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About Swim Meets

Why Participate in a Swim Meet?

  1. They are fun.  Yes really a GIANT play date, but your house stays clean.
  2. Incredible learning environment.  While the races are short and the number of laps they do is much less than a practice, your child is an engaged learner. Your child will be more interested in receiving coaching from us because there is a meet and they want to do well. Versus practice where another adult is telling them what to do.
  3. During warm-ups your child is receiving coaching.  This is another practice for your child with teaching.  Many youth sports are now offering private lessons, which affect your pocket book.  Here your child receives additional coaching without you having to pay.
  4. The meets are FREE for you.  Our team pays for each swimmer's league fees.  A swim meet is an entire day of fun for your family!
  5. Your family finds a place to belong with the Amador Polar Bears.  The Amador Polar Bears is not about fitting in, which is usually about hustling for other people's approval.  Instead at the Amador Polar Bears swimmers are accepted for who they are and belong in our community. 
  6. Your child will develop confidence.  Getting up on the block, walking onto the pool deck, racing across the pool. Your swimmer does this.  They get to be proud for what they are accomplishing.  
  7. Your child will develop resilience.  Will they get disappointed?  Absolutely.  Raising hopeful children is from learning how to move through the disappointment.  It is not about making sure your child is never disappointed. “Raising children who are hopeful and who have the courage to be vulnerable means stepping back and letting them experience disappointment, deal with conflict, learn how to assert themselves, and have the opportunity to fail. If we’re always following our children into the arena, hushing the critics, and assuring their victory, they’ll never learn that they have the ability to dare greatly on their own.” ~Brené Brown
  8. Your child gets to develop courage.  They are going to fall.  And they will learn they can get back up.  They will learn to go beyond their mental limitations of what is possible for them.  They will lean on courage.  And in this world we all need courage.
  9. Your child learns to take care of themselves and personal responsibility.  For the younger swimmers, that means taking care of their goggles.  Drinking water at meets to hydrate.  Through the older swimmers - being responsible to take care of their equipment, pack up for meets, put on sunblock, nourish their bodies with fluids and food, get a good night sleep the night before.

Declare Attendance for Swim Meets

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When the summer calendar is ready and you know your summer schedule, you can "declare attendance" for all of the swim meets your child will attend. Declaring your attendance is easy. You will need your Team Unify username and password.

  1.  ​Visit amadorpolarbears.com or OnDeck
  2. Login using your Team Unify username and password  
  3. Under the Swim Meets, select Declare Attendance. 
  4. Check the box(es) next to the meet(s) you wish to attend. 
  5. You can change your declarations at any time.  If you find that you are able/unable to attend a meet, simply return to Team Unify and update your declaration information. This is especially important if you are NOT able to attend a meet for which you registered. 
  6. As we approach the meet date, the coaches will receive the final roster and enter the swimmers in the meet. 
  7. Draft entries will be emailed out to the ENTIRE team the week of the swim meet. Be sure to confirm you swimmer is registered for the meet.  If there are any problems contact us immediately.

IMPORTANT: If you have more than one child you MUST sign up each child using their individual account.

 

Volunteer

Amador Polar Bears  is a nonprofit organization and strives to keep swimming costs affordable for all.  To meet that goal, meets are run solely by volunteers - meaning parents - meaning you. Therefore it is very important and mandatory on our team that if your child swims in a meet, you must take a volunteer position. 

 

Leading up to the meet, you will receive an email from our volunteer coordinator asking you to sign-up for a volunteer position.  Please do so.  The sooner we get things done before the meet, the easier it is on the day of the meet.

 

Visit our Parent Volunteers page for more information about volunteering at the swim meets.

 

At the Meet

 

Arrival time: Normally anywhere from 7am to 7:15 am. A day or two before the meet, you will receive a notification from the team indicating arrival and warm-up times.

 

Check-in: There will be “a check in person” at the entrance. It is very important to be there on time since the computer people will make event/heat program based on check in. If you are running late or cannot make the meet, please text the team through Remind right away. ALL SWIMMERS MUST CHECK IN OR SCRATCHED before they can run the program.

 

After check-in: swimmers need to go to appropriate Age Group Tent and get their assigned event # written on their arm. Then swimmer will find a coach for warm ups. Parents and guardians will set up ones’ area (tent, blanket etc), and go to their volunteer positions. (Timers, snack bar etc).

 

General Timeline: Meet normally starts at 8:30 and ends around 1pm.

 

Volunteer Shifts: There are usually two shifts in a given meet. First shift goes from the start of event # 1 to the end of event #43. Second shift starts at event # 44 through the end of the meet. We cannot give the exact start and end time for each shift. The shift change is driven by the events rather than time since we need to accommodate the events, heats, swimmers, changes, technical difficulties, etc.  It is important to remember that 1st shift people cannot leave their positions until they are relieved by 2nd shift people. All positions are important in a meet and need to be staffed for the meet to run properly and comply with swimming rules. Volunteers for both shifts need to be on-time and available until their shift ends.

 

Events: 

#1-11 Medley relay

#12-17 Individual Medley ( age 9 and up)

#20-31 Free Style

#32-43 Back strokes

#44-53 long Free style

#54-63 Breast strokes

#64-73 Butterfly

#74-83 Free style relay

 

Heats: a heat is order or a group which one swims within an event. For example, if you are in Event #32, heat one; you will be swimming in a first group of back stroke.

 

When to send a child to APB tent during a meet: APB’s job is to gather the group and take them to the ready bench. They are NOT responsible to babysit all swimmers during a meet. Please make sure to feed/hydrate/sunscreen swimmers. And please send your child to APB tent about 5 events prior to your child’s event.

 

What to bring to a meet: Shade (parasol, EZ up), Drink (water, lots of it), Sunscreen, Towels, cap/goggles, snacks, blankets, folding chairs, games, money. Often Host team has a snack bar where you can buy snacks and lunch so that you don’t have to pack early in the morning. BUT good to bring some snacks and plenty of water.

 

Competitive Swimming 101