Meet FAQ's
Q. How do I know what events my child will be swimming?
A. At each pool, there will be a meet binder. Included in the binder will be a team roster.
We ask that each family follow this process starting no later than May 14th:
Monday morning - Check the meet sign up sheet and mark the meets your swimmer
WILL swim. Swimmers will not be eligible to swim in the meet if they have not signed up.
(If there is no response marked, a swimmer will NOT be entered in the meet.) A line up
will be generated by the coaches on Monday.
Tuesday & Wednesday mornings - Check to see what events your swimmer has been
entered in for the upcoming meet. If there is a mistake, please notify us IMMEDIATELY.
We cannot make any changes to the meet entries after Wednesday at noon.
Thursday & Friday mornings - Check the final line up.
Friday evening - Check the website for the final heat sheet and mark your swimmer's
arm and shoulder.
Q. At last week's meet, my child was not listed for freestyle and there were empty slots in
several heats. Why couldn't he/she swim in any one of those empty slots?
A. Because the rules in our swim league do not allow for this. An entry can not be added
once the final entries are submitted.
Q. Why can a swimmer not be added to the heat sheet at the last minute during the
swim meet?
A. Because the rules in our swim league do not allow for this. An entry can not be added
once the final entries are submitted.
Q. What happens if my swimmer shows up after the meet starts - a little tardy?
A. Please realize that signing up for a meet and then not showing up effects your entire
age group and creates a large amount of work for the age group parents and other
volunteers. When a swimmer does not show up for a meet, relays have to be adjusted to
account for their absence and in many cases relays are scratched from the meet. So, it
is not just your child that doesn't swim, but three other children that were looking forward
to being a part of a relay.
Q. Some person with a badge gave my kid a "DQ". What is that?
A. The person is a "swim cop". He/she is a trained expert stationed around the pool
focusing on the proper stroke technique, turns and touches. They convey violations to
officials at the finish who warn a swimmer or mark a "DQ", which, means "Disqualified".
Q. What do you mean "Disqualified"?
A. Typical DQ violations include: Freestyle: 6 and unders pulling themselves forward on
rope; Backstroke: turning over before finish; Breaststroke: one-hand touches, "flutter-
kick" or "excessive underwater stroke"; Butterfly: one-hand touches, "flutter-kick", "frog-
kick", modified breaststroke or whole host of other things kids do to avoid drowning.
Typically, with younger kids, some officials will notify/warn a swimmer, but will not
actually, "DQ" them, unless the violation results in a competitive advantage. Any
violation in a relay, whether stroke or early departure from the blocks, results in
automatic DQ for the team.
Q. My goggles folded onto my cheek when I dove in and water was in my eyes. What
should I do?
A. In Freestyle or Backstroke, adjusting goggles is not a stroke violation, unless you do
something else, like roll over onto your front during backstroke while doing it. In Butterfly
and Breaststroke its tougher. No part of a legal butterfly stroke lets the hands get
anywhere near the face, so your best bet is to leave them alone and keeping swimming.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming.
Q. How are relay teams chosen-?
A. Computer based on times gathered through practice and/or meets.
Q. Will my child be given a chance to swim in a relay?
A. In the dual meets, we can enter as many relays as we have swimmers that can make
a legal relay. At champs we can only enter 2 relays per age group.
Q. My child was swimming in 1 event but another child was swimming in 5 events. How is
that possible?
A. The coaches assigned swimmers to the events they felt the swimmer was able to
swim properly without being DQ. For example: the swimmer could swim in 3 of either
Freestyle, Backstroke, Breast Stroke, Butterfly, and IM; and then 2 relays. However, the
relays were chosen by the computer automatically based on the swimmer’s speed times.
With the number of swimmers that we have, everyone can not swim the same event –
also remember that this is a summer league aimed at developing the proper swimming
skills and techniques. Our goal from day one was to teach the swimmers the proper
stroke formation and then work on speed. We want to get it right the first time around.
Q. How many events can a swimmer compete in?
A. There are 5 individual events (freestyle, back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly, and
individual medley). Swimmers may compete in 3 of these 5 as long as they can
properly swim the stroke. For the dual meets, the coaches will decide which events
the swimmers will swim in. In addition, swimmers may be asked to compete in
the freestyle and/or medley relay.
Q. Will there be training for volunteers who are completely new to the swim team?
A. Yes, continually training.
Q. Will a swimmer receive a ribbon for participating in each event?
A. No.
Q. What is a heat sheet?
A. A listing of how the meet is organized. It lists the events, swimmers, heats, seed times,
and lanes.
Q. At the meet, during a relay one of the swimmers did not realize that he was to go in
one direction only, therefore, he turn around and ended swimming heel to head with his
relay swimmer to the finish. Will the coaches work with the swimmers’ more during
practices so all of the swimmers have an understanding of how a relay works?
A. Yes
Q. How is it determined as to what age group my child will be swimming?
A. Our league uses the June 1st as the date to determine the age of the swimmer. For
example: if your swimmer turns 7 on June 15, he/she will be swimming in the 6 & Under
age group because he/she was 6 on June 1st.
Q: My swimmer placed 3rd in the Freestyle Relay team but did not receive a ribbon. Can
you explain?
A: In relays, swimmers received ribbons only in 1st and 2nd place. However, in individual
events (i.e. freestyle, backstroke, fly, breast) a swimmer can receive a ribbon from 1st to
6th place.
Q. I am a first time swim team parent do all the swim meets seem disorganized?
A. No. A lot is going on with so many swimmers and volunteers. The pace is quick for
all events to get everyone through. The easiest way is to get a heat sheet and follow
along with each heat, watching for your swimmers. For each stroke, the 6 & Unders
swim first, girls then boys, followed by the 8 & Unders, continuing through to the oldest
swimmers.
Q. I volunteered to work but something came up that I could not volunteer. Is this ok?
A. Although last minute cancellations maybe unavoidable, they create hardship on all
the volunteers because then we have to shuffle volunteers around to fill the gap at the
swim meets. As everyone is aware, it takes a lot of volunteers to run the swim meet. If we
do not have enough volunteers, the meet will not operate as smoothly as we would like,
please notify the Meet Director as soon as possible so we can have someone fill the
volunteer position before the swim meet begins.
Q. How do I find out the final results from the meet?
A. The results of Saturday's meet will be placed in the Meet Binder for Monday
morning's practice and on the website. Any ribbons that your swimmer receives will
be placed in their family file folder by Tuesday. Your swimmer may receive a place
ribbon if they placed 1st through 6th against swimmers within their age group at the
meet. If they improved their time in an individual event, they will receive a personal
improvement ribbon. Any swimmer who does not receive a place ribbon or a personal
improvement ribbon will receive a participant ribbon for the first meet they swim in.
Q. What's the difference for Yards vs. Meters?
A. Some of the pools where we swim are 25 yards long, while others are 25 meters long
(known as "Short course meters"). This difference (about 7 feet) means that event times
in a meter pool are usually a couple of seconds higher for every length of the pool.
Fortunately, the time software that we use understands this situation and performs
conversions when necessary. The heat sheet for a meet will show all seed times in the
units of the home pool. Depending on absolutely nothing but pure chance, times which
have been converted may or may not be followed by a "C" (Yahtzee!™) on the heat
sheet.
Event results posted at the meet will also be in the units of the home pool.
Meter Pools : Great Hills and Westover
Yard Pools: Balcones Woods
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