Doris' First Swim Meet

Doris: Our family went to our first swim meet Tuesday evening and it was soooo confusing. You were there. Can you tell me what was going on? I could hardly find my child or keep track of when he was swimming!

Answerman: I know how you feel Doris. I don’t think my wife and I figured it out until our second season. There are 40 parents running around organizing and executing necessary duties; all that stuff will take a long time to understand, but the swim meet itself follows the same pattern. Tuesday evening was what our league calls a developmental meet. All eligible kids on the team who show up can swim two events. We have 188 kids this season and the other team had about the same number. That is what took so long. That’s a lot of swimming and over 300 swimmers to organize and keep track of. The meet starts with 6 and under boy’s freestyle followed by 6 and under girl’s freestyle. The age groupings are 6 and under, 8 and under, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15-18. The kids have multiple heats of each age group within the stroke starting with the boys, until they are all done. There can easily be 10 heats of 8 and under girl’s freestyle; you weren’t dreaming. The event order in summer swimming follows a predictable order: Freestyle, backstroke, breast stroke and butterfly. We finish with individual medley (25 meters each of butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, & freestyle; all swum by an individual swimmer) if we have time before 2 am closing time. (Just kidding).

Doris: OK. I guess that helps. But how can I find my son Ronny?

Answerman: The best way Doris is to volunteer as a team area parent or clerk of course. Ronny should be camped out in the team area between events. If you are working crowd control in there you can keep an eye on him and know where he is, what he is doing to others and when he is swimming. If you learn the “clerk of course” job, you will be lining up all the kids for their events. You will be the best informed person on the deck regarding who is where, since you control it! You will also learn a ton of behind the scenes stuff since the people who head up that group know everything and everybody.

Tom: Was it wrong of me to pray that the meet would be canceled due to thunderstorms since it was so hot and I wanted to watch TV instead?

Answerman: Yes Tom it is very wrong. That is just not the perky attitude one should have now is it?