FAQ’s
Open meets
Why enter open meets?
- To put all the training into practice
- To gain a legal qualified time
- To get a PB (personal Best)
- To gain a qualifying time for other meets
- To watch and gain experience from older swimmers
- To see your progression
- To make more friends in the club
- To have fun
- To win 🙂
How to enter a meet
Emails are sent out by our Meet Secretary and they are usually months in advance to the meet dates.
This is because the organisers need the time to secure the number of entries to make the meet viable.
To enter the meets in the email, you have to log onto your swimportal. http://swimportal.active.com.
Once you have logged onto your Swim Portal, there are down boxes with information on:
- Your programs
- Attendance
- View Meets
- Personal Best Times
Under View Meets, you will see all your Upcoming meets as well as Completed meets.
You can select the meet, the session and the events you wish your swimmer to enter.
The location and the timing of the meet as well as the costs of each event is also clearly identified here.
Selecting events
This is for you to find out from your squad coach. All new swimmers are expected to have a go at the 50m strokes and 100IM. As they progress, they can attempt the longer distance events at 100m or even 200m. Eventually there are categories such as 400m, 800m and 1500m as well. Most meets are short course meets i.e. 25m pool. Long course meets are in 50m pools.
How to be prepared for attending meets
- Arrive in plenty of time as parking may be an issue at times
- There is always a warm-up session before the start of the meet and the swimmers will not be allowed to compete without warming up
- Ensure the swimmer has the following:
- Swim hat (plus a spare one if possible)
- Swim goggles (spare if possible)
- Club shirt
- Towel
- Water bottle
- Change for locker if needed
- Healthy snacks such as bananas
- If attending more than 1 session, substantial food such as pasta, sandwiches etc as not all swimming pools have cafeteria facilities
- Appropriate poolside footwear (such as sliders, crocs etc)
How to support your child
Allow plenty of time to arrive at the venue so the swimmer is not anxious about being late. Be encouraging as there may be disqualifications. This is not a negative thing as the swimmers have to learn to swim their strokes in the legal form. Do not be disheartened if they are disqualified as it simply highlights what they can work on to ensure they correct a bad habit.
Have plenty of “spare” snacks with you as your swimmer may run out of food during the day.
Encourage your swimmer to listen to their coaches for advice as well as their Team Managers so that they do not miss their events.
If there are problems on the day, either contact your meet secretary or a T.M. (Team Manager). If you wish to speak about the performance, make an appointment with the squad coach on an alternative day as the coaches are tied up at the meets coaching all the swimmers.
Useful links
Sometimes it’s just helpful to know where to go!
- Register your swimmer – register your swimmer to swim at HSC.
- HSC Swimming Portal – manage your swimmers’ details and sign up for meets.
- Swim England Hertfordshire – information about swimming in the county, including but not limited to County Championships, County Teams and County Development Camps.
- Swim England East Region – information about swimming in the region, including but not limited to Regional Championships and regional camps.
- Swim England – information about swimming in England.
- British Swimming – information about swimming in Great Britain.
- IoS – information on courses for swimming teachers, coaches and helpers as well as administrators.
- British Swimming Rankings Database – stores times from all licensed meets, you can check club, county, regional and national rankings here.
- Hertfordshire Swimming League – information about Herts Major and Peanuts Leagues.
- FINA – world governing body of swimming. You can find world rankings and information about international competitions here.