Last updated on November 11th, 2023 at 04:30 pm
Looking to make your next swim meet time-wise and athlete-friendly? Start by carefully evaluating your meet event list. Swim meet event lists can vary greatly. Meet planners make decisions when determining the event list. An important step in the decision-making process is to identify factors that could affect the outcome. Creating an athlete-friendly meet that fits into an allotted time frame is one goal of many meet hosts. This post identifies factors that might influence the length of the meet. Additionally, it points out ways to meet athlete needs. Because of the wide variety of host goals and situations, it is not a comprehensive list of everything. However, it provides a good starting point and teaches principles that widely apply.
Contents for Time-Wise and Athlete-Friendly Swim Meets
Factors Which May Affect Swim Meet Length
Picking events to offer at a swim meet is an important part of the meet planning process. Meeting athlete needs is of prime importance. However, it is also important to consider meet length. Below are some factors to weigh when choosing which events to offer and create meets that are both time-wise and athlete-friendly.
Facility Related
- Available Pool Time: How long is the facility available for the meet? Meet hosts often pay for pool-time by the hour. An event list for a two-hour meet will differ from that used for a four-hour or multi-session meet.
- Number of Lanes Used for Competition: How many lanes are available for competition? More lanes mean fewer heats for the same total number of swimmers. This is great when a lot of swimmers will be there. However, fewer lanes may be preferred if athlete numbers are lower. Why? It allows the swimmers more time to rest between races.
Event-Related
- How Many Events Can Each Athlete Enter: More events = more time. On the other hand, swimmers, and parents need to feel it is worth their time and money to come to the meet. If not, they won’t come.
- Note: The governing body may have a set meet entry limit. Entry limits can apply per session, day, or meet type. For example, the limit may vary if the meet runs as a prelims/finals or timed finals.
- Number of Events Offered: All things being equal, more events will take more time.
- Mixed Age and/or Gender Events: Are the same length/same stroke events offered to different ages and/or genders? Some meet hosts offer mixed age and gender events to save time. This type of event saves time because of seeding stipulations. The first heat, in meets where heats run slowest to fastest, often has empty lanes. All things being equal, fewer first heats = more efficiently used pool time = shorter swim meet time. However, there are other factors to consider before choosing to offer mixed gender, mixed-age events. Consider whether this event format best serves the attending athletes.
- Event Length: The length of the events offered sometimes has more impact on meet length than the number of events offered. There is a reason why many meet hosts offer long-distance events as a separate session. It can be tempting to only offer shorter events. However, many athletes need longer events. Remember, the meet is for the athletes. Fortunately, workarounds exist.
- One “Stop-Loss” Strategy: Limit Number of Heats Offered: If specified in the meet announcement, the meet host can limit the number of heats offered. For example: “The swimmers with the fastest 32 times will swim the 400 Individual Medley event.” Or, “Two heats of the 1500 meter Freestyle will be swum. The first sixteen swimmers entered may swim that event.” This strategy is not suggested for championship-type meets where athletes earn the right to compete by achieving a qualifying time.
Session Related
A viable option to a multi-session, multi-day meet is a series of several shorter, coordinated swim meets. In this type of meet series, not every meet offers every event. But the host offers all available events over the course of the series.
Athlete Related
- Q-Times Needed for Season Culminating Meets: Which events do athletes need qualifying times (Q-times) for their season-ending meets? Are all the needed events offered throughout the season? If not, does the meet host need to offer them at this meet? Be aware that events offered at season culminating meets may differ based on the age of the athlete.
- Number of Swimmers: How many swimmers will be attending?
- Level of Swimmers: If other factors are equal, faster swimmers yield faster meets. Meets offering shorter distance events often work great for newer or younger swimmers.
Officials and Meet Administration Related
- How Experienced are Your Officials and Key Admin People? More experienced people typically run swim meets more efficiently. They also tend to have experience troubleshooting, problem-solving, and perhaps more importantly: problem-preventing.
- Will a Full Team of Officials and Meet Workers be Available to Help, or Will a Few People be Filling Several Roles? If a few people fill many roles, it will likely take more time.
- Volunteer Organization and Training: Typically, well-organized and well-trained volunteers function faster.
- Will Timers Move: Are there any 1 length events? If so, will timers need to move? This will take extra time. Factor the time it takes for them to move into your plans. Remember to do this for each event they move.
- One way to avoid this delay is to have a second set of timers, stopwatches, and lane timer sheets for the one length events. Additionally, it helps to provide extra leadership and coordination to help this run efficiently.
Governing Body Regulation
- USA Swimming Four-Hour Rule: Consider offering Senior, or 13 and over event(s) at the end to satisfy the USA Swimming Four-Hour Rule. (See the current rulebook for rule details.)
Summary
Meeting the needs of athletes and having a time-wise meet are two important goals to work towards when planning a swim meet. Therefore, it is vital to find factors that might negatively affect these outcomes. Once found, you can work to mitigate them through a well-planned event list. Putting forth the extra effort to prepare a good swim meet event list can yield great results!
Preparing for a swim meet? Check out The Ultimate Swim Meet To-Do List. Then, get a bird’s eye view of Who does What at Swim Meets. Both include easy-to-follow links to related information. Doing a smaller, simpler meet? Host a High School or Developmental Swim Meet will help.
Need more help? See 20+ Ways to Get Swim Meet Timers and Officials: 20+ Ways to Get them for Swim Meets.
Also, discover a few things you can do to Increase Safety at Swim Meets. Find ideas to implement before your meet as well as last-minute quick and easy tips!
Love the idea of limiting the number of heats for some of your longer events and then your suggestions on how to facilitate that.