Rules:

Swim meets are governed by the NWAL Official Rules. A copy can be downloaded from the NWAL web site (www.nwal.org) or here.

Tips for Saturday morning:

Swim meets can be a pretty intimidating place for uninitiated parents. Below are a few helpful hints - you will learn many others over time. First, we need to cover what you should bring to a swim meet. They are broken down into two categories: Essential Equipment and Optional Stuff.

Essential Equipment

• Your Swimmer(s) - very important
• Team Swim Suit
• Swim Cap, if required by coaches
• Goggles

Optional Stuff

• Towel(s)
• Shorts or sweat suit
• T-Shirt(s)
• Tote-bag or duffle
• Sunscreen
• Bug-spray
• Water bottles
• Sharpie marker
• Lawn chairs(s)
• Tent
• Tent ground blanket
• Money for concessions

Night Before A Swim Meet:

Best to get everything laid out the night before. If you are going to drive to the Clubhouse, load the car and there will be an area you can drop of your heavy items (duffel bags, chairs, etc…) at the swimmer drop-off in front of the pool area.   There are usually signs and orange cones to assist you as you get near the pool. Even though you live in the neighborhood, that does not mean you will necessarily get to park very close. Make certain you and your swimmer(s) get a good meal, fluids, and plenty of rest the night before a swim meet. Swim meets start very early and can run as late as 2:00 pm, depending on the number of swimmers on each team. The Friday evening before a home meet, swimmers and parents are invited to the pool to help with set-up.

Morning of the Swim Meet

Get your swimmer to the pool on time! This is very important. Once you get to the pool, locate the swimmer SIGN-IN sheets - this too is very important. You have to sign-in your swimmer. There is a cut-off time for each meet. If your swimmer has not signed in the morning of the meet, they will get scratched from the meet - even if you are present. After your swimmer is signed in, find out what time your team will be in the pool for warmup laps. Each team will get 15-30 minutes to take warmup laps before the meet begins. You should take this time to find your team designated area and locate a spot for your gear. If you have never been to a swim meet, you will notice that there are many tents of all kinds. Some teams bring large covered tents for their entire team. Each family is responsible for providing their own tent, if they choose to do so. In many cases, families group together and share a common tent and help watch over each others children. This can be important since parents have volunteer duties during the meet. The last thing to do is to locate your swimmer(s) SWIM FINDER, if they have one. Swimmers age 10 and below have a swim finder assigned which will look for them when it is time to get your child to the ready bench for their event. Find out who this parent is, get to know them, let them know where they should be able to find your child. Also, let your child know where they can locate you (i.e. volunteer posts, seating, etc…) Almost all swimmers write their event numbers somewhere on their body, usually their arm where they can see them. If you have an event later that evening, please inform the swim finder to mark your child where it won’t show under clothes (i.e. back, upper arm, etc…) Starting at age 7, swimmers can be in as many as 5 events and the event numbers could change from meet to meet.

During the Swim Meet

If you are a volunteer during the meet, you should become familiar with where you are to be for the start of your shift. Timers, scribes, and meet officials are typically called together through the public address system, but other positions are not announced so formally. If you think you should be somewhere - start asking someone - or find a CP Stars Swim Team Board member. While it can be difficult to juggle all this, you need to also make certain your swimmer gets to the ready bench when it's time. Our ready bench is located behind the starting blocks on the end near the diving board.   Try to keep up with your children as much as possible. Parents typically work in teams and usually within their own age groups. Bottom line - it's okay to ask for some help if you need it. You will need to figure out when to feed your swimmer(s) during the meet, preferably ample time prior to their swim event.   We highly recommend you use our concession stand for both breakfast and lunch. Monies raised from these sales helps support our organization. The more concessions, the less fees we have to charge from year to year. Your swimmer(s) may require additional sun screen during the course of a meet. Lastly, if your child has to leave the meet, please notify the team coaches and the swim finder, especially if your child will not be returning to the meet. Relays are scheduled toward the end of the meet and we often have trouble locating swimmers because they have gone home or simply left. We encourage everyone to stay at the pool until your child has completed all their events.   During the swim meet, it is not uncommon for young swimmers who are learning the strokes to be disqualified (DQ’d) during a meet.   Often an official will kneel down and explain the mistake to the child as he/she is exiting the pool.   This procedure helps the swimmer to learn and improve for the next event.   This also gives the child an opportunity to work on specifics with the coach at practices.

After the Swim Meet

First, try not to schedule events after a swim meet. It's hard to predict when they will actually end and you and your swimmer(s) may be very exhausted, especially if you are not used to it. If it was an especially hot day, make sure everyone gets plenty of fluids and gets out of the hot and into an air conditioned environment. Talk to your child about their performance during the meet and provide any needed feedback and encouragement.

Officials, Participants and Spectators:

All meet officials are parent volunteers who have donated their personal time for training and certification. It is important that they are treated with respect by participants and spectators.

The objective of NWAL is to foster competitive swimming and good sportsmanship in the youth of this area. No official would ever want to be in the position to disqualify a swimmer, coach, parent or spectator. Therefore, please be aware of the following rules that have to be enforced by the officials.

Section III (I.) (10): Coaches, assistants and/or spectators shall not be allowed in the STARTING AREA, TURN, FINISH AREAS, READY BENCH AREA or within (5) five feet of swimming pools, or interfere with any meet official during the progress of any competition. Upon being apprised of a violation of this rule, it shall be the duty of the Referee to remove, or have such offender removed immediately.

Section III (I.) (12): No team personnel, including coaches and /or spectators, shall act in an Unsportsmanlike manner. This includes any act the Referee deems poor sportsmanship, such as:

a. Making insulting or derogatory remarks or acts to officials or opponents.

b. Questioning, trying to influence, or showing disgust with an official's decision.

c. Entering the water during an event in which they are not a participant.

Swimmers shall be disqualified from their event if Unsportsmanlike conduct occurs immediately before or after their event.

Meet Start Time:

Most NWAL sanctioned meets (excluding time trials) begin at 8:30.  Warm-ups for the home team are generally 7:00-7:30.  Warm-ups for the visiting team are from 7:30-8:00.  Exceptions to this may exist.  Please always check the website for exact times for meet warm-ups and start times for each meet.

Entries:

Entries in the individual events and the relays are determined by the coaches on the basis of performances to date and the line-up that gives the team the best chance in the meet. Relay line-ups are influenced by the best times, but also on other factors, such as recent performance, competitiveness and chemistry between groups of swimmers. Swimmers may express their preferences to the coaches concerning the events they would like to swim, but the coaches have the final word.

Swim-Ups:

A swim-up is when a swimmer from a younger age group is asked to swim in an older age group in order to fill out a relay team or to insure the Stars have some participants in an individual event. When a participant “swim-ups” in any one event or relay, they must swim all their events in that age group. The only exception is when 6 & under participants swim up to breast stroke and/or butterfly and when 7-8 participants swim up to the individual medley.

However, any swimmer in any age group can swim a maximum of three individual events and two relays. This practice is not intended to embarrass any swimmer, but rather to ask a swimmer to place team objectives above individual objectives, or to give younger swimmers a chance to participate in some additional events.

Heats and Seeding:

Once the week’s meet entries have been determined, the two teams trade entry files on the Thursday before the Saturday meet. The meet software then “seeds” the events based upon the fastest official time by each swimmer or teams to that date (time trials times may be used if the swimmer does not have an official time). The software also converts from yards to meters and vice-versa. This initial seeding is what is used to generate the “Heat Sheets”, which are available on Saturday morning.

On the morning of the meet, after swimmers have checked-in, the teams conduct a “scratch
meet” to “scratch” swimmer(s) who were entered, but did not check-in. The meet is then re-seeded, and new meet heat sheet is generated. These sheets are used by the swim finders and at the ready bench. In some cases, an entire relay entry may be scratched if one of the participants does not check-in.

Lane Assignments:

Lanes are assigned for each heat based upon seeding times. In a six lane pool, the lanes area assigned in the following order (fastest to slowest): 3, 4, 2, 5, 1, 6. If during the meet, checked in swimmer(s) do not report to the ready bench, the heats may be combined or re-seeded. The referee may also choose to move swimmers on the blocks, in order to prevent an open lane in the middle of the pool. When this happens, it is very important that the swimmers give their names to the scribes, before they swim or when the time is recorded.

Weather Policy:

CP Stars Swimmer Recognition Programs:

The CP Stars want all participants to have ample opportunities for recognition of their personal accomplishments.

• Heat Ribbons: Given at the swim meets to all swimmers in age groups 8 and under at the end of each heat in each event.
• Place Ribbons: Awarded for finishing in places 1 through 6 overall in a swim meet event. The finish order is determined by the fastest times across all heats.
• Time Improved: Awarded to swimmers in age groups 10 and under, based upon improvement of his/her best previous time will receive a Time Improved ribbon.
• Personal Goals: Swimmers are encouraged to set season-long personal goals. Those achieving their goals will receive recognition on the web site and a medal or comparable award at the end of season.
• Invitational Qualifiers: Swimmers qualifying for the end-of-season invitational meets will receive recognition in the newsletter and on the web site.
• Trophies: Participation trophy will be given to all swimmers that participate in at least one meet. All age groups are included.