Rockville Racers

New to swimming? Learn the lingo

Initially meets can feel a little overwhelming and confusing. But don't worry, seasoned Rockville families are friendly and willing to answer questions and help, so just ask if you are unsure. 

For the meet, your swimmer should arrive already in their bathing suit. Ideally, you should plan to arrive between 4:30 and 4:45pm because at home meets, warm-ups start at 5pm. There will be a table at the entrance for our team, and we will have "positive check-in" there. That just means that you stop at the table and let us know that you've arrived. If we don't know that you are there, your child may get scratched (taken out of) from their events before the meet starts. Bring chairs to sit in the pool area. 

Bring at least two towels as the first one will get all wet and feel gross as well as a sweatshirt because your wet kiddo may get cold as the sun goes down. Bring a packed dinner or plan to buy from the concessions, and also pack snacks and lots of water. Additionally, bring some activities to keep your children busy while waiting. Many kids play card games (think Uno, War, etc). with their friends. Make sure your child has their RVDC swim cap for events, a good pair of goggles (a spare is a good idea too!), and a sharpie for writing event numbers on their hands/arms. 

All swimmers ages 10 and under, as well as any new swimmer, must be dive certified. This means the coaches are spending time at practice evaluating whether the kids need to start in the water, from the side of the pool, or if they are safe to go off the blocks. If a swimmer needs to start on the side or in the water, they will need to be marked with an X or O on the outside of their upper left arm. You will receive a list before the meet of who needs an X and who needs an O. It would be helpful if you do that beforehand in Sharpie. If not, the check-in person will be taking care of it when you arrive at the meet. 

If you have an 8 and under child, they will swim relays (if they are in them) as the first event of the night. All other relays happen at the end of the meet. All the 8 and under events are done in the first half, so if that is your swimmers, you should be done by 8 or 8:30. There are 55 events, so after event 27, we enter the second half of the meet. The 8 and under relays feel extra chaotic and crazy. The littles have no idea what they are doing, adults are trying to wrangle them into their groups of 4 (and keep them in the group!), all while everyone else is rushing around trying to get the meet started. Please don't judge the swim season based on the first 10 minutes of the meet. At about 5:50, if your kiddo is in an 8 and under relay, we will ask you to bring your child to the check-in table area. Someone will be calling out names and getting them into groups. Please assist your child in finding their group (we will have signs with each group letter) and then have them stay there. You may want to stand there with them until a relay helper leads them over to their starting position. 

You will know what events your child is swimming before you arrive. You will know the type of event (e.g., 25 free) and the number of the event (e.g., event 10). You can see your child's assigned events in your SwimTopia account a day or two before the meet. You should write down the event numbers and what the event is (e.g., 25 backstroke). Most parents write the event numbers on their child's hand in Sharpie when they arrive. 

The announcer will be calling kids by their event number to go to the clerk of course. When you hear your child's event called, you can walk him or her over to the clerk (located by the diving well), but you can't go into the roped off area with them. The clerk will help them line up by their heat and lane and then they will be walked over to the pool when it's their turn to swim. You can stay in the pool area and watch (and cheer loudly if desired!) and then when they are done, you can take them back to your seating area. 

Your swimmer may swim up to three individual events and one relay at each meet. For most of the 8 and under kids at their first meet, they will only be swimming a 25 free, and possibly be participating in a free relay (four kids take turns swimming and each one swims one lap of free). For 8 and under relays, teenage swimmers will be assigned to be helpers with the relay and will direct the kids where to go and help talk them through the process. 

FInishing first, or second, or last in an individual heat does not determine your child's final place in the event. There are multiple divisions based on time, which is explained in the parent handbook. If your child gets DQed (disqualified) at some point this summer, know that is totally normal and is part of the learning process. For freestyle, as long as they don't walk on the bottom or pull on the lane line, they are fine. For backstroke, they need to stay on their back the whole time. The most common reason for a DQ is in breastroke. When kids touch the wall at the finish they need to do it with both hands at the same time. It's called a "two-hand touch" and every kid forgets it and gets DQed at least once! 

Ribbons are awarded to the first 6 finishers for each event for each swimmer classification (novice, advanced, junior varsity, varsity, and senior varsity). This means there could be 5 first place ribbons for one event. Ribbons are awarded for the classification for which you swam that event. If a swimmer's time improved to advance to a new classification, they will swim in that classification the next meet. Many events have multiple heats, meaning there are times dozens of swimmers may be swimming the same event. This means that a number of swimmers will not earn GRAL ribbons. Parents are encouraged to help their child to not focus on the GRAL ribbons, but rather on the week-to-week improvement in his/her individual stroke and times.

Check out the link for the Parent Handbook, which also has lots of good info and explains more specifics regarding the structure of meets. We highly suggest you skim through it for more info. 

Swim meets require many volunteers and usually each family has to help with one half in some way. The most common job is timer, but there are other jobs as well. 

Also, one last thing...summer evenings are notorious for thunderstorms. It seems that is especially true for Wednesdays when we hold meets. If there is lightning or thunder, the meet is automatically delayed 30 minutes from the last rumble or flash. Everyone will wait at their cars and if we think the weather will pass, we wait...sometimes a long time. Updates will be sent via the band app. If it doesn't pass, we have to cancel and then reschedule to come back, usually on Thursday evening. It can be frustrating, but it is just a reality of summer swim. If there is a delay at the start of the meet, delays will continue until 8:30pm unless it's determined that a postponement is the proper course of action. GRAL requires that meets begin no later than 8:30pm. Swim meets must end no later than 11:30pm regardless of the event and the rest of the meet should be finished on the rain date.