Swim Meet Tips
New to swim meets? Here is some basic information and tips for preparing for and attending meets with your swimmer.
Attending meets is an important part of the sport of swimming. Meet competition allows swimmers and parents to see the results of the time and effort put into going to practice! As professionals in the sport, our coaches know that statistically speaking your children are more likely to stay with competitive swimming if they attend meets because meets are part of the reward system that drives them to continue to train and improve over time. Meets are also great opportunities for swimmers and swim parents to socialize and build friendships.
Each season’s meet schedule is posted to the team’s website (www.gatorswimclub.com). Also on the website is a parent info page where we post each meet's “meet information” file that provides lots of details including meet location, events, and fees.
Please watch your e-mail for notifications about commitment deadlines for the meets. If you receive these meet sign-up emails, that means your swimmer is eligible to attend.
We are not able to accommodate late entries, and once your swimmer is entered in a meet any fees will be charged even if plans change and you don’t attend; this is because we have by that time committed attendance to the host team and have to pay our fees to them regardless of how many of our swimmers actually compete.
Before the Meet
GSC will send out important information in the days before a meet including a team itinerary (where to be and when) and any particular details about the meet (parking, etc.).
In preparing for meet day, you will want to pack the things your swimmer needs, including the following:
- Team cap and swimsuit
- Goggles (an extra pair is always a good idea!)
- A couple of towels
- Sunscreen for outdoor meets
- Water bottle to stay hydrated
- Warm clothes to put on between events, including shoes
- Snacks should be light, healthy food—no junk food! Fruits and veggies are best!
- Do NOT bring kickboards or other equipment used in practice.
- Do NOT bring anything your swimmer can’t lose – it does happen! This includes electronics, expensive or special water bottles, etc.
You will also want to prepare the things you need to be comfortable at the meet! Swim meets can be long, and hot if outdoors, so the more prepared you are, the more you will enjoy the experience too. Suggested items include the following:
- Foldable outdoor chairs (outdoor meets)
- Pop-up tents/canopies for shade/shelter from rain (outdoor meets)
- Highlighters for heat sheets and sharpies for event-marking swimmers
- Snacks and water bottles
- Sunscreen and bug repellant (outdoor meets)
Another useful thing to do before the meet is to download the Meet Mobile app. Most meets post results in real-time so you can follow results as your child swims.
Be sure your swimmer gets enough rest in the days before the meet! It is NOT recommended that swimmers skip practice the day before a meet to get extra rest; we do meet warm-up practices on those pre-meet days, and those swims are important preparation for competition.
Before the start of a meet, host teams take all entries and generate heat sheets that list each event, heat, swimmer, and lane. For most meets, GSC will receive heat sheets (list of each event, heat, swimmer, and lane) ahead of time to distribute them as PDFs to attending families.
It is helpful to write your child’s event information on their arm or leg to give them a reminder of which events they are swimming as well as which heat and lane they are in. This is best done with a sharpie, and should be done on dry skin. Even if you only know events and not heats or lanes, it helps to start the marking and coaches can fill in the rest. Here is a sample:
As swimmers get older they are less interested in having the event lists on their arms or legs. The same event information on index card tucked in the swim bag does the trick!
At the Meet
At most meets swimmers will all sit together in designated areas on the pool deck.
The GSC coaches will usually be stationed in one location near where the swimmers are sitting. Your child’s group coach may or may not be attending a meet, but there will be familiar faces there!
After arriving at the meet, team members gather with the coaches for stretching and the in-water warm-up. Throughout the course of the meet, all swimmers need to check in with a coach before and after each race for instructions, last minute reminders, calming of nerves, encouragement, and feedback on their swims.
An important USA Swimming rule is that no photos or videos are allowed from behind the blocks.
| Handling Disqualifications Disqualifications are a part of swimming, but can be upsetting to our athletes. It is important for swimmers and parents to know that disqualifications are quite common, especially with younger swimmers and those new to competitive swimming, but they happen even at the highest levels of the sport. It’s very important to understand that getting DQ’d simply means a mistake was made during the swim that violated a rule of competition. Some rules are broad (everyone must touch the wall during a turn) while others are more specific (butterfly and breaststroke require a 2-hand touch at all turns and at the finish). A DQ doesn’t negate how your child swam, did a perfect turn, or had a great start, and the takeaway should be “OK, we will do more work on that piece in practice.” Coaches will talk to the swimmer about the DQ and provide support and reassurance, but you can really help by reinforcing to your swimmer that all swimmers get DQ’d over the course of their careers, including the top athletes in the world and even at international events like the Olympics! |
After the Meet
GSC posts results to our website’s meet results page, and imports them into our system so you can see them in your swimmer’s member record.
Key Items for Parents
ASK QUESTIONS!
- Soon going to meets will feel like a habit, but we know there is a lot to learn at first.
- If something isn’t clear to you in the itinerary or anything else we send out, please ask us about it!
ARRIVE ON TIME!
- This is so important!
- We set our itinerary based on session timelines, and being on time sets the swimmer (and parents!) up for a good meet experience. This is especially true for novice swimmers as that time before the meet starts helps them settle in.
HAVE FUN!
- Very few meets we attend are high-stakes, especially for our newest competitors, so having a fun, positive experience is our goal!
