Davis Lake Community Association

Parent's Survival Guide to the Swim Team

Welcome to the Triad Summer Swim League.  This league was founded to introduce children to the fun of competition swimming.  The league’s philosophy is fun, participation, and competition.  The league teams are Cedarfield, Davis Lake, Wellington, and Skybrook.

This handout is to help new parents (and old too) to understand why it takes all of us to make a swim meet happen.  A swim meet takes approximately thirty volunteers per team not counting the home team concession stand.  The following describes the various jobs as well as some of the terminology of competitive swimming.

Three rules to keep in mind:

1.      Swimming events will not be changed at the meet.  Do not bother the coaches with changes during the meet.  If the child has been mistakenly put in the wrong age group or is sick, then let the meet director know.  If your child refuses to swim an event, that’s okay.    But he or se will not be added to a different event to replace it.  The scoring is a computerized program that is set-up prior to the meet.  A meet cannot run efficiently if it is constantly being altered.

2.      Trust the coaches and let them teach your child.  Sometimes they can get your child to swim an event that he or she may be uneasy about when you step back and let the coaches do their job.  We never force a child to swim an event but sometimes just a little encouragement from the coaches is all it takes to give the child the confidence to do it.  But we understand that this is suppose to be fun as sell as a learning experience.

3.      If your schedule changes and your child will be or will not be at a meet, make sure you inform the Davis Lake Meet Director.  Having the child tell the coaches at swim practice does not work.  The coaches are busy with the swimmers and have no way to write it down.  Meets run better if the director knows which swimmers will participate and which ones will not.  It is difficult to add a swimmer who suddenly shows up at a meet because vacation plans changed.  If the child is ill, we understand and will make the necessary changes to the heat sheet and the relays but the sooner we know, the better.

Heat Sheet:  This is the “book” of the swim meet.

                     It is the order of event (1-71 with girls even events: boys odd events)

                     It is the number of heats per event.

                     It is the lane assignment for each swimmer per heat

                     It has the best time for each swimmer after the first meet.

Swimmers are seeded according to that time in the event.  Slowest times are the first heats with the fastest times (swimmers) in the final heat.  Please understand that winning a heat does mean your child won or placed in the event.

These are the individual events and relays:

      Order of events:    Freestyle relay  Events 1-11

                                       Individual Freestyle  Events 12-23

                                          Backstroke  Events 24-23

                                             7/8 Medley Relay  Events 34-35

                                                IM (Individual Medley)  Events 38-43

                                                   Breaststroke  Events 44-53

                                                      Butterfly  Events 54-63

                                                         Medley Relays  Events 64-71

FYI:  Girls’ events are the even numbers, boys’ events are the odd numbered events.

The Starter calls all swimmers to the events and starts each race or heat using an electronic starter with a light and buzzer.

Events are called by event number and heat.  Swimmers need to know which events they are swimming.  Bullpen moms and dads help to organize the younger swimmers and get them ready in the correct order for the event.

The swimmers then report to the Clerk of Course who seats the swimmers on the benches and gets them to the proper lanes for the heat.  Bullpen parents can help to move the swimmers along especially the younger ones as well as get them into the proper relay lanes on the opposite end of the pool.

There are two Timers per lane (one per team) with a Head Timer per every two lanes.  Timers should always check the swimmers name before the head timer records the time to be sure the correct swimmer is credited.

A Runner collects the heat timers’ event sheets and delivers them along with any DQ slips and the finish judge slips to the computer table.  Scorers at the computer table enter the times and score the event.  Results per event are printed out as well as the labels for the ribbons.

Ribbon Writers stick the printed labels to the back of the ribbons and sort them by team.

There are Stroke Judges who are trained and make the call as to whether it was a legal swim.  This means that the swimmer did not leave the starting blocks early, swam the stroke correctly, and touched the wall at turns and the finish.  Every swimmer has a DQ (disqualification) now and then, even your-round swimmers.  It is part of the learning process.  Finish Judges record the order of finish per heat in case there is a problem with the recorded times.  Front row seats at the finish line for this job!

Concession stand workers are for home meets only.  This helps to produce revenue for the team.