Swim Meet Recap: How Meets Work, A Note on Resiliency and Reminders

Thanks for everyone who came to the swim meet on Saturday. To be honest, everything seemed to be a little off on Saturday. There was a few glitches with our computer system, a lot of swimmers not ready for their races and some errors with the high point awards. So in an effort to try to fix this for the next swim meet I would like to go over some information about the meets and how they work.

1. ENTRY FORMS: Meet entry forms are found online. They need to be printed off at home and turned in. You can get them on the Aquadawg Website or on this blog-- either on the top bar or on a meet reminder blog post. Entry forms are always due to me the Thursday before the meet. If swimmers do not fill out an entry form they will not be entered in the meet. 
2. HOW MANY EVENTS: Swimmers are allowed to swim up to four events. There are five events possible for each swimmer to swim but they are only allowed to swim up to four. If swimmers email Deb asking to be in the meet because they forgot to turn in their form they are automatically entered in all five events. If this happens, swimmers will have to pick four events out of those five to swim at the meet.
3. WHEN TO BE READY FOR YOUR RACE: At the meet each swimmer is assigned a heat and lane for each event. The heat and lane assignments are posted on the WEST side wall by the kiddie pool. Swimmers need to be at the starting side of the pool the event before their race. It is helpful it parents are aware and help get their kids to the starting side on time. Our meets run much faster if we do not have to wait for kids because they are not ready. 
4. HIGH-POINT: High point and runner up high point are given to the top two swimmers that score the most points in the meet. After the swimmers swim their races their times are split into girls and boys and places are assigned for each age group based on times. 1st place receives 20 points 2nd-18 points 3rd-16 points 4th-15 points and so on...After the meet all the point totals are added up for each swimmer. The top two swimmers with the most points receive high point. It is hard for swimmers to receive high point if they do not swim all four events. 
5. QUESTIONS: As always, if you have any questions please EMAIL Deb: djrothstein@vosymca.org. This is the best way to reach her. If you ask the front desk swim team specific questions it is likely they will not know the answer.

To the swimmers who didn't improve time, had a rough meet, or just want some good post meet reading I would suggest this article:

R is for Resiliency

It has some valuable information on getting through those rough mental moments. Also if you are feeling negative about how the meet went, please let me know at practice and we can talk about what we can do to improve this experience.

Although the swim meet wasn't perfect, there was some very positive things I did notice. I saw many swimmers being aware of their times as well as implementing things we learned in practice in their races. This made me so proud and excited to continue working in practice and getting ready for our next meet. Go Aquadawgs!

TO SEE THE MEET RESULTS CLICK HERE.

REMINDERS:

• REGISTRATION FOR OUR NEXT SEASON IS GOING ON NOW! Swimming is a year round sport! The pool is heated! I would love to keep the momentum we have going so please sign up to continue. Our next season is October 14-December 21. This season all our groups are full and we expect a big group to continue so sign up ASAP spaces are limited. 
• NEXT SWIM MEET is OCTOBER 4th! Meet entires are due Thursday October 2nd at practice. It is our last swim meet of the season. 
• Follow the Aquadawgs on Instagram @ymcaaquadawgs