Gator Swim Team - Summer League

Summer League 101: Parents' Guide

	General Information Summer League 101: Parents' Guide Info for High School Athletes Our Coaches Practice and Meet Schedule Registration and Fees
	Swimmers, parents and coaches enjoy a fun picnic at Capaha Park

About the Summer League

The Southeast Missouri Swim Conference (SMSC) (aka "Summer League") is a recreational swimming competition that takes place every summer in our corner of the state. The league provides the youth of participating communities from Southeast Missouri an opportunity to learn about sportsmanship, team camaraderie and competitive swimming, while enjoying a fun and healthy summer activity.

Gator swimming lessons/practice will start on Monday, May 24. Meets are held on Saturdays according to the SMSC schedule (our first meet will be on June 5th in Perryville). Competition and practice end on Saturday, July 24, when the championship meet is held (read more below).

About the Gator Summer League Team

The Gator Swim Team is a parent-owned competitive swim team organized to teach the sport of swimming to kids of all ages and abilities. The team has a year-round program affiliated with USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body in the U.S. Every summer, the Gators also organize a team to participate in the SMSC summer league, introducing kids to the sport and teaching them to be healthy and stay fit through swimming. Both the summer league and year round programs offer highly qualified certified coaches who will work on the techniques of competitive swimming, including all the strokes, starts and turns, in drills that make it fun to learn and be fit. In fact, during the summer the two groups will often practice and compete together and become part of one big family. At the end of the summer league, anyone who wants to continue involved in the sport will have a chance to join the year-round swim team and extend the fun to the entire year.

Swim Meets

Going to a summer league swim meet is about having fun, learning where a swimmer is at a particular point in time and learning how to compete well. Each swim meet offers a variety of events and distances, depending on the age group and classification. Each swimmer will have a limit to the number of events he or she may swim each day, depending on the meet rules.

Common Terms Used Around the Pool Deck:

All parents and swimmers should familiarize themselves with the following swimming terms:

Event: A race or stroke over a given distance (e.g. 50 Meters Freestyle). An event usually involves kids of the same gender and age (e.g. 9-10 Girls) but it’s not unusual to see the meet officials merging events together in order to save time.
Seed Time: The fastest time in which the swimmer has swum an event prior to the submission of entries for the meet. This is the time entered for the swimmer for the event. It is a good goal to try to beat this time at the meet.

Heat: A division of an event when there are too many swimmers to compete at the same time. Usually swimmers are grouped together in a heat by their seed time, and faster heats come after slower ones. The results are compiled only after all heats of the event are completed.

Relay: A swimming event in which 4 swimmers participate as a team. Each one swims an equal distance of the race. There are two types of relays: Medley Relay involves all strokes (order is backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle) and Freestyle Relay where everyone swims freestyle.

Leg: Each swimmer in a relay swims a leg of the event.

Entry: The Individual and Relay event swimmers event list for a meet.

Entry Card: typically a blue or pink ticket with the swimmer’s name, event number, and heat and lane assignment.

Bullpen: Where swimmers, especially younger ones, report at a swim meet for seeding in his/her event. Often entry cards are given to the swimmer at this point.

Course: Competition pools may be short course (25 yards or 25 meters), or long course (50 meters, not used in summer league meets). A 25-yard short course pool is referred to as “SCY”, while a 25-meter short course pool is referred to as “SCM”. Since one meter is slightly longer than one yard, SCY times are faster than SCM times. Records for the different courses are kept separately (no conversion allowed). Seed times may be converted from one course to another.

Warm-up: A planned session prior to a meet or practice. Usually swimmers must arrive at the pool one hour before the meet starts so they can warm-up.

Blocks: The starting platforms located behind each lane. Younger swimmers may not be prepared to start off the blocks initially, so they are allowed to start off the edge of the pool instead.

DQ, or Disqualified: A swimmer performance is not counted because of a rules infraction. A disqualification is shown by an official raising one arm with open hand above their head.

Stroke Judge: Official at the side of the pool, walking the length of the pool as the swimmers race. If the Stroke Judge sees something illegal, the swimmer may be disqualified.

False Start: a swimmer gets an unfair advantage by being in motion before the starting signal is given. Officials will disqualify a swimmer who executes a false start.

Individual Medley (IM): an event where the swimmer swims each stroke in this order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle

Preparations:

A few days before the meet, the entries showing the events of each swimmer will be posted either at the pool or on this web site. This list will have the events your kid(s) will be swimming at the meet. The entry list will not have heat and lane assignments yet, as these are determined by the hosting team after all other teams have submitted their entries.

Be prepared for heat, cold, rain and storms. Meets can be swum in rain, but obviously not with thunder and lightning. Make sure you check the web site the day before the meet to make sure it hasn’t been cancelled. In case of a last-minute cancellation, team volunteers will try to call every family at the phone numbers provided in the registration form, so make sure you always leave a number where you can be easily reached.

What to Bring:

Each meet is different in some way. Some are indoors and some are outdoors, for example. In most cases, these are the items parents bring to summer league meets (besides the swimmers’ suit, cap and goggles, of course):

Water or Gatorade, especially when the weather is hot. Make sure your swimmer has plenty of water bottles and/or Gatorade. Even though they are immersed in water, swimmers dehydrate easily!
Folding chairs

Towels

Sunscreen

Healthy snacks (Usually meets will have concession stands but the selection may be limited.)

A Sharpie or ball-point pen for marking events, heats and lane numbers on your swimmer’s arm.

A Battery operated fan with or without water bottle (the kids love them.)

Umbrellas and Rain Gear (Remember swimming is not cancelled for rain unless there is lightning.)

Bringing a team tent is a common practice for many swim teams. If anybody owns a tent and would like to bring it for the team to use, it would be wonderful! Since most meets are outdoors it would be nice to have a shaded place for all the swimmers and parents to sit together. By sitting together as a team, coaches, swimmers, and their families get to know each other better and become a more cohesive team.

Extra swim suit if available

Arriving at the Meet:

Plan to arrive at the meet at least 15 minutes before your warm-up time. Usually team members and their families stay together in a shaded area around the pool. Once parents and kids get used to the pool’s structure (entrances, restrooms, your location relative to the pool entrance, etc), swimmers should report to the coaches to start warming up. It is very important for all swimmers to warm up with the team.

During the Meet:

Remember this is a learning experience for your young athlete. There may be DQ’s, disqualifications. This is a normal part of the process. Everyone DQ’s. Please be sure that the rules of swimming have been addressed at practice. That does not mean swimmers will always remember what was said in practice. That is what children do. They are also learning how to be at a meet, how it works, and how to race.

Usually participants are divided into boys and girls with age divisions of: 6 & Under, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15 and up. Usually the order of events at the meet alternates between boys and girls. You should learn in advance what events your kids will swim (see “Preparations” above).

During the course of the meet, the announcer will announce each event when the clerk of course is ready for it. It is very important to listen to the announcer, because no one wants to miss their event. Swimmers should report to the bullpen when their next event is announced. At the bullpen, the volunteers will place the swimmers in the heat and lane that they will be swimming in for that particular event.

After your swimmer has completed the event, he/she should ask the three timers of that lane what their time was. This is the time he/she will report back to the coach. It is important for your swimmer to check back in with the coach after their event so the coach can talk to them about their swim.

In many meets, the swimmer who gets first in a heat is awarded a “heat winner” prize. The top 6 or 8 swimmers in an event may also receive a ribbon to reward their achievements. These ribbons are usually given to the swimmer by the coaches at the next scheduled practice.

The Championship Meet:

The last meet of the summer league season is a special one. On July 24th, all teams will converge to the Jackson City Pool for the championship meet. Traditionally, the championship meet is attended by over 400 swimmers who have competed in at least 9 events and 3 meets, so it's important that you plan ahead to make sure your swimmers attend 3 meets during the season to qualify for the championship meet.

Be a Volunteer:

Remember that all parents have a responsibility to help out at any meet at which their child is swimming by volunteering to help as a timer.

Even when a pool is equipped with an electronic timing system, the rules mandate that two backup timers are needed for each lane (to prevent errors in case the touch-pads fail, a common problem with the younger swimmers who have a harder time hitting the pads correctly). When touch-pads are not available, three timers are needed for each lane to make sure the swimmers are getting accurate times.

To ensure the fairness of the process, and to prevent a few individuals from working all morning while others are resting, each team is assigned a lane (or two, depending on how many swimmers the team brought). Then the timer job for a lane is divided in slots—the higher the number of volunteers, the less each has to work.

Working at meets has its benefits too. For example, you’ll get to see the action from the best seat in the house. It’s also a great way to socialize (you’ll be working with other team parents in one lane and even meet people from other teams in the adjacent lanes) and a chance to learn more about the sport.