Swim Meet 101
Swim meets can last about 3 hours. There is 1 hour of warm-ups and the actual meet will last about 2 hours. It is important to come prepared.
GCSL Swim Meet warm-ups are at 5:00 pm with the meets beginning at 6:00 pm.
GCSL Dive Meet warmups are at 3:00 pm with the meet beginning at 4:00 pm.
COSA Swim Meet warm-ups are at 7:30 am with the meet beginning at 8/8:15 am.
What to Bring to the Swim Meet
- •plenty of towels
- •goggles (two pairs in case one breaks)
- •swim cap
- •healthy snacks and drinks (lots of water)
- •warm clothes to put on after events (very important on cooler or windy evenings)
- •marker for noting events on swimmer’s hand
- •fun activities for your swimmer to do between events
- •chairs (some pools do not have many chairs available for use during a meet)
- •blanket (or extra towel) for swimmer or family to sit on
- •sports umbrella for swimmers to sit under
- •camera
Prior to coming to the meet, each swimmer should have the following information printed on their hand as shown below:
(E) Event number
(H) Heat number
(L) Lane number - this number will be blank until you get to the pool.
Stroke - The swim coaches will email the swimmers’ events prior to each meet. With the exception of the lane assignment, the other information can be completed prior to coming to the pool. Permanent sharpie marker works best for this task.
E H L
333 3 5 100 IM
39 4 5 50 Breast
43 3 5 50 Fly
47 4 2 50 Back
What to bring to the Dive Meet
- •plenty of towels
- •healthy snacks and drinks (lots of water)
- •chairs (outdoor meet - some pools do not have many chairs available for use during a meet)
- •blanket (or extra towel) for swimmer or family to sit on (outdoor meet)
- •camera
How to decipher the swimming Heat Sheet
Regular season heat sheets are relatively simple, since there rarely are multiple heats. Each sheet contains the following information: Event number, event title, heat number, status of heat, lane number, swimmer’s name, swimmer’s age for season, swimmer’s team, and swimmer’s entry time. At the beginning of the season, each swimmer is designated an NT which stands for “No Time”. After they swim their first meet and earn an official time (not disqualified), a time will be shown in the last column. The seed time is based on their best time for the event, not necessarily the time from the previous meet.
