The day before the meet, the swim team coordinator will email you with two useful documents:

1. Heat Sheet - this is the full plan/schedule for the meet! Lots of people like to print it out and highlight their swimmers so it's easy to follow along and find them in the pool. Scroll down to see photos of a heat sheet and how to read it.

2. Swimmer Entries - This document will help you know quickly what your swimmer is swimming for the meet. It's in alphabetical order, and shows the event, heat, and lane. It's a good document to use when marking your swimmers. 

How to read a heat sheet:

Here's an example of a relay. This is the 6th event in the meet, boys' 11-12 year old freestyle relay. There's one heat for relays (we keep it that way for meet length), so you'll see Heat 1 of 1. There are 5 relay teams in this event, so they swim in lanes 1-5. Each team has A-relay, B-relay, and sometimes a C-relay. Freestyle and Medley Relays for 12 years old and younger swim 25 meters per leg, total of 100m. 13 and up swim 50m each, total of 200m. 

The swimmers are listed in order of their relay legs. For the Medley Relays at the end of the meet, here's the order:

#1 swimmer: backstroke
#2 swimmer: breastroke
#3 swimmer: butterfly
#4 swimmer: freestyle

This is an example of an individual event - #18, Boys' 11-12 year old Freestyle. There are 3 full heats, 6 lanes each. 

Swim Meet Lingo

Free...freestyle

Free Relay...freestyle relay (all swimmers swim the freestyle)

Back...backstroke
Fly...butterfly

IM...Individual Medley...this is a race with all 4 strokes (The swimmer will swim the fly, back, breast and free)

Medley Relay...in this relay each swimmer will swim one of the four strokes (back, breast, fly and free)

DQ...disqualification

ORDER OF EVENTS FOR THE MEET:

First Half of the Meet: Events 1 thru 34 *Please note: 5 & 6 year olds...participate in the first half of the meet only. All other age groups participate in the entire meet.

After Event 34, if you are not volunteering in the second half, please check out with a coach and then you can go.
Second Half of the Meet: Events 35 - 72

Wondering what to pack for a swim meet? 

-HEAT SHEET (tip: print it out and highlight your swimmers' events)

-sharpie (to mark your swimmer)

-water, Gatorade

-healthy snacks

-bug spray

-sunscreen

-hat

-sunglasses

-folding lawn chairs

-tent / canopy

-ice chest

-blanket/towels for sitting on

-toys, coloring books (for your little ones)

-cash for the concession stand

Be prepared for the heat and mosquitoes and plan accordingly.