Keene Trace Ducks

What to bring:

• Away meets - you may bring water, drinks, snacks, food for your family, cash for concessions
• Home meets - athletes may bring drinks and snacks for consumption during competition, but due to Keene Trace's pool & restaurant policy, all non-athlete food and drink needs to be purchased at The Landing Restaurant if it is to be consumed in the pool or restaurant area
• Print out the heat sheet when it is emailed (usually Wednesday by 1pm)
• Sharpie for writing events/heats on arms - and putting names on caps/shirts/goggles
• Goggles + back-up pair
• Swim Cap (if using)
• Camp Chairs 
• Sweats/warm clothes for early meets
• Sunscreen
• Neck fans/cooling towels
• Several Towels
• Team shirt/shorts (put name in shirt!)

Please take note—It might feel a bit overwhelming or chaotic if you are new to swimming or swim meets. Just hang in there and listen for instructions from Coaches and Clerk of Course and it will run smoothly.

Arrive at the host pool at the given time. Find a place to sit if you are not volunteering. Some pools have a team area for the swimmers, while others just have a team area for the families. Swimmers will warm up and then get ready to begin. Volunteers meet ~ 30 minutes prior to meet, usually about 5:30.

• 10 and under swimmers who only swim freestyle and backstroke are usually finished about 8:00pm. They are welcome to leave when they have finished swimming.
• If you are volunteering please note that you must volunteer for the entire meet, so make arrangements for your child to stay or have someone else take them home

A swim meet is much like a track meet. It consists of 60 Events with several “heats” in each event according to stroke and age.

• When you get a heat sheet at the beginning of the meet, please help your child remember his/ her event, heat, and lane by writing them on his/her arm.
• Write your child’s first initial and LAST name on his RIGHT shoulder, so the clerk of course can easily line him/her up. Some swimmers find it helpful to have a chart written on their arm where they can see it to keep track of their events.

Example: 

Grace’s Events:

Event # 14 - 50-meter Freestyle, Heat - 3, Lane 5
Event #46 - 50-meter Breaststroke, Heat 2, Lane 3

On your swimmer’s arm write:

E= Event

H= Heat

L= Lane

Coaches and more seasoned swim parents can also help with this if you need it

• If your child is on a relay: The medley relay is 4 swimmers each swimming a different stroke in this order - Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, Freestyle. (Alphabetical order) The freestyle relay is 4 swimmers all swimming freestyle.
• The Individual Medley (IM) is an event toward the end of the meet. This is when 1 swimmer will swim 1 length of each stroke (total of 4 lengths) in this order…. Butterfly, Backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle. (Different order than the Medley Relay).

*Swimmers can only swim in 4 individual events per meet.

CLERK OF COURSE (COC)

All 10 and under swimmers will need to report to clerk of course 3 events prior to the event they plan to swim. For example, Susie is going to swim event 5. Please take her to COC at event #2. At COC your swimmer will be lined up and taken to his/her lane.

All 11 and olders will be responsible for getting to the correct lanes in time to swim their event. They will not report to Clerk of Course at all. It is best for them to line up 2 Events before they swim. We will not be able to take time to find your swimmer if he/she is not present at the time of their event.

• We will help the 11 and 12s learn to line themselves up during the first meet