A Comprehensive Guide for Parents and Swimmers
USA Swimming: USA Swimming, Inc. (USA-S) is the national governing body for amateur competitive swimming in the United States with their headquarters located at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. The USA-S staff interacts with 59 Local Swimming Committees (LSCs), to provide a variety of services to over 300,000 registered athletes, over 20,000 non-athletes, and 2,500 swim clubs. As the National Governing Body of the sport, USA-S is responsible to formulate rules, conduct national championships, disseminate safety and sports medicine information, select competitors to represent this country in international competition, and insure the development of its member clubs and age group swimmers. USA-S swim meets are designed to protect the swimmer, provide fair and equitable conditions of competition, and promote uniformity in the sport so no swimmer shall obtain an unfair advantage over another. All athletes must pay an annual registration fee with USA Swimming. Visit the USA Swimming website at www.usaswimming.org. OC Gold Aquatics is a member of USA-S.
Southern California Swimming: Southern California Swimming (SCS) is our Local Swimming Committee (LSC). It is one of 59 LSC’s that are part of USA-S. It is the organization that governs the local meets that your swimmers participate in. SCS is made up of five Sections: Coastal, Eastern, Olympic, Metro, and Orange. GOLD is part of the Orange Section. Of the five sections, the Orange Section has the most swimmers, despite having the smallest geographical area. The SCS website is www.socalswim.org.
Orange Section: GOLD is one of over 35 teams primarily located in Orange County which make up the Orange Section. Most of the competitions that our team participates in are with other teams in our section.
Swim Meets
It is a GOLD requirement for swimmers to attend at least one swim meet per month with our team. Most swim meets are held locally here in Orange County on weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and are divided up into four different sessions; two morning sessions for 10 and under swimmers and two afternoon sessions for 11 and older swimmers. Swimmers are expected to participate in both days of the meet. Coaches will enter and select the events for our swimmers for a swim meet (Bronze B will have to request to be entered). You must decline the meet online if you are unable to attend the meet. If you do not decline the meet online, your swimmer will be entered and meet fee charges will apply and can not be refunded.
Each session runs about 4 hours long. Sessions are divided up by age group and offer different events on each day. A meet information sheet providing all of the information about the meet and fees will be posted to our website under the Meet Schedule link as it becomes available from SCS. It can also be found directly on the SCS website.
Block Party Meets
We also host 'Block Party' Meets. These are intrasquad meets that are coordinated with another team. These specific meets are done during regular practice times at the pool where practice is held (VPHS, OHS or ELMO). The hosting team's location will be listed on the Event sign up.
Time Standards: To allow for equal and fair competition, SCS has created time standards for each gender and age-group. These time standards are also great for goal setting purposes.
There are different swim meets available to swimmers who meet different time standards. Some meets may only be for swimmers who have met a particular standard (level), others may allow for two or more levels to compete at the same meet. At a multiple standard swim meet, results will usually be based on the standard in which the swimmer entered the event at. This allows swimmers to be awarded at each of their respective levels, again providing for equal and fair competition between all levels of swimmers.
Swimmers who have never competed in an event begin that event as ‘C’ level. As they compete in meets and achieve faster times in a particular event, they advance from ‘C’, to ‘B’, or ‘A’, etc. The achievement of time standards is by individual event, not over-all as a swimmer. A swimmer may be at different standards/levels in different strokes and distances. The time standards for every event for each age-group and gender can be found on the SCS website at www.socalswim.org.
When entering swim meets, swimmers can only enter events in which they have met the minimum time standard the swim meet is based upon. For example, if you have B times in the 50 breaststroke and 50 freestyle, you can swim those events in a ‘BB Max’ meet. You would not be able to enter those events in an’ A’ meet.
The following is a list of different meets you may see on our meet calendar:
September Dual Meet– We open our season with a dual meet against another local team in a one day, one session meet where all of our swimmers compete in the same session; regardless of ability or age. This allows for a great team bonding experience and get-together for both new and returning swimmers.
‘ABC’ Meets– Open to all levels of swimmers.
‘BB Max ’Meets– Attended by swimmers who have not swam faster than the "BB" times in the events they wish to swim. You could not swim an event you had a BB or faster time in.
‘A’ Meets– Swimmers must meet the minimum A time standard in an event they wish to swim.
‘Invite’ Meets– Swimmers must meet the minimum ‘Invite’ time standard in an event they wish to swim.
Junior Olympics– Swimmers must meet the minimum ‘Junior Olympic’ time standard in the event they wish to swim.
‘Senior’ Meets– At this level swimmers no longer compete in events divided by age. All events are ‘Open Men’s’ or ‘Open Women’s’. Different meets will use different time standards. Typically if you qualify for one or more event, you may also swim one or two “bonus” events.
Sectionals, Jr. Nationals and Nationals– These Senior meets are only open to swimmers who meet the time standards established for each event.
Signing up for Swim Meets: Click on the Attend/Decline button next to the meet under the Meet Schedule. Click on the swimmer you want to declare for and select YES to attend or NO I cannot attend. If you select YES, select the sessions you are available to attend and then click SAVE or your coach will enter you in the events he/she would like you to swim. If you have special preferences, be sure to put notes in the NOTES box. You will be automatically billed for these events through the auto-billing for the next billing statement.
Team Suit & Cap Policy: It is important that all swimmers show their pride and represent our team by wearing their team gear at swim meets. Both male and female swimmers are required to wear their GOLD team suit and GOLD team cap for every event at every meet. Team suits are available through our vendor. Team caps are available through one of our coaches.
What to bring to the meet: Aside from your GOLD suit and cap, you should also bring a couple pairs of goggles, a few towels (one for warm up and each event), chairs, and healthy snacks and drinks. You should also consider small activities, books or hand held video games for downtime, sunscreen, extra clothes for appropriate weather, parkas, jackets, sweats, t-shirts, etc.
Arriving at the meet: At the meet, look for our GOLD canopies. This will be our team area to sit during the meet. All swimmers should arrive 1 hour and 15 minutes before the start of the meet to allow time for check in, stretching and warm-up. For morning sessions that start at 9:00 a.m., swimmers would arrive by 7:30 a.m. Afternoon session swimmers will be notified of arrival time by your coach a few days before the meet; a typical afternoon arrival time is about 11:00 AM.
When check-in first opens at the start of the meet, all events are still open for “Check-in”. About 30 minutes before the start of the meet, the first few events will be closed. When an event is closed, swimmers may no longer check infor or swim that event. As the meet progresses, events are closed typically two or three events before they are to be swum.
Warm-up: It is extremely important that all swimmers at the meet warm-up together and stay near the GOLD tents. Your coach will round up all swimmers and get them in the pool for warm-up together as a team. We kindly ask parents to leave the warm-up area during warm-up so the children can focus on their coach and the coach their swimmers. Swimmers who arrive more than 10 minutes late will not be allowed to join the team warm-up.
Posted Events: After an event is closed, the Meet Secretary ranks all the checked in swimmers in order from slowest to fastest or fastest to slowest, depending on how the meet form reads, and then assigns Heats and Lanes. This information will then be posted shortly before the event on the meet boards located near the pool deck. Heat and lane assignments are typically posted about two events before the event is to be run.
Talking to your coach: Swimmers must talk to their coach before and after every race. Before their race they need to give their coach their heat and lane assignment, and after their race they need to report the time the timers got for them. Your coach will give the swimmer valuable feedback and encouragement during this process.
Showing up to swim your event: After talking to your coach, it is the swimmer’s responsibility to know what heat and what lane to line up in. You should also be prepared to swim and make sure you have your cap and goggles on. Swimmers need to pay attention to the meet and stand behind their lane at least a few heats before their heat. It is also good to double check with the lane timers to be sure you are in the right lane. If you are swimming a 25 yard event, these events are typically “STAGED” by people running the meet. After speaking with their coach, swimmers swimming 25 yard events need to be dropped off at the staging area before their event. Once the swimmer is dropped off, the parent needs to leave the staging area. Staff running the staging area will handle getting the swimmers to their lane for their appropriate heat. After dropping their swimmer off, parents can relax and find a good area to watch their young swimmer race. Swimmers who are in events 400 or higher will need to have two people to do their timing and a person to do the lap counting. Lap counter sticks may be borrowed from our coaches.
Swim Meet Order: Most swim meets run in order of Event number (1, 2, 3, etc.) and Heat number (1, 2, 3, etc.). Events will run in order as stated on the meet form, with each session being a continuation of the meet; the meet does not start over each session.
Meet Timeline: Regardless of the estimated timeline of the meet, the meet will run in event order without stopping. Swimmers who are not behind their block/lane when it is time to swim will miss their event. It is a swim meet rule that any swimmer who has already checked in for an event and then misses it will not be allowed to swim their next event.
Getting disqualified (DQ’d) during an event: Nearly everyone who has ever swum in competition has gotten DQ'd in an event at some point during their swimming career. Getting disqualified can be disappointing. However, DQ’s are one of the many learning experiences which will hopefully teach the swimmer what they need to work on in practice and the next time they race. If a swimmer gets DQ’d, an Official will come to them at the end of their race with an explanation of why they got DQ’d. It is important for the swimmer to listen to this explanation so they know what they did wrong and so they can pass this information along to their coach.
Timing Chair Assignments: Parent volunteer timers are needed at every meet to make sure swimmers get accurate times. All parents of swimmers entered in the meet are required to spend some time fulfilling our team’s timing assignments. This timing duty consist of two positions. Chair 1 is starting the stop watch when the light flashes on the speaker box at the beginning of the race, then stopping the stop watch and the 'pickle' button at the same time at the end of each race. Chair 2 is pushing a 'pickle' button at the end of each race to stop the automatic timing system and writing down the time of the stop watch of Chair 1. Timing chairs are located right behind the starting blocks in the best viewing area of the meet. They are typically covered for shade, so these make for great seats to watch your swimmer race. Our team timing assignments are sent out by email prior to each meet. Every parent will be required to time for 30 minutes to one hour for one of the days at the swim meet their swimmer is entered in. This assignment is not part of our Required Quarterly Volunteer Hours but it is an obligation that we must fill attending a swim meet.
Volunteer Hours at Home Meets: We have a volunteer policy within our club that applies to all families. If you are unable to attend the meet or can not volunteer, there is an incomplete volunteer charge fee that will be applied to your account. See our Program Fees for more information.
Before leaving the meet: Swimmers may only leave a meet when they have finished their last event, have swum down, and have asked their coach if they can leave. It is extremely important to speak with your coach before you leave to make sure you are not assigned to any relay events. Relays are coach entered at the meet. Therefore they typically do not appear on our entry reports. Relays are team events where four swimmers each swim one of four "legs" of the race. These are great fun for the kids, so please check with your coach to make sure you aren't in a relay before leaving. When you do leave, please be sure to leave your area clean and remove any trash or personal belongings.
Official Results: Your official times will be posted in the postings area typically two or three events after you have swum. Your times will also be listed on the USA Swimming website and complete results of the meet are also posted to the Southern California Swimming website.
Awards: Ribbons and/or medals awarded at the meet will be collected at the conclusion of the meet by one of the coaches and given to your swimmer.
National Scratch Rule: The National Scratch Rule may be used at certain meets. Athletes qualifying must scratch within 30 minutes of the preliminary results announcement if they do not intent to swim finals. Failure to swim finals will result in disqualification from the rest of the meet or fine is imposed if no show occurs on atheles' final event. The fine must be paid to SCS before athlete can compete again in the LSC.
