You may relax wherever you want but listen for your next event to be called. Cool down pools are for just that. They are not for playing and if your child spends too much time please let them know this. When you are done with all your events for the day, talk with your coach and let them know you are done and leaving. Sometimes there are relays to swim and the coach will let you know about these in advance, but sometimes they may need you to swim even if you haven’t been told before. All swim times will be posted as they are scored somewhere at each meet, usually on a wall visible to all.  Just ask where they are posting the results.  It’s a great idea to write down all the times your swimmer swam. Then you can compare times as they start to improve and you can see their improvement.  In addition, the on deck and meet mobile apps are great tools to help you track your swimmer’s times.

Awards
Ribbons/medals/trophies are given out at some meets.  The number of places to receive ribbons changes with each host club.  Some give ribbons to the 8^th place while others give to the 16^th place.  Some give medals for 1^st, 2nd, 3rd while others don’t. Some give a high point team trophy; some give a single high point swimmer trophy for each age level. You’ll just have to ask someone at each meet about these items. At some meets your swimmer can pick up their own ribbons while at other meets they are only given to the coaches.  Ask the coach or other parents how they pick up their ribbons.

What to Bring

• Swim Suit (plus an extra)
• Water shoes or sandals to be worn on pool deck
• Towels
• Sweat suit or something warm to wear between swims
• Goggles – 2 pairs as they tend to break at the wrong times
• Streamline cap
• Bag – to carry belongings in 
• Something to occupy your swimmer between swims—coloring books, cards, iPod, cell phone, etc.  You are responsible for all your own belongings! 
• Foods to Bring: Fruit, bagels, power bars, non-carbonated drinks, cut veggies, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese and crackers, etc.

REMEMBER: Safety is always a concern at swim meets and there is NEVER any running or horseplay around a pool.

Apps for Swimmers

Meet Mobile 

Meet Mobile provides real-time access to swim times from competitions around the world, either by swimmer or by event. Users can save "favorite" swimmers to easily access results. Meet Mobile is especially useful for keeping track of swimmers' heats and lanes during a swim meet. In fact, several clubs no longer print paper heat sheets, but publish the heat sheets through Meet Mobile instead. Meet Mobile is a paid application.

OnDeck

OnDeck, the official TeamUnify app, allows families to access team accounts, see and sign up for team events, get best times, and search meet results. It also features a stopwatch, time converter, and pace calculator. OnDeck is a free application.

USA Swimming

The official USA Swimming app, allows swimmers to connect with one another, set goals, and track times and rankings. This application is useful as a digital membership card as well. The USA Swimming app is a a free application.

Swimmetry

Swimmetry may be helpful for keeping track of progress over time for your swimmer's results at swim meets. This application also provides references to time standards and rankings all in one place. Swimmers can be favorited for easy reference in the future. Swimmetry is a paid application.

SwimCloud.com

SwimCloud.com is a web only application and contains a plethora of information from swimmers best times to meet results to college recruiting capabilities. You can also find a Streamline Aquatics page that shows our teams top times, meets we have been to, and any college commits.  All competitive swimmers should be familiar with this website as they start to participate in meets. All high school swimmers looking to swim in college should look into creating an account. SwimCloud is a free web application.

FAQs

What are USA Swimming National Age Group Motivational Times?

USA Swimming establishes motivational times for swimmers in every age group based on relative speed within that group. They give swimmers a measure by which to set goals and track improvement. Motivational times progress from the longest times to the shortest: 

B > BB > A > AA > AAA > AAAA 

Motivational times are set in a "quad," or a four-year period. The most recent are the 2021-2024 times.

What is the general progression of meets that senior-level competitive swimmers should be prepared for?

This is a great visual to keep in mind as swimmers prepare to train for Sectionals and beyond.

What is dryland?

Dryland training (often referred to as Strength and Conditioning) is activity done on land with the intended purpose of increasing strength, flexibility and overall physical mobility. This includes a number of different movements and exercises ranging from beginner to advanced skill level. Some exercises that are commonly performed include: Pushups, sit-ups, squats, etc.