Parent INFO Page

So your child has made the decision to explore the sport of swimming.  The sport of swimming can offer many things that will benefit your child for years after they have stopped competing.  This section is to help parents with questions they may have as they get more involved with year round competitive swimming.

USA Swimming has a wealth of great information on their website for parents and swimmers:

http://www.usaswimming.org/usasweb/DesktopDefault.aspx

Go to the top menu and double click on parents. They have done a great job explaining the sport of swimming.

 Here are some tips from a seasoned swim parent:

Entering Meets:

·         Do not feel that you must go to every one of the meets on the schedule. Talk to your child's coach about which meets would be best for your child. Swim meets are a great way to track your child's progress.

·         Read the meet info sheet that will be posted on the Maryland Swimming website/or on our website. Be sure to note what time your children will be swimming: morning, afternoon, evening, or maybe all 3 if you have swimmers in more than one age group. Do you have any conflicts with items already on your calendar? Once you sign up for the meet, you will be charged the entry fees whether your child swims or not.

·         If you plan to attend meets more than 1 hour away, consider getting a hotel room. The host swim club website will have local hotels posted on their webpage. It is up to each parent to make their own reservations. The team does not block rooms for meets.

·         Respond before the deadline if you want your swimmer to attend the meet by clicking on the meet you wish to attend under the Upcoming events tab on the right hand side of the CBAC website: http://www.teamunify.com/Home.jsp?team=mscbac.You must enter each of your children separately. Some meets last for one day; others can be as long as 4 days. Do not wait until the last minute to enter your swimmers. 

·         The coaches will pick your child's events. Parents do not get to pick their child's events. Coaches have a plan for the season and make entries based on the goals they have for your swimmers. Coaches are open to suggestions.

·         Relays are a blast for the kids. Coaches will pick the swimmers who get put on relays. If you know you have time constraints and probably cannot stay for relays, please say so in the comments section when you sign up for the meet. Make sure that your swimmer checks with the coach about their relay status before you leave; often the relays get switched around at meets. If a swimmer leaves before a scheduled relay, not only do you leave 3 teammates high and dry but the team and ultimately the parents get charged for an event that is not swum. Relay swims can also offer the first swimmer an opportunity to try for a new standard.

Swim Bags and Packing for Meets:

·         Each swimmer should have a swim bag.

·         Label everything your child brings with them with their name and the team's name.

·         Swimmers MUST wear CBAC team apparel. Clothing that represents another team, High school, College, or Professional will not be allowed. 

·         If your child has asthma, make sure they have their inhaler. Make sure the coach knows they have asthma and where they keep their inhaler.

·         They should carry an extra pair of goggles, strap, cap and swim suit in their bag. It is more expensive to replace these at the meets if they should break and you need one fast. (Not all meets have vendors at them where you can make an emergency purchase.) Bring at least 2 large towels. Most swimmers like one for after warm-ups and then another one for after their events.

·         Bring water and a sports drink.

·         Bring healthy snacks like fruit, bagels, dry cereal, and eat them.

·         Bring a sweat suit or warm-up suit for when you are not swimming. Cold muscles do not perform as well. Cotton, when it gets wet, stays wet forever.

·         Bring flip-flops for the pool deck and showers. Swimmers need to protect their feet.

·         Pack alcohol ear drops and use them after each and every practice and your events at meets. (Do not leave your swim cap on all day. Your ears will not dry out and you will end up with swimmer's ear.)

·         Pack dry clothes for wearing home or going out to eat in large plastic bags so they stay dry.

·         A few dollars so you don't have to find a parent if you want something from the snack bar or concessions.

·         Something to keep them entertained. Make sure it is not something they will be too upset about if they lose it. If they bring electronics, remind them to put it away when they leave so someone will not walk on it or away with it.

Time Standards:

The time standards that we use are available on the Maryland Swimming website. There is a link to the Maryland Swimming site on our hope page. Standards are under the swimmers tab on the top of the main page. They will have 2009-2012 Motivational Times Top 16 and meet time standards such as the Maryland LSC championship qualifying times.

·         Your child must swim an event without getting disqualified to earn a time. Then you take that time and look at the times standard table. First must make sure that you use the correct table. Times are reported in yards (SCY), short course meters (SCM) and long course meters (LCM). Most of the meets we have in the fall and winter will be SCY. Find your child's age and sex and then look down the list for their event. Now find their time. If their time is slower than the first time listed they are considered to have a "C" time.

·         If you have an 8 and younger swimmer, they use the 10 and younger time standards.

·         Time standards are used as high and low parameters for some meets.

·         Coaches sometimes will enter a coach's time if they do not have a time in an event. This is a guesstimated time.

Meet Etiquette:

·         Arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the warm-up time that is posted for the meet. Young swimmers should come ready to swim by being in their suits. Look for a CBAC coach and tell your child to check in with the coach. Not all coaches go to every meet so learn the names of coaches other than your own. Swimmers will need their swim bag, cap, goggles, and towel.

·         Parents are not usually allowed on deck at meets. The swimmers are usually kept on deck with a coach. If you feel that you really must be on deck, become trained as an official or volunteer to time. If you think that your child is not old enough to be without you, maybe you should reconsider entering them in meets.

·         Timing assignments can be requested on our website when we host meets. If you choose to time, be sure that you show up on time. If for some reason you cannot time in your allotted slot, you are responsible for finding your replacement. You should wear shoes that will not be ruined if they get wet.

·         Be sure that you attend the timer's briefing at the beginning of the session. They will introduce you to the head timer and tell you what to do if your watch does not start. Timers are extremely important to swimmers. Most pools we go to have electronic timing systems. Watch times are for back up and have been used many times when we have system failures.

·         Swim meets can be very long and very boring if you do not have something to do. If you are bringing siblings be sure to bring entertainment for them also.

·         Talk to other CBAC parents at practice and become their friend. Ask for help if you do not understand something. Get phone numbers of other swimmers and their families in case of emergencies to help with meets.

·         Most indoor pools and surrounding decks are notoriously warm. Bring clothes to change into that would be appropriate for summer. Some are cool, be prepared either way.

·         Often there is an area where you can set up chairs or blankets outside of the pool area. You must bring your own. Do not bring items that you would be upset about if they go missing or if someone else walks on them.

·         Bring food. If you buy all of your food from the concessions stands, you will quickly go broke. Pack lunch boxes with nutritious snacks and lots of drinks. Limit the amount of money they get each day to spend at the concession stand. Not every pool has a concession stand. Bring water or drinks for yourself also. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed by USA Swimming rules.

·         Pack a permanent marker and a highlighter pen.

·         Buy or borrow a heat sheet and write you child's event, heats, and lanes on their hand with a permanent marker. The host team usually has them for sale for about $5-10.

·         Some of the meets will have Clerk of Courses set up for younger children (12 and younger). At these meets, the younger swimmers must report to the Clerk of Course before heading to the blocks for their events. Check with the coach about whether the meet you are attending will have a Clerk of Course.

·         Meets are opportunities to measure how your swimmer is doing in their training at that moment. Everyone occasionally has a bad swim or meet. If your child is DQ'd (disqualified), it is not the end of the world. Almost every swimmer has been disqualified at least once. As a parent you must ensure that your child has a positive experience even if they do not swim well. Remember that our children learn values and sportsmanship from us. Coaches go to meets to coach and parents should go to meets to cheer, offer love and encouragement.

How to mark a Hand at Meets:

The strokes are abbreviated with the following initials: FR - freestyle, BK - backstroke, BR - breaststroke, FL - fly and IM for individual medley. One way to mark events is to draw, with permanent makers, a small graph on their hand using just the initials for each of the following:

This really helps the younger swimmers get to the right lane. Anyone can look at their hand and help them.

Some of the older swimmers only put the event/heat/lane.

Meet Hosting:

CBAC hosts several meets each year to help raise money for the team. Every family is expected to contribute to the running of our home meets. There will be a work sign up on our web page under Upcoming Events. Running meets is vital to the future health of our swim club, and there are many jobs so we need everyone’s help.

Jobs that you can volunteer for are:  concessions; selling meet programs; head timer (starting 2 watches and then looking for timers that failed to start their watch so you can run to their lane and replace it with one of yours); runner (collecting lane timer cards after each event); meet marshall (ensure the safety of swimmers and spectators), ribbons (stick labels on ribbons and medals); post results; hospitality for coaches and officials; bring water to timers, officials, and coaches on deck; meet set-up and meet clean-up. There is much work that goes into meets before, during, and after.

Practice etiquette for swimmers:

·         Arrive early for practice and greet your coach upon arrival to the pool.

·         Stretch, tie your suit and adjust your goggles and cap before the starting time of your water practice.

·         Start and finish all swims at the wall. Do not stop in the middle of the lane or on the wall in the middle of a set.

·         Encourage all swimmers in your lane to push themselves beyond their ‘comfort zone.’

·         Do not stop in between sets. If you have to use the rest room or stretch do it before or after sets, NOT DURING.

·         Strive to use perfect stroke technique throughout practice, even more when you are fatigued.

·         Remember you will swim in meets the way you swim in practice.