Sharks FAQs
Parent Meeting Presentation for 2023-2024
1) How do the meets work? There are 56 events, individual free style, individual back, individual breast, individual fly, medley relays, and free relays. The distances vary by age group with the 8 and 10 year olds swimming 25 yards and older kids swimming 50. The exceptions are the 12 year olds who swim 50 in individuals, but 25’s in their relay legs. The 17 & under free and medley relays must have at least two fourteen and under swimmers. Meets last about 2 hours.
2) How are meets scored? Individual events are scored 5 points for first, 3 for second, and 1 for third. Relays are scored 6 points for first and 1 for second. CYO rules prevent the sweeping of an event, so thebestyoucandois8–1or6–1. Ontheshortendofthestick,youonlygettheonepointifyou had a swimmer or team finish the event without being disqualified.
3) What about ribbons? Home teams provide the ribbons for each meet and not all teams do it the same. St. Williams gives first, second and third place ribbons for all events. Ribbons are awarded irrespective of the “no sweeping” rule, above, so in the case where one team actually sweeps they will get the ribbons, but not the point. Ribbons are usually available at the next practice after the meet.
4) How do you get disqualified? There are many ways to get “DQ’d” – doing the wrong stroke in the medley, illegal kicks, bad turns, hanging on the rope or the end of the pool, one hand touch in the fly or breast, more than one free style stroke coming in to the wall before the flip-turn in the back stroke, leaving too soon in the relays, etc. These are all judgment calls and the referees are often more lenient with the younger swimmers. You can tell when a team has been DQ’d because the referee will raise their hand. There are no points or ribbons for disqualified teams regardless of what place they appear to have finished. On the scoring sheets on the website, DQ’d lanes are indicated by a time of 8:88:88.
5) What does it mean to swim exhibition? Exhibition lanes don’t count toward the scoring in the meet and they do not receive ribbons. Sometimes when there aren’t enough kids in an age group to make a complete relay team we may have a swimmer from an older age group complete the relay team. The coaches will inform the official that the lane is swimming “exhibition.” We also add exhibition events to some meets (especially for the 8, 10 and 12 yr olds) to allow kids an opportunity to compete. When we swim in an 8 or 10 lane pool, the outside lanes are always exhibition lanes.
6) Why does St. William the Abbot have the best end of season party of any team? It’s a tradition.
7) Why do I have to swim back stroke when free is my best stroke? If your times in free style are 1 second better than another swimmer’s, but your times for back stroke are five seconds better, we may ask you do what’s best for the team. It’s a team sport, and its team depth that wins meets.
8) Why is my cap ruined after wearing it twice? You should rinse your cap in tap water, dry it, and if
you prefer, put a little talc in it after each use to extend its life.
9) How come my child was only in one event? The team is very large and we do our best to get
everyone into each meet, space permitting. Some swimmers can or will only do one stroke, which further limits their opportunities. All things equal, if one swimmer comes to all the practices and you don’t, the coaches will give the nod to the more dedicated swimmer. Don’t forget, too, we are trying to win the meets – we will put our best available swimmers together in one relay team so the strongest and most well-rounded swimmers will usually get in three events. At times, we may swim in a pool that is not large enough to accommodate all the swimmers. If this happens, we will contact the parents with an explanation, and ask for volunteers to skip a meet. We will make every effort to not let it happen twice to you in a season.
10) How come my child was only in one event and one of the lanes was empty in the relay? This happens for several reasons: an odd number of swimmers in an age group (we can’t fill twelve slots with 11 swimmers), a swimmer refuses to swim at the last minute, or, a family doesn’t show up and didn’t let the coaches know before hand.
11) Why did my child not get to swim in a race he or she was originally scheduled for? Most likely, your child missed out on an event because someone else in his or her age group failed to show up at the meet, and did not tell us they wouldn’t be here. We spend hours each week preparing for a meet, and, when someone simply doesn't show up, is causes a domino effect on the rest of the team. Sometimes one missing child will affect as many as 7 other children!
12) How do I get to be one of the best swimmers? Stick with it. Practice. Swim all year-round. Some kids start out strong when they’re young, other kids develop into great swimmers a little later. So keep swimming, have fun, and maybe we’ll see you in the Olympics one day!