FAQ

How do I sign-up for swim meets?
Swim meet information will be posted on the Meet Information page of the website. The first page usually contains the dates, times of warm-ups and competition, and the site for the meet. The fees for competition can be found on subsequent pages. The event order will be listed on the last few pages of the document. To complete the sign-up process you will need a meet sign-up envelope. Coaches will be handing these envelopes out at the pool 2-3 weeks before the meet depending on how quickly meet information becomes available to the coaches. The coaching staff will pick suggested events for the swimmer. If you have questions about events that were selected please email the coach or talk to the coach after practice. Some events may seem difficult and intimidating, but the coach has the best intentions for picking events. Please return the envelope to the coach with a check for all meet fees. Please remember there is a $10 processing fee for each swimmer entered in a meet and all checks are made payable to ACAC.

Do I need to be at the meet for warm-ups?
Warm-ups are a very important part of swim meets. We generally ask swimmers to be at swim meets 15 minutes before the scheduled start of warm-ups. We run swimmers through stretches before we get into the water. We also try to establish a team area for the swim meet. Swimmers need to acclimate themselves to the pool temperature, the end walls, the lane width, the ceiling patterns, and the starting blocks. Swimmers also need to get themselves into the competitive frame of mind. All of this can happen during the 30-50 minute warm-ups that are scheduled for the meet.
Warm-ups can be very crowded. If your swimmer is late to warm-ups we most likely will not have room for your swimmer to complete their own warm-ups. They may have to warm-up in a different lane, at a different time, or with another team.
Warm-ups can, and most often are, split for large meets. Split warm-ups means that half of the teams will warm-up for a shortened period of time and the other half will warm-up for the other shortened half of warm-ups.
Afternoon warm-ups are termed: “…will not start before (given time).” Swim meets are run at about 4 hours per session. There are many variables that can affect the finish time of a session. If the morning session finishes early the afternoon warm-ups will not start before the given time. If the morning session finishes late the afternoon warm-ups could be delayed as much as 30-45 minutes. If the morning session starts to run too long some swim meets will start to cancel events to keep to the timeline. Please plan accordingly to accommodate for certain variables in the timeline.
Warm-up breaks during the meet are governed by timeline and importance of the meet. You will probably see scheduled warm-up breaks before most distance events as they are at the end of a session time permitting. Other warm-up breaks can be added to the meet. The later in the season, the more important the meet, the more likely you will see warm-up breaks to accommodate swimmers. Coaches will push for warm-up breaks during end of season meets for swimmers and will discourage them during the season as meets during the season are seen more for training purposes to prepare for season ending meets.  

What is proper etiquette as a parent/spectator?
A: There will be a seating area for parents and spectators. Please locate the ACAC parents as the more you sit with them the louder our cheering section will be. The first thing you will want to do as a parent is purchase a heat sheet. You will be able to find the heat and lane that your swimmer will be competing in. You could look at a friend’s heat sheet, but swim meets are fundraising events for the host club. Please support their team as we are hoping that those clubs will purchase heat sheets at our swim meets. If your swimmer is 12 or younger, or you swimmer has been competing for less than a year you will need to write their events on their hands. This reference will help your swimmer to make it to the correct heat and lane for their events. Please use a permanent marker as regular pen will wash off quickly in the chlorinated water.
Cheering is not required, but your kids will appreciate you giving them some encouragement as they swim. Please cheer for other ACAC swimmers and friends from other teams of your swimmer’s. Do not ever cheer against another swimmer. Do not wish them to swim slowly or cheer for your swimmer to beat another. That is not good sportsmanship and teaches your swimmer the wrong values. That also portrays ACAC in a negative manner and does not reflect the values and wishes of the coaching staff. The coaching staff will cheer for swimmers of other teams. The better they perform, the more competitive we have to be, the better your swimmer will be.
Please encourage your swimmers to sit with the team instead of sitting with you. The more your swimmer interacts with the other swimmers the more they will develop the social network that will help them to stay interested in the sport. They may want to sit with you because they are intimidated by some of the other swimmers on the team that they don’t know, but after a few meets most teammates generally get along and enjoy the experience of hanging out with friends.
Bring something to keep yourself occupied as your swimmer may only swim 4 times in 4 hours. That gives you plenty of down time.
It is amazing to see parents excited about their swimmers performances and that they care for their swimmer. It is true that your swimmer may perform better today because of comments and criticism’s that YOU may interject. YOU may even have them swim faster because YOU told them to not breathe inside the flags or YOU may have told them to hold a certain pace. However, in the long run you will be hindering them and could prevent them from reaching their full potential. There are two main reasons for this. The first reason is that what you are telling them might be contradictory to what the coach has told the swimmer. The swimmer may be confused about what to do. In most cases the swimmer will either try to combine what the parents and coach are saying or lean in the direction of the parent. The coaching staff is trying to look out for the swimmers best interests in the long term as far as the season is concerned and may even be planning for several years down the line. The other result is that your swimmer may end up emotionally worn out because they hear from the coach and the parent what they need to improve. This result will not happen suddenly but will slowly get worse over time. The swimmer will ultimately become disinterested in competing and swimming altogether.
The second reason that coaching your swimmer may hinder them is that swimmers need to figure some things out for themselves. Experience is the best teacher. The foundation of success is failure. If swimmers never get a chance to do something wrong or to fail then they will never learn how to overcome obstacles. It hard to coach swimmers in the Senior levels who do not understand how to try new concepts. It is hard to coach swimmers in the Senior levels who do not understand their own technique because they were never aloud the chance to experience the right and wrong ways to do it. If swimmers can learn by experience what works and what doesn’t early in their career, they might be a little slower and might drive you crazy with their mistakes now, but in the long run they will be much faster and more successful. 

What does my swimmer need to bring to a meet?
Swimmers will need at least two towels as they get soaked quickly. Swimmers need ACAC team shirts or appropriate team clothing. Coaches will be asking swimmers to wear clothing during the meets as we do not want swimmers to be cold. Please bring extra clothing to the meet. Swimmers will need two caps, two suits, and two goggles. Back-ups are essential in case something fails them. Finally, swimmers will need either food or money to buy food, and a water bottle to keep hydrated.  

What should my swimmer eat?
Swimmers should be eating food that is light but will remain with them for several hours. A well balanced meal several hours before the meet is recommended. Swimmers should have access to bagels, fruit, granola bars, or energy/meal replacement bars at meets. Swimmers should avoid candy, simple sugars, caffeine, and energy drinks as they will give instant energy to the swimmer but they will crash after their sugar high.  

What does Disqualified mean?
All swimmers will be disqualified at least once in their swimming career. A disqualification is more like a reminder of what a swimmer needs to work on. The swimmers time will not count and they will not be eligible for awards or points. A disqualification may be devastating to a swimmer the first few times that it happens, but this is a normal phenomenon is swimming and will help a swimmer learn the rules of competitive swimming. 

What is a Q-time?
To compete at the State swim meet swimmers will need to achieve a Q-time. Q-times can be achieved at any swim meet during the season. Times achieved in long course are transferable to short course and vice versa. A link to the list of Q-times is available on the ACAC website. If your swimmer competes in a Q plus meet during the year your swimmer will need either all Q-times or at least one Q-time for the day that they are competing. Please check the meet information. If your swimmer competes in a Q minus meet during the year your swimmer can only compete in events that for which they do not have a Q-time. Regionals is a Q minus meet.