Swim Meet Survival Guide

Swimming meets are the culmination of what your child works for in practice every day. The meet is a measurement by which you can tell if they are learning anything and if so, what. They can be fun for the swimmer and an opportunity for you to get to know the other parents. They can also be filled with stress, confusion and headaches if you are not informed and prepared. Once you have been to a few meets, you will develop your own rituals and techniques. Until then, this short primer will attempt to teach you the basics of attending a meet successfully

Before you leave:

v      Get informed - Secure the meet information. Usually, all of this information will be available on the website under the specific meet information. Find out the basics such as:

Ø       Where is the meet? - Some of our meets are held at our pool while others are held at other venues in the Dallas area.

Ø       Find out how to get there. A map and a set of directions will be kept in the meet information area of the tcswim.com website. If you don’t know how to get to a certain pool, ask an older club member. Chances are they have swum there before and they can give you directions. Better yet, carpool!

Ø       Find out what events your child is swimming. A Meet Entry Report will be posted on the Meets page each Sunday night before the meet.  This report will show the events your child is scheduled to swim. 

Ø       What volunteer responsibilities do you have? - Swim meets can never take place without our great volunteers! Please check to see if you have any responsibilities at the meet on the Meets Page. 

Ø       Find out when warm-ups start. Swim meets start without you. Warm-ups usually start 1 hour before the meet, with the home team starting 1 hour before the meet, and visitors starting 30 minutes before the meet.

v      Pack your swimmer - Proper planning on what you take can make or break the meet experience

Ø       Gear. Pack a swim bag with everything your swimmer will need to compete

§         Competition suit - Take your Twin Creeks team suit if you have one

§         Back-up suit - Take a spare suit of any color. When the seam splits on the main suit you want a back up.  You are too far from home to go back and get another.

§         Goggles - Take a good pair. When your swimmer goes to put their goggles on right before an event is not a good time for a rotten old strap to break.

§         Back up goggles - Swimmers lose goggles. They won’t know they’ve lost them until right before they are to swim their next event. It is easier to pull the spares out of the bag than to look for the missing goggles in a panic. Panicked swimmers and swimmers without goggles don’t swim very fast.

§         Cap - Take a team cap.  Team caps help identify your swimmer and where they belong.

§         Sunscreen - This is Texas.

§         Towels - Your swimmer will get out of the pool once after warm-ups and once after each event and will need to dry off. Wet swimmers get cold. Cold swimmers do not swim as fast as warm swimmers. Take plenty of towels.

§         Extra clothes - Take a change of clothes for your swimmer to wear between events. Again, cold swimmers do not perform well. These clothes should be water absorbent and not easily damaged by chlorine. Team sweats, old sweats or old lose fitting clothes work best. Tight fitting clothes can be hard to get on and off if the swimmer or the clothes are wet. These clothes will be wet by the end of the meet. Make sure your swimmer has dry clothes to wear home. Hopefully these will be the same clothes they came in.

Ø       Food - Pack nutritious snacks that are high in carbohydrates and complex sugars. Take bagels, fruit, granola bars etc. Simple sugars like candy are not as good. Take drinks. This will be especially important at outdoor meets. Avoid carbonated beverages.

Ø       Entertainment - There can be up to an hour between your swimmer’s events depending upon what they are swimming and how many swimmers are at the meet. Take something for them to do. There are not usually any flat surfaces upon which to write. Take cards, game boys, etc.

Ø       Camping gear - Take a blanket, large towel, and folding chairs

Ø      LABEL EVERYTHING! We always have leftover items (and many look identical) without a name.

v      Prepare your swimmer - If your swimmer knows what to expect and what is expected of them, the better they will feel about going to the meet.

Ø       Events - Using a water-proof pen, write the events your swimmer will be swimming that day on the back of their hand. Include the event number, the stroke and distance. Please do this at home on Monday, or we can assist you either during practice on Monday or when you arrive at the meet.  This quickly tells coaches, ready bench and team moms if the child is scheduled to swim an event. This information will also be available at the pool, but having your children prepared and walked through the order of events before you get there helps.

Ø       Lecture - Walk them through their events. Remind them to watch the Ready Bench Board that informs them when they need to report to the Ready Bench. Remind them to report to their coach after each event. Remind them to dry off and get dressed between events.  Remind them to keep track of their stuff and bring it all home. Tell them to do their best and listen to the coaches. Most of all tell them to have fun!

The Meet

 v      Before the meet starts

Ø       Leave on time - Warm-up start times are when the kids should be in the pool. You need to figure on travel time, parking time and dressing time to determine when to leave. If you know you will be late because of a scheduling conflict, tell the coaches ahead of time.

Ø       Report to the Twin Creeks Team area - It is important for team unity and to assist the coaching staff that all of the team is in the same area. At each pool there is a designated area for each team to sit.  At Twin Creeks, our area is the side closest to the parking lot.  The other side of the pool is reserved for the visiting team.  The area is small.  Please be considerate of others and try to take up as little space as possible.  The sand park is open during meets.  Please make sure swimmers are rinsed off in the shower before entering the pool.

Ø       Get ready - Have your swimmer get in their suit, goggles and cap and report to their coach.

v     During the meet

Ø      Swimming in the meet - Your swimmer needs to be aware at all times what event is being swum and what their next event is. They should be watching the Ready Bench Board telling them when to report to the Ready Bench. The older the swimmer, the less attention the coaching staff will pay to them.

For children 8 and under, you should introduce your child to the Team Parent.  Team Parents vary by meet, but will always wear either a red apron (for girls) or a blue apron (for boys).  Team Parents will attempt to gather the children several minutes before it is time for them to swim.  Team Parents then escort the children to the ready bench.  For relays, the Team Parents stay with the children and help escort them to the correct lane and correct end of the pool.  For individual events, the Team Parents hand the children off to ready bench personnel who will take the children over to the start area at the appropriate time. 

As a parent, you should watch the white board to see what events are being lined up at the ready bench.  If your child is scheduled to swim in one of the events listed, send them to the Team Parent (if 8 or under) or send them to the ready bench if 9 or up.  All events are numbered.

Ø      After each swim - Your swimmer should report to their coach for a critique of their swim. Then they should dry off and get dressed and wait for their next event.

Ø      Root for the team - Swim meets can be very long if all you are doing is waiting for your swimmer to swim. You wait for forty-five minutes and then they only swim for forty-five seconds. If you watch for all of the Twin Creeks swimmers, you have something to do and someone to root for. This will have the added benefit of familiarizing yourself with other swimmers on the team and the sport of swimming in general.

Ø      Root for your swimmer - Be proud of their effort and improvement. How they placed is unimportant if they tried hard, did their best and improved their time.

Ø      Bad meets, Bad  swims and Disqualification - Sometimes bad things happen to good swimmers. Your swimmer will probably be devastated the first time they are disqualified, miss an event or swim much slower than they did at the last meet. How to handle disappointment is one of the major life lessons to be taught by swimming. Be supportive and keep perspective. There will always be another swim. This is not the Olympics. You can come back next meet and prove yourself. One hundred percent effort is nothing to be ashamed of regardless of the result.

Ø      Food - Most venues will have a concession stand. Prices will vary from reasonable to expensive. Choices are usually limited and entrees usually include hot dogs, pizza, nachos etc. All swim parents have eaten there, but none of us are proud of it.

Ø How long does a meet last?  Most meets last around 2-3 hours (from the start of the meet, not warm ups) depending on the size of the teams.  If we are competing against a large team, the meet may be longer.

Ø  Will we keep score at the meets?  No. Scoring meets is not practical given the makeup of the teams involved. However, we will be awarding place ribbons (1-8) for each event.

v     After the meet

Ø       Check their swim bag - Use the inventory of what you packed to make sure you are going home with everything you brought. If they have lost something, wait. After all of the other swimmers have gone home, the pool deck and/or camping area will be littered with lost gear. Finding your stuff amongst the mess will be a relatively easy task. If you don’t find it, inquire after the “lost and found” It may be there. You will be amazed at what others have left behind.

Ø       Congratulate them on a great effort and a great meet!

Ø       Check the website - Meet results are normally posted on the Meets Page a few hours after the meet.

Ø       Get your ribbons - Ribbons are printed after the meet and will be handed out after practice on Tuesdays.  Every child will receive a ribbon for each event they swim.  Different colored ribbons are handed out for 1^st through 8^th places.  Participant ribbons are awarded for 9th place and greater.  The back of each ribbon will list the child’s name, event, and the time.  It is important that you stress to your children that they improve their own times.  It is not important what color their ribbon is or who came in first.  We want to encourage children to have fun and improve themselves.  That is what they can control.  Places are determined for the entire event, not each heat.  Please keep in mind that we can have 30 or more girls swimming in the 7-8 and 9-10 category.  It is very difficult for girls this age to ever receive an individual ribbon for anything other than participant.