Basic Guide for Southern California Swimming

Competitions

 

TIME STANDARDS Within each age-group there are different recognized levels of achievement, obtained by achieving a specific time standard. These levels and times are established by Southern California Swimming and are located in Appendix E. All swimmers begin as "C" swimmers. As they improve, they advance from "C", to "B", "A", "AA", "AAA", and ultimately to the Senior Level. This permits fair, yet challenging, competition on all levels.

 

Time Standard Requirement for Meets The achievement of the time standards is by individual events, not as a swimmer. When entering meets, swimmers can only enter the events in which they qualified for based on the criteria of the meet. A swimmer may be in a different class in different strokes. An example: a ‘C’ breastroke time, a ‘B’ freestyle time, and a ‘AA’ backstroke time. This swimmer, for example, could swim the breastroke and freestyle in a ‘BC’ Meet but not in an ‘A’ meet. However, could swim backstroke in the ‘AA’ meet but not the freestyle or breastroke. Listed here are the most common types of meets.

‘ABC’ Meets - These meets are open to all level of swimmers. (An Orange Section Meet)

‘BC’ Meets - These meets may only be attended by swimmers who possess a ‘B’ or ‘C’ time in the event they wish to swim. Swimmers possessing ‘A’ or better times may not swim those events. (An Orange Section Meet)

‘AB’ Meets - These meets are for all swimmers who posses a ‘B’ time or better. Swimmers who posses a ‘C’ time in an event may not swim that event. (An Orange Section Meet)

‘A’ Meets - Like ‘AB’ meets swimmers must meet the minimum time standard in their events. For these meets swimmers must have an ‘A’ or better. (Orange Section Meet)

‘AA’ Max Meet - These meets may not be attended by swimmers who posses ‘AAA’ times or better. Swimmers cannot be faster than the ‘AA’ Time Standard to participate. (An Orange Section Meet)

‘AA’ Meet - These meets represent a minimum time standard. Swimmers must have at least a ‘AA’ time to participate. (An SCS Meet)

‘AAA’ Meet - Same as ‘AA’ meet but with a ‘AAA’ minimum Time Standard.

‘Senior’ Meets - At this level swimmers no longer compete in age group events. All events are ‘Open Men’ or ‘Open Women’s’. Different meets will use different time standards. (SCS and USS meets).

National Meets - For swimmers who meet the National Time Standards set by United States Swimming. These meets are twice a year throughout the country.

Junior Olympics - Is a specially recognized meet that is held two times a year, in Spring and Summer. In Spring (Short Course) swimmers must achieve a ‘AAA’ time, in Summer (Long Course) swimmers must achieve a ‘AA’ time.

SWIMMER’S / PARENT’S RESPONSIBILITY AT MEETS Swimmers must learn to take responsibility for their "jobs" as swimmers. Like most of us in our careers, we have certain work obligations that require us to do various tasks. At STOP, our swimmers have the same type of obligations.

Entering Swim Meets It is not required to attend swim meets. However, swimmers are encouraged to attend at least one a month. As coaches, it is important to us to see improvement among the swimmers we instruct. Swim meets allow us to evaluate how we are doing as a coach. In addition, swim meets give the swimmer the opportunity to succeed. Practice in itself is hard to do without reinforcement, without some kind of recognition of accomplishment. Swim meets provide this. Swimmers can see the results of their hard work.

Entering Events As coaches we allow the swimmers (or parents) to pick their own events. Most meets entered will require a "white card" entry form. "Blue card" entry forms are for specialized meets in which you must show "proof of time." Examples would be 'AA' meets or higher. Cards are can be found in the top drawer of the STOP filing cabinet.

Mailing in Entries Entries are always due on the Monday (or Tuesday following a holiday) two weeks (12 days) before the meet. That means entries will be accepted if they are postmarked on that Monday or before. Entries will also be accepted on the Tuesday after the due date if they are hand delivered (by a specific time) to the mailing address. In this case you would drive to the address, and look for an envelope or box to drop in meet entries. Under no circumstances will entries be accepted late. To confirm that your entry was received, enclose a self-address stamped envelope which will be mailed back to you when received.

Arriving to the Meet Space is very important at swim meets. If you are not there to grab it, you won't get it. It is very difficult to hold on to space while hundreds of people are coming into the gates. Arriving late may prevent you from sitting with the group.

Warm-Up Most swim meets will start at 9:00. In this case I would like swimmers on the pool deck by 7:45. This will allow the swimmer time to check-in, get their "stuff" organized and be ready for stretches by 7:55. It is extremely important that everyone is there to warm-up together. There is a procedure to the warm-up. This procedure requires that I conduct all of the swimmers through it at the same time. If we have 30 swimmers at a meet, and they all show up at different times, I cannot run the same warm-up 30 times. Anyone who shows up late cannot simply start with everyone else. Therefore, anyone who shows up late will be given a general warm-up and expected to run themselves through it. I will not be available to work with them on their strokes because I will be working with swimmers who started on time. Remember, if we start stretching at 7:55, the whole warm-up procedure should take approximately 30 minutes. I need that time between warm-up and the start of the meet to prepare what I need to do for the meet.

Team Suit & Cap Policy: It is important that we represent our team and that we show unity. We as a team are growing. The best way we can let everyone else know that is by going to the meets and wearing our suits and caps. The more swimmers we have in the meet, the more recognizable we become. In addition, we will have swimmers in almost every event. It makes it much easier to recognize the swimmers on the blocks and in the water if they have a S.T.O.P. suit and cap on. Therefore, all swimmers who participate in a meet, must wear the team suit and cap. Team suits may be ordered anytime by contacting the STOP Shop representative. Swimmers who do not have a cap will be given one by their coach for a fee of $5.

Talking To Your Coach: Swimmers must talk to their coach before and after each of their events. This is an important learning process for both the swimmer and the coach. Parents should not involve themselves in this discussion. I find it disruptive when parents lean in on the conversation or try to add their opinion while the coach is trying to relate to the swimmer. It is necessary for the swimmer to be focused on what the coach is saying. I suggest that parents wait until after your swimmer talks to their coach to talk to your child or their coach about their swim.

Before- When the swimmers talk to us before their event, we will ask them what they are swimming and what "heat" and "lane" they are in. We do not necessarily do this for our own knowledge, we simply want to make sure the swimmer knows what they are doing. The purpose of them talking to us before is so that we can discuss their event and what they need to do.

After- When the swimmers talk to us after their event, we will discuss their performance, good and bad. This needs to be fairly quickly after they swim. With so many kids doing different events, a coach can lose track of what swimmer did what. If your child gets upset about their performance, this is when it is most important to encourage your swimmer to talk to us.

Warm-Down All swimmers are expected to warm-down after every event. This is important to prevent injury and to help the body recover for the next event. This should be done as soon as possible after the race. Swimmers may warm-down before talking to their coach.

Ribbons Ribbons will be placed in the swimmer’s files within a couple of days of the meet. Ribbons are not handed to everyone. Swimmers must be in the top 8 of their division within their age-group.

Leaving Pick up our area. Have pride in ourselves. If we leave our area a mess it forms negative impressions of our team.

Times Your times from the meet will be distributed to you in the days following the meet. If you need your time immediately, you will need to note your swimmers’ time for your own records.

Timing - All parents of swimmers entered in the meet are required to spend some time fulfilling our team’s timing assignment.