The AAAAs, BBs, and QTs of Swimming

Swimmers of all ages have a diverse range of goals for their sport. These goals might be to learn how to swim a certain stroke or to make a certain time in an event by the end of the season. No matter what your goals are, swimming is excellent exercise and most swimmers see their lane buddies as part of their extended family. Here’s a primer on the alphabet soup of swimming, and how all these time standards work together and where to find them.

Swimmers enter new events with NT as their entry time. NT = no time. This just means you haven’t swam the event previously with a legal time. What’s a legal time? That’s when you finish without a DQ, for disqualification. DQs are made by officials who observe swimmers for any violations of the rules of swimming, and this is how kids learn to swim correctly. Coaches use these DQs to teach correct strokes. You can learn more about the rules of swimming by visiting this “news” post on the LCA website.

Swimming often uses qualification times, or QTs, for meet entry. Some meets are unclassified or open, which means that you don’t need any specific entry time to enter an event. When meets are open, you can enter with NT or any entry time. Sometimes coaches will estimate times so kids can compete against other swimmers who finish events in the same approximate time. Competing against other athletes who swim at the same pace is done through seeding, where swimmers are added to heats based on their entry times, with the fastest swimmers in each heat seeded in the middle lanes.

You can go to the USA Swimming times search page to see all of your swims, and use date filters and other settings to show only your best times. Another handy tool is to download the USA Swimming “Deck Pass” app, which lets you search for your times and see your current time standards for each swim. USA Swimming releases national age group motivational time standards (also called “NAGS times”) for dual-year age groups every four years; the current time standards will be in effect from 2021-2024. Time standards by age are classified as 10 & under, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, and 17-18, for girls and boys, in all swimming courses. The “course” refers to pool size—short course yards is a 25-yard pool (Lakeway pool), short course meters is a 25-meter pool (Lost Creek CC, Twin Creeks CC, and Milburn pools), and long course meters is a 50-meter pool (Northwest Pool, UT; sometimes also called an “Olympic distance” pool). These time standards can be used so you know how you are doing when compared to other swimmers your age. When you look at time standards, be sure you are looking at the times for the correct course. Right now we are competing in short course season, so you should look at time standards for short course yards. In the summer, swimming follows the long course season, when competitions are generally held in a long course pool.

So what’s the progression?

“Slower than B” just means that you aren’t ranked nationally yet. Some people call these “C” times. “C” meets are for swimmers who are new to the sport and still learning.

“B” is the first national time standard for age group swimmers (ages 18 and younger) and “AAAA” is the top national time standard for age group swimmers. The progression as swimmers get faster is B, BB, A, AA, AAA, and then AAAA. An “AA” time is faster than an “A” time, and so on.

Times based on national age group motivational time standards really just tell you how you rank against other swimmers in that event. For example, if you have an AAA time for your age and gender in an event, you are faster than most of the other kids in the U.S. for your age group and gender who are swimming that event.

We also use time standards for entry into a meet. Some meet hosts might put time standards on events to manage the meet’s timeline. For example, a meet host might require swimmers to have B times for some distance events so swimmers need to finish the event faster than a certain time. This requirement helps to restrict entry and control the meet timeline so that more swimmers can be allowed into the meet. By using time standards, the meet host can estimate and control the timeline more accurately.

In addition to national age group motivational time standards, swimming uses other time standards for swimmers to gain entry into higher-level meets. When time standards are used in this way, they are often called “cuts.” When a meet uses cuts to restrict meet entry, they are always published with the meet information. Swimmers should talk with their coaches to understand which meets they can attend and train for. Championship meets for swimmers during the short course season occur in January, February, and March; championship meets during the long course season occur in July and August. In each swimming season, most championship meets progress from slowest to fastest, in terms of entry times, and the meets offered each season are as follows:

South Texas Swimming B Championship: Qualifying times for all events are B times for your age group and gender; this meet is only held during the short course season (January). Times can be earned in yards or meters. This is the first of three age group (18 and younger) championship meets in South Texas Swimming. Kids going to this meet are sometimes new to swimming or swimming for approximately one season, and are generally 10 years and older.

South Texas Swimming STX Championship: Qualifying times for all events are BB times for your age group and gender in the short course season (February); in the long course season (July), qualifying times for all events are B & BB times for your age group and gender. Times can be earned in yards or meters. Most kids going to this meet are swimmers who have been competing for approximate one or two seasons (about one year) and are usually 10 years and older, although swimmers progress at their own rate. STX is the second championship meet, in terms of progressions, for ages 18 and younger.

South Texas Age Group Championship (STAGS): This is the top age group (18 and younger) championship meet in South Texas Swimming; this meet is held in February during the short course season and in July during the long course season. The qualifying time for all events is a STAGS time or faster for your age group and gender in yard or meters. Qualifying times at this meet are generally A and faster times. Swimmers earning STAGS times generally are the ones who have been very actively competing and participating in swimming for one or more years, although, of course, swimmers progress at their own rate.

Texas Age Group Championship (TAGS): This is the top championship meet for age group swimming (ages 14 and younger) in the state of Texas; this meet is held in early March during the short course season and in late July during the long course season. Texas is considered to have the fastest state age group championship in the country. The TAGS cuts are very fast and earning one puts you in an elite group of swimmers in your age group, not only in Texas, but in the U.S. Swimmers attending this meet are usually those who have been swimming for many seasons, and many years.

Sectionals: This is the first national meet; it is held in late February or early March during the short course season and in late July during the long course season. The U.S. is divided into swimming sections. Sectionals is the championship for each region in a section. LCA is in the Southern zone, and the Sectionals meet LCA attends includes swimmers from Texas and Louisiana. To compete at Sectionals, you need to earn the Sectionals cut or faster. Sectionals also uses “bonus” cuts to allow athletes with at least one Sectionals cut to enter the meet and swim one or two bonus events at the meet when they also have the minimum bonus time standard. You can’t enter Sectionals without at least one Sectionals cut. Some people call this a “hard cut.” To give you a better idea of how fast the TAGS meet is, some TAGS time standards are as fast as Sectionals bonus cuts or faster than Sectionals hard cuts, especially for girls.

Futures: This is the second national meet, and it is only held in the summer, usually in early August. Futures uses four entry zones and LCA competes in the Central zone. This meet might be hosted anywhere in the zone. Futures cuts are faster than Sectionals cuts. Swimmers must have the Futures cut to enter events at this meet.

Junior Nationals (also called “Juniors”): This is the third national meet for age group swimming (ages 18 and younger); this meet is held during the short course season in December and in early August during the long course season. Juniors is a very fast meet, and is divided into East and West zones; meets may be hosted anywhere in the zone. LCA participates in the West meet. You must have the Juniors cut to enter events at this meet.

Nationals (also called “Senior Nationals” or “Seniors”): This is the top national championship meet in the U.S. and has no age restrictions. In Olympic years, the Nationals meet is not held during the summer season; it is replaced by the Olympic Trials. You must have the National cut to enter events at this meet. Athletes ages 18 & younger can swim bonus events at this meet only if they have at least one National hard cut and the 18 & under bonus time standard. Nationals may be hosted anywhere in the U.S.

U.S. Olympic Trials: Held once every four years, this meet is held in June during Olympic years only to select athletes for the U.S. Olympic team. The top two finishers in each event are added to the U.S. Olympic team, with the third place finisher assuming a backup position in case a selected athlete is unable to attend. Athletes must have an Olympic Trials cut to enter events at this meet and there are no bonus events. Entry times for this meet, unlike other meets, are accepted only in long course meters times. The Olympic Trials cuts for the 2021 Olympics are posted here. Approximately 1,500 of the 350,000 USA Swimming athletes in the United States will qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in one or more events.