Swamp Foxxes Home Page

TSA Meet Overview
(condensed from the TSA website)

A meet consists of 66 events, 20 relays and 46 individual events. Swimmers are divided into six age groups and divided by gender. Six-under swimmers swim 15 yards to a rope stretched across the pool. The 7-8 and 9-10 age groups swim one pool length, or 25 yards. The 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18 age groups swim 50 yards. Each event is divided into heats so that all swimmers can participate. However, points are only awarded in the first heat, the Main Event.

A six-under swimmer is limited to swimming in two individual main events, but may swim a third stroke in a heat. Six-under swimmers do not swim relay or butterfly stroke events. Swimmers in all other age groups are limited to three main events but may swim their fourth stroke in a heat. Meets begin with home team warm-ups from 5-5:30pm, followed by visiting team warm-ups from 5:30-6pm.

In preparation for the meet, the coach fills out heat sheets that list which swimmer will swim in what lane for every event of the meet. The team will provide listings to the Kid Pushers so that they know who to push. Often these sheets need to be reworked just before the meet starts because of no-shows. The order of events is always the same (as listed on the Meet Results page), beginning with the 7-8 boys medley relay.

Things get started when the Announcer calls for the "7-8 boys medley relay main event" to report to the Clerk of Course. The Kid Pushers, having already rounded these boys up, sends them over to their assigned starting blocks. The coach gives the heat sheet for the event to the Clerk of Course, who then verifies that the swimmers are where they are supposed to be.

The Timers, Place Judges, and Recorder stand at the end of the pool where the event finishes. This is at the middle of the pool for six-under events, the opposite end from the starting blocks for 7-8 and 9-10 events and at the starting end for all other events. After the Clerk of Course has checked the swimmers, a Runner takes the heat sheets to the Recorder.

Once the Clerk of Course indicates that the swimmers are ready, the Starter checks that the Timers, Place Judges, and Recorder are ready. He starts the event by telling the swimmers to "step up" and "take your mark". He then sounds the horn to start the race.

The Timers start their stopwatches when the strobe flashes (or the horn sounds if there is no strobe) and stop it when the swimmer in their lane touches the wall (or crosses the rope for 6 & unders). The Judges are each assigned a place to judge. For example, the 3rd place judge is only responsible for determining which swimmer came in 3rd Place. The judge then indicates to the Recorder which lane came in third.

The Recorder then writes the finishing position of each swimmer on the heat sheets and also marks the time of the first place finisher. Occasionally two judges will indicate the same lane. The Recorder must determine which placement is correct or indicate that they tied by placing a "T" next to both names on the heat sheet.

The Runner takes the completed heat sheets from the Recorder and takes them to the Scorer. The Runner must also look at the two Stroke and Turn Judges. If either of them has their hand raised, a swimmer has been disqualified and the Runner must pick up the disqualification form and deliver this along with the heat sheets to the scoring table.

The Scorer sits at the scoring table and receives the heat sheets and disqualification forms from the runner. At times, the Scorer will notice a discrepancy in the forms (ie. missing place position) and must immediately ask for clarification from the Recorder through the Runner. The Scorer writes the places and times on the final tally sheet. Points are assigned to each team: 5, 3, and 1 point(s) for first, second, and third place in individual events and 5 points for first place in relay events. In the event of a tie, points are split evenly between the two swimmers (4 points each for a first place tie, 2 points each for a second place tie and 1/2 point each for a third place tie).

During the course of the meet the Scorer also keeps track of swimmers with multiple first place finishes and also notes new pool and team records. When done, the Scorer passes the heat sheets to the ribbon table.

The Ribbon Writers write the swimmers’ names and times on the appropriate ribbons for each Main Event. The ribbons are placed in envelopes and given to the coaches at the conclusion of the meet. For all heats (not Main Events) Ribbon Distributors pass out heat winner and participant ribbons directly to the swimmers at the conclusion of their event.

Due to the large number of participants, meets can take up to four hours. In order to keep the meet as short as possible, events are likely to be started before the entire process has been completed for the previous race. However, everything generally runs smoothly if each team comes prepared.