Oak Creek Orcas - Meet Basics

SWIM MEETS

Meets are held Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meets may involve two or three ISL teams.

WHAT TO BRING

ARRIVAL & SIGN-IN

Swimmers are expected to arrive by 7:45 a.m
Parent volunteers are expected to arrive by 8:30 a.m. (Volunteers on the set-up, sign-in, and concessions crews will be assigned an earlier arrival time.)
Swimmers must check-in at the Orcas sign-in table where a parent volunteer will write the swimmer's events on his/her forearm with a Sharpie marker (it comes off easily with alcohol)
- Please have children apply sunblock AFTER having their events written on their arm
Parents must check in at the Volunteer Tent to confirm their job assignments
Swimmers report to coaches - coaches will give instructions regarding warm-up
- warm-up starts at 8 a.m.

READY BENCH

Once the meet starts at 9:00 a.m., swimmers will be called by event numbers to the ready bench area.
- Ready bench volunteers will put the swimmers in the correct event, heat, and lane order
- It is the parents' responsibility to make sure their swimmer arrives at the ready bench area prior to their event. (Arriving late could result in a missed event!)
Near the front of the pool there is a pole with rotating numbers - The number displayed refers to the event that is being called to the ready bench.
- If the placard number is 28, all swimmers participating in events 28 and less (e.g. 27, 26, 25) should proceed immediately to the ready bench
- The ready bench can be a very busy and crowded place. Parents of young children may want to walk their kids to the ready bench to make sure they get there on time
  - Once there, we ask that you leave your child in the care of the ready bench volunteers. It is the volunteers' responsibility to supervise the swimmers and walk them to the starting blocks for their event.

ORDER OF EVENTS

A swim meet consists of 68 events performed in a consistent order
Events are grouped by stroke and arer epeated through all age groups, starting with 5-6 Girls and ending with 15-18 Boys.

DISQUALIFICATION (DQ)

ISL rules govern the conduct of all swim meets
Swimmers may be disqualified if they are swimming a stroke incorrectly and if the stroke error results in a material advantage.
Disqualification is not intended to punish swimmers but is meant to underscore the importance of swimming a stroke correctly
- For ages 5-8 only, disqualified techniques will be noted but ribbons will still be awarded during the "soft DQ" period. For age 5-6 , this is the first 4 meets of the season. For age 7-8, this is the first 2 meets of the season.
Developing swimmers DQ often - it is part of learning competitive swimming
- Remember that ALL swimmers DQ at some point (year-round, highschool, college swimmers)
- Make it a learning experience!

CLEAN UP

After the meet is over, it is critical to clean the pool area
It is each family's responsibility to clean up after itself
- Please return chairs to their proper place, have your kids pick up small pieces of trash, and in general do what you can to make the place look nice.

ISL CHAMPIONSHIP MEET

ELIGIBILITY
- be a league member in good standing
- participate in at least 3 dual or tri-meets
- competed in 4 events cumulatively during the current season
The Championship meet is a time qualifying meet BUT...
- ANY swimmer who did not qualify may be entered in up to 1 individual event and up to 2 relays by his/her coach
PARENT COMMITMENT
- At Champs, every ISL team is assigned a different volunteer job
- If your child participates in the ISL championship meet, one parent will be asked to work one (1) half of the meet
- Details will be made available in early August.
Find ISL qualifying times at:
- https://www.irvineswimleague.org/championships/championship-qualifying-times/

Privacy Statement