Windsor Dolphins

In this section, we have included some common words and phrases you may hear often at swim practice and swim meets.

Feel free to read through and please never hesitate to reach out and ask questions!

SWIM VOCABULARY

Swim Meet

A swim meet is a competition between individual athletes or between two or more swim teams, organized by a swimming organization or governing body. Swim meets can be held in indoor or outdoor pools. Some swim meets also include a diving competition. The goal of competing is to finish your events as fast as possible, ideally to log a new personal best time or qualify for a larger meet, such as nationals.

If you are competing with a swim team, you will earn points for your overall place in each event. The team with the most points at the end of the meet wins the meet.

Event

An event is an individual swim race.

Events are broken down by distance (50, 100, 200), stroke (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly or I.M.) and oftentimes by age, gender and relay type. You will typically swim 1-5 events in a swim meet, and most meets have a limit to the number of events each swimmer is allowed to register for. You will never swim every event in a swim met.

Most swim meets number their events, and they typically go in a standard order unique to each swim league.

Heat

In each event, there can be many swimmers competing. Depending on the size of the pool, only a limited number of swimmers can race at a time. If a pool has six lanes, then six swimmers will race in the event at a time, which is called one “heat.” If there are 60 swimmers competing in the 100 freestyle event in that six-lane pool, there will be 10 heats.

Typically, the swimmers with the slowest seed (entry) times will will swim in the first heat, ending the with fastest swimmers in the last heat. Some formats use a circle seed, where swimmers of varying speeds are mixed up within heats.

If you win your heat, you may not have won the entire event. Be sure to check the official results sheet to see where you placed. Usually, official results will be posted within a few minutes of all heats concluding for that event.

Heat Sheets

This is where you find out what you’re swimming, when, and where. Most meets print these out and tape them on the pool walls. Some even sell them at the door for a few extra dollars.

Lane Number

This is your assigned lane in the pool that you will be racing in, during your heat. Typically, the fastest swimmers in each heat get assigned to the middle lanes.

Try to get to your lane at least 3-4 heats before your race for shorter events, and at least 1-2 heats before your race for longer events. Double check with the lane timers that you are in the right place (they will have a list of swimmers who are slated to swim in their lane that day).

Relay

A relay is typically a combination of four swimmers on the same team. The swimmers take turns completing parts of the race, typically 1/4 of the total distance. Relays are usually either freestyle or a medley.

A 200 freestyle medley means that swimmer #1 swims 50 yards freestyle, then swimmer #2 immediately swims the second leg, then swimmers #3 and #4 swim legs 3 and 4 consecutively. The fastest swimmer is responsible for the last “leg” of the race, and the entire group’s time is the final result of the race.

A medley relay is similar, but each swimmer is responsible for completing a different stroke of the I.M. Swimmer #1 does backstroke, swimmer #2 does breaststroke, swimmer #3 does butterfly, and swimmer #4 does freestyle.

Leg

A portion, normally one-quarter, of an individual event or relay event.

I.M.

Slang for individual medley, an event in which the swimmer uses all four competitive strokes in the following order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. The 100, 200 and 400 IM may be found at swim meets.

Scratch

Scratching an event is declaring that, while you are at the meet and intend to race, you will not be participating in a particular race.

SWIM FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How do I know what time I will be swimming?

Swim meet events do not typically run by the clock. Swim meets begin at a designated time, and proceed through the event list in consecutive order, regardless of how long it takes. It is up to you to know what events and heats you are competing in, and to be aware of the pace in which the meet is running at.

Look to the meet scoreboard (where the times for each swimmer appear) to see the event number and heat number, and cross-check with your heat sheet to understand when your events are.

Confused? Ask someone on the pool deck for help in understanding what heat it is.