Quick Gala Explanation Is you child 9 or over? Yes. Do they have any licensed times? (swimming times gained at a licensed gala)

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1 Overview & Types of Gala As we are an ASA affiliated competitive swimming club, we expect most swimmers to compete. You are allowed to start competing in ASA licensed galas when you reach the age of 9. You need to be ASA category 2 which the club arranges and pays for through your membership. There are many different levels of competition, from easy to faster top level galas. All swimmers compete against other swimmers of the same age group, either their age at the time of the gala or at the end of the year. Galas are either short course 25m pool or long course 50m pool. This guide is designed to explain as much as possible, however do ask if you are not sure about anything. Quick Gala Explanation Is you child 9 or over? Yes. Do they have any licensed times? (swimming times gained at a licensed gala) No. Then look out for school galas, friendly inter club galas, the club championships and any club sprint galas. Yes. Every gala has a set of qualification times that your swimmer needs to have to enter. With many galas you will need to check the entry time and the upper time in case your swimmer is to fast. See below for gala selection: Types of Gala in Brief Easy Unlicensed Galas: Richmond Borough champs, School Galas, IAPS, Milton Junior League, Club Sprints No. You will need to gain licensed times at either the Club Championships or a Level 4 easy gala that allows entry by swimmers without times. These times can then be used to enter other galas. No times required (though there may be selection for team events), however, you will not get a licensed time from competing in these. Good for competition practise. Level 4, Easy Licensed Galas: Barnes Club Championships, Woking & a few others club open galas. Some Level 3 galas too! Level 4, Licensed Galas: Epsom, Ealing, Atlanta. Black Swan... You can enter with or without official times. You have to be over 9. You will receive an official time as long as you are not disqualified. They fill up really fast and so entries have to be quick. Require a licensed time, but fairly easy times. Watch out for upper times. Sometimes these galas have C grade and B grade times so that slower swimmers can win a medal in the lower band of times and faster swimmers compete against faster swimmers. Swimmers usually have to "sign in" at the beginning of each session indicating the races they are doing. These galas fill up fast.

2 Level 3, Licensed Galas: Wycombe, Surrey Development, Guildford. Level 1 & 2: Portsmouth and similar Level 3 galas can be short course or long course. The times vary with some being quite fast and others less so. Level 1 and 2 galas. These are generally County times or above but you occasionally get ones that are less difficult and more people can enter. Level 2 are short course and Level 1 Long course. Usually they are a minimum of County Times. You generally have to sign out of these galas, i.e. let them know you are not swimming or the club may be fined. Level 1 & 2: Nationals, Regionals, Sheffield. Level 1 & 2 galas of this kind usually have either very difficult qualifying times, or only those swimmers ranked in the top number for the country or area during a certain time period can swim in them. Level 1 are 50m and Level 2 25m. You will most likely be in P1 if you can get into these! You generally have to sign out of these galas, i.e. let them know you are not swimming or the club may be fined. Entering Entering galas is all explained on the gala entry page. The club will send you regular s entitled Galas. We will colour code them accordingly and let you know whether they are SC or LC or sign in or out. You need to fill in the entry time by the date given as they fill up quickly. Some Swimming Terms Galas are generally classified as swimming competitions where teams compete against each other and Meets are competitions where individuals compete, though the swimmers will still be part of a club for whom they compete. However, the word gala usually gets used for everything! Times/competing. Whenever you compete at a licensed gala, the time you swim that stroke and distance in is recorded and entered into our Hytek data base and the ASA National Rankings Database. The best time you get is your qualifying time for that race (p.b. or personal best). Each time you beat it, your time is updated. In order to compete at

3 many licensed galas you need a time. Different galas have different times in order to be able to compete. Links are on the Useful Links section under Galas. You can look at your child s individual times or their ranking The great things about swimming is that although winning is most people's ultimate goal, as long as swimmers do their best to achieve their own targets, such as getting a p.b. (personal best time) or swimming with good technique or practicing for a more important race, then they will have succeeded. All competitions are learning experiences. By taking part in competitions regularly swimmers become more competent both with technique and speed. We recommend all swimmers age 9+ enter at least 3-4 open meets each year. Long Course /Short Course Short Course means a 25m pool and Long Course means a 50 meter pool. Open Water means exactly that, i.e. lake/sea/dock. It is slightly harder to swim fast in a 50m meter pool, therefore, these times are generally slightly slower. Most of the more high level galas like a long course time, but you can convert one time to the other if you need to (see useful links webpage). Age Most lower level galas use the age the child is on the last day of the gala for the entry times and the age group they are competing in. However, most of the higher level galas and the Counties, Regionals and Nationals, all use the age of the child at the end of the year. This can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your birthday! So if your child's birthday is on May 3rd and the meet is in April, your age group with be either 12 for age on day or 13 if its your age at the end of the year. Please also see all the following pages for further details about the rules and regulations and warming up and warming down. Competition Overview in Detail The club sometimes goes to the occasional unlicensed event such as some Junior League Galas or hold internal time trials, but the vast majority of the galas we go to are licensed by the ASA as either a Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 or Level 4 Meet. All galas will be posted on the website. Keep an eye out for s telling you to enter. LEAGUE GALAS Milton Keynes Junior League The Milton Keynes Junior League (for swimmers aged 9 12) is a team competition in which Barnes Swimming Club takes part. Each cycle includes three rounds in a season and these take place in the south east region. Swimmers are selected to take part based on times achieved; usually we hold additional time trials for those without licensed times. FRIENDLY TEAM GALAS We enter a number of friendly team galas at different levels. We use these galas to give as many swimmers as possible experience of swimming in a team gala and representing their club. Priority is usually given to those who are not normally selected for the league galas. Sometimes we enter a friendly gala as a practice run for one of our main league galas. Your age group is determined by your age on the day of the gala INTERNAL CLUB GALAS - Barnes Club Championships (Level 4 Meet) These are closed competitions as only members of our club can enter them. The main club championships are held at the beginning of the season in late

4 September/October. Everyone in the club can enter and you don't need a licensed time, but you will get one if you swim and aren't disqualified. The championships are a great way of getting swim times for other club galas and for competing with the whole of the club who you might not normally meet. Its also a place that your child knows and feels secure in. Even mums and dads from pre-masters sometimes enter. You should enter your child in as many races as they want to swim. Then sometimes we also hold mini sprints. These happen over one Saturday and are a change to race 25m long sprints. These are the only galas where you can be any age to enter and indeed we have often have the youngest members of our club swimming. We would expect the majority of our swimmers to enter these galas. Your age group for club galas is determined by your age on the day (of the last gala for the club championships). This is not the case for all galas as many now use age at the end of the year. Don t be surprised if your child gets disqualified, it happens to all swimmers at some point. Mistakes like incorrect turns, incorrect leg kick or just falling in at the start of the race are an experience they are unlikely to repeat. If this happens, always follow it up with the coaching team who will explain what has happened and how to correct the mistake next time. On the day of the championships, it is all hands on deck and parents are encouraged to volunteer even if it s marshaling children or serving drinks. Children are encouraged to go on pool side with their team mates so that they don't miss races and on the other side of the pool to their parents. This is because whips are attempting to get all kids into race order and if they aren t on the right side of the pool, the child might miss their slot. The kids are also encouraged to cheer their friends on at the end of the pool, if they are not next in line for an event. OPEN MEETS LEVEL 1-4 (labeled by us from green, to blue to red and at the top black depending on the difficulty, see above) An open meet competition is open to all who are age 9 years and over. Many clubs, run open meets, as in open to all clubs, in order to raise funds for their club. The County, Regional and National Age Groups & Youth Championships are also open meets. Open meets are graded or licensed at different levels, with qualifying and cut-off times appropriate to the level. They are licensed from Level 4 at entry level, to Level 1 at the top. Most level 4 galas are in 25m pools and Level 1 is in 50m pools. Novices should look for Level 4 or 3 meets to start with easiest being ones labeled green or blue, such as our club championships or Ealing or Epsom Open Meets. These have slower qualifying times and occasionally no times. However, they also often have upper-cut off times too, so that if you are fast at a stroke, you will not be able to swim. Sometimes Level 4 galas are also graded into B and C swim times, both of which each have an upper and lower qualifying time. This means that slower swimmers can still win medals in the C category. However, if you enter with a slow time and swim the race really fast, you may get a speeding ticket! for being too fast and even if you are first you will only get a medal if you are within the qualifying band. Level 3 galas tend to cater for a wider range of swimmers, some having quite fast times and others not. Both Level 4 galas and Level 3 ones are usually first come first served and fill up very very quickly. A fast turn-around between initial and entry is therefore usually needed. Due to this entries cannot be accepted past our deadline. Times gained at level 4 galas can be used for County entry but not for Regional.

5 Too fast for these? Then you should look for a Level 2 or 1 meet. Level 1 and 2 Meets must have a minimum set of qualifying standards. No upper limit time is required. They are aimed at higher level swimmers such as National and Regional qualifiers and the better County Level swimmers. If these galas are over-subscribed, slower swimmers may be scratched, and therefore unable to swim. All Level 1 meets are held in a long course (50m) pool. Level 2 are 25m pool (short course). County Championships Once a year usually late January or February, each county holds a meet for all the clubs in that county. These are the County Championships. We are in Surrey County. The times are usually quite fast, particularly in Surrey, but they are the initial standard competitive swimmers seek to achieve. Times achieved at all licensed meets qualify for these championships which are held in a 25m pool. Regionals Qualification - London Held later in the season (April and May), these championships take place in a 50m pool and qualifying times are faster than those for the counties. This is the minimum standard for swimmers in Performance 1. Times must be either achieved in a long course pool or converted from short course times. Nationals Held towards the end of the season (July/August) for those reaching the highest standards in the country. Your Squad Coaches are always happy to advise if you are unsure about which meets to enter. They will send you out a report for the galas we have decided to enter as a club, which will advise you on the races you are eligible for. You can always then discuss it with your coach before you put the entry in. The procedure is on our website. REMEMBER If you want to improve your times you need to enter competitions regularly! This will increase your chance of being selected to swim for the club and helps your coaches make decisions about moving swimmers up groups. Once you are 9 years old you should aim to enter 3-4 open meets each year in addition to our internal club galas.

6 First Galas There is lots of more detailed information on the following pages for you to read. This page sets a few things in brief about galas. Before You Go Where? Find out where the gala is and where you can park. Check the times of the gala and whether the sessions have changed or not! There will be a gala page for most galas on the host swimming clubs website. This may also include accepted entries so that you can check you are in all the races you entered. Check which races you are swimming and how many lengths. Pack your kit bag - see details below. Most galas insist on footwear like flip flops and you will need spare goggles and hats (just in case they break), a number of suits for warming up and changing into as the days tend to be quite long and something to keep you warm in between races. You may have a special race suit too. Pack good food and lots of water, as the pools tend to be hot. See Website for sheets on nutrition and medication

7 At The Gala Signing in. Most galas need you to sign your name by each race you are doing, to confirm that you will be swimming. If you want to drop out of any races, this is the time to do it or they may fine the club. If you do not sign in you may not be able to race. Some galas have a sign out policy instead, so you sign out of races you are not doing. Find your team mates. You will find the rest of your fellow team mates sitting in an area by the pool with the coach. You must stay there in between the races and tell the coach or any club officials if you are going off somewhere like to the toilet, so that they know where you are and you don't miss any races. Some clubs don't like you going into the balcony to see your parents as it gets water everywhere. Warm Up. All swimmers will take it in turns to practice their strokes before the races they are about to swim. You should practice your strokes, sprinting and diving and your backstroke, stroke count, so that you are confident about when to turn over to do your turn. Whipping. You then will need to wait until you are called for your race. This is called whipping. The coaches will have the details of your races and usually there will be someone from the club as well to help. You will need to take your hat and goggles, but can leave your flip flops and t-shirt on if you want to. Heats. You will then need to wait in a line with all the other people swimming that race. You will then be organised by how fast you are, so that you race with people who have similar times. This is called a heat. The other swimmers may have different ages to you. Start. When it is your turn to race, you will need to go and stand behind the starting blocks and wait for the race before you to finish. During this time you can get your hat and goggles ready and put your t-shirt and hat either in a box by the officials chair or on the floor near their. You can pick them up after. Last Minute Warming Up. You can also do some warming up exercises, like jumping and stretching your arms. Start. When it is your turn to race you will need to go to the block and wait for the referee to blow his/her whistle several times to indicate that you need to get on the block and be ready to take your position, followed by a single long blast. This indicates that you need to get in your ready position or jump in the water for back stroke. After the starter has said "Take Your Marks", you must not move until they call "Go" or blow a whistle or a klaxon. Rules. See the rules on the following page for each stroke. Particularly note the hand rules for breast-stroke and fly. Waiting in the water. When you have finished your race, you need to wait in the water holding the lane rope until told otherwise. Then you can get out and fetch your t-shirt and flip flops. Make sure you do not move when the next race is starting. Coach. Return to your coach and team mates. Your coach may want to give you some feedback about how well you raced. Results/Meet Mobile. When they have worked out the results they will be posted somewhere on the wall and you can see your speed and what position you came in, in your age group. If you have won a medal you can then go and fetch it. Meet mobile is a useful app for phones that many galas use to show the swimming results as they come in. Disqualification. Most swimmers are disqualified at least once, usually several times, when they start swimming. DO NOT WORRY! Just find out why you were disqualified and learn from your mistake. Sometimes it is confusing when you are swimming in a different pool or racing for the first time. Even the older experienced swimmers sometimes get disqualified when they aren't thinking. Make sure you drink lots and eat between the races (but not just before!)

8 Gala/Meet Tips Set yourself a goal for your races. Speak to your coach for advice. See this page on goal setting Make sure you pack a towel (often 2 or 3 are useful, especially those light weight ones), a costume (again 2 or 3 for long meets), your goggles (practise with new ones before a race), your club hat, a T-Bag (club T-shirt) or any other large T-shirt for warmth while waiting for your races (and shorts if you want), a pair of flip flops or crocs, a drink, lots of snacks, a healthy meal if you are there all day and something to play with or read (again not too much as space is usually limited!). If you can its also good to have spare goggles and a spare hat. Arrive in plenty of time. For most open meets you will need to sign in, usually by the start of the published warm up time. If it is a team gala or you have been told there is a sign out procedure you must report to your coach 15 minutes before warm-up is due to begin. Parents - If you wish to video or photograph your child you will need to complete the relevant record book when you pay your spectator fee in order to comply with ASA and BSC child protection procedures. There is a warm up to start with. You will be told which lane to swim in by your team manager/coach. See warm up page You will need to wait with the rest of our club swimmers until just before your race. You will be told in plenty of time when to go up, and will be reminded which stroke/distance you are swimming. You will first go to the whipping area. Here you will be told which heat and lane you will be swimming in. Each heat of swimmers is led together to the start area - just follow the instructions given. After your race you will need to see your coach for feedback on how you did If there is a swim-down pool available you should go and swim down within 3 minutes of your race finishing. Take a drink with you to the swim-down pool. After your race/swim down, have a drink and, if there is time before your next race, a snack. You should not go over to the spectators area during the gala (imagine what it would be like if all the children tried to talk to their parents after their races!). If you need to go to the toilet or wish to see your parents you must speak to your coach/team manager first. Remember that there may be heats in your race, so even if you win your heat you may not win the whole event. Don t forget to take your rubbish home with you! Galas and Competitions We send out s about every gala with a link to the gala entry pages on this website where you can enter. There is also a competition Calendar on the next page with the main galas of the year, but there may be new ones added throughout the year so please check regularly. Under each new gala there is information to help you decide if it is relevant to your child. There will be buttons on the page to take you to eligibility reports to see if you child has the right times and there will be links to the timetables for each gala. If in doubt please ask Roxana, Alberto or April for advice.

9 Gala Entry Procedure If you wish to enter a gala, you'll need to do the following: Check the published Eligibility Report to see which events you ve qualified for. If we haven't been able to run one you will need to check your child's times yourself. You can also check all your official times on the British Swimming website (or Hytek). You can convert your times on this website Check the Entry Pack information: to see what the event timetable is and for further information Select the events you wish to enter. If you need any help please ask one of the coaches/ the competitions secretary or April who can pass on queries The entry cost per event will be published and can also be found in the Promoter's Conditions document Please arrange online payment for all of your chosen events by the given deadline so our competition secretary can get the entries correctly processed in time. If you miss the internal club deadline, we cannot guarantee your entry. Once you have paid, please immediately all the following details: - name of swimmer - which events you are swimming - payment details and reference (eg. Surname Epsom) to i. the Competitions Secretary: competitions.bsc@gmail.com ii. Janita Tan (Treasurer): janitatan.bsc@gmail.com For online payment please use: Account name: BARNES SC COMPETITION ACCOUNT Account number: Sort code: The current competition secretary is: Sirje Caprera BSC Competition Secretary competitions.bsc@gmail.com Once an Entry has been Submitted The competitions secretary will usually or post the meet entries back on the site just before the host club entry deadline. Check Meet Entries to ensure that your entry has been logged by the competition secretary. Once a deadline has closed and entries are submitted to the gala organiser, a list of these entries can be found on the gala page. The gala organiser will advise the competition secretary of accepted / rejected entries as soon as possible which will then be posted on the host's gala page. If a competitor has been scratched, the club will refund the gala entry fees. Prior to the gala, an will be sent out, or information posted on the gala page to advise of warm up/session times and other important information including which coach will be attending the meet. It is, however, important to take responsibility for checking the website and the Gala Host s website for that particular gala to avoid missing any last minute information. Important information you need to ensure you know prior to the Gala: Warm Up / Session Start Times. Coach / Team Manager contact details so they can be advised if a swimmer cannot attend or is delayed

10 Withdrawal procedure there may be financial penalties if you don t notify the host club if you aren t coming Is there is a signing in procedure if so what time is the deadline for signing in? If a gala specifies that it is operates a sign in, they will take out any swimmer who hasn t signed in prior to the deadline. After the gala, times will be sent to the ASA Rankings and posted onto the Rankings Database and also uploaded onto our internal Hytek file.

11 Key Gala/Meet Swimming Rules Start procedure Referee blows 3 short whistle Announcer states which race it is One long whistle - swimmers get up onto block (or into water for backstroke & second long whistle to call to block) Take your marks Start signal - may be bleep, horn or whistle - you GO You must remain still from the take your marks until you hear/see the starters signal Your head must surface within 15m of the start, except in breaststroke Backstroke You must hold the starting block with two hands Your toes must not bend over the side or gutter You must remain on your back throughout the race, except when initiating a tumble turn Tumble turns must be a continuous turning action. This means you must not travel on your front outside of the turning action, as soon as you roll over your must start your somersault with one or two arms pulling in one continuous action For touch turns you must remain on your back throughout the turn You must finish the race (touch the wall) on your back and with some part of your body above the water Breaststroke All movements are simultaneous, imagine a mirror down the centre of your body & make sure both sides are doing the same Head must break surface of water every stroke cycle Hands must not pull below hips, except during the underwater phase at the start & after the turn Feet must turn out for kick - no pointed toes! At the start & after the turn you are allowed one keyhole pull down to your thighs followed by one breaststroke kick underwater When proficient you are taught the inclusion of a downward dolphin kick during the underwater pull You must touch with 2 hands at the same time and not overlapping each other, at the turn and finish Butterfly All movements are simultaneous, imagine a mirror down the centre of your body & make sure both sides are doing the same Both feet must move up and down together Both arms must come forwards over the water together and pullback together At the start & after the turn you are allowed as many underwater dolphin kicks as you like and one underwater butterfly pull which brings you to the surface, provided you surface by the 15m mark You must touch with 2 hands at the same time and not touching each other, at the turn and finish Freestyle No specific rules, but follow the general rules like not stepping along the bottom!! You can stand. Finish

12 Remain in the water until you are told to get out by the referee In the first 3 legs of a relay the swimmer leaves the water at the side of the pool when they have finished their leg, but they must not get in the way of swimmers in other lanes - so look carefully The final swimmer remains in the water until told to get out. Glossary AGE AT: Recently most meets have moved to grouping swimmers according to their age at the end of the year, i.e. 31 December. This is in line with the major swimming competitions such as Nationals. However, some promoters still run their events according to your age on the day of the race AGE GROUP: Division of swimmers according to age, usually in one or two year bands ASA: Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British swimming ASA NUMBER: A unique reference number that you will be provided with when joining a swimming club and asked to provide when entering galas BACK UP TIME: The time given to a swimmer when they fail to stop the electronic timing by hitting the timing pad hard enough or the pad fails to record a time. The backup time is initiated by the time keeper pressing a button as soon as the swimmer finishes the race BAGCATS: British Age Group Categories are a point-based system operated by the ASA. Their objective is to encourage development across multiple strokes and distances for girls under 14 and boys under 15 and to discourage specialisation at too early a stage in a swimmer s career BLOCKS: The starting platforms which are located behind each lane BRITISH RANKINGS: this is a database maintained by British Swimming which records all times of all swimmers at licensed meets. You can see all your own PBs as well as looking at how you rank against others at County, Regional or National level CLOSING DATE: The last date when entries into a competition have to be received by the club in order to send them to the Meet Organiser. Entries will not be accepted after the closing date CONVERTED TIME: normally for meets you will be asked to provide either a LC or SC time (see below). For most (but not all) meets you are allowed to use a converted time which means using official conversion tables to switch times e.g. from a race swum in a 25m pool to an equivalent time for a 50m pool. NB 50m times are slower because of the lack of turns. Use the Pullbuoy website converter to help you work out your times. COURSE: The length of pool: Long Course (LC) = 50 metres / Short Course (SC) = 25 metres DNF: Did Not Finish - you will see this against the results of a swimmer who fails to complete a race DNS: Did Not Start - you will see this against the results of a swimmer who fails to start a race DQ: Disqualified - it happens! ELECTRONIC TIMING: A timing system that is operated electronically which normally has touch pads in the water that hook up to a computer and records the swimmers split and finish times when they touch the pad ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE: The status of a member swimmer that means they are registered with the ASA and have met all the entry requirements ENTRY FEES: The amount per event a swimmer or relay is charged. This varies depending on the type of meet ENTRY LIMIT: Normally meets have a maximum number of swimmers they can accept for each race EVENT: A race FINA: Federation Internationale de National de Amateur, the international governing body of competitive swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming

13 FALSE START: When a swimmer leaves the starting block or moves on the block before the starter has started the race. The swimmer will be disqualified for making a false start FAULTY START: When a swimmer or swimmers leave the starting block because of an error of an official or failure of the starting equipment HEAT DECLARED WINNER (HDW): open meets will normally be run on an HDW basis which means that only heats are swum, not heats and finals. Swimmers are put in heats according to entry time which means you get a mix of age groups swimming in the same heat. The winner is the swimmer in the relevant category, usually age, with the fastest time over all of the heats, not the winner of a particular heat. A headache for spectators wanting to know the result because you have to identify all the swimmers in a particular age category and note all their times before you know how well your swimmer has done (barring disqualifications)! HYTEK: you will see reference to Hytek on the website in various places and often in relation to competitions. It is an official database, maintained by the club, that records your times LICENSED MEET: in order for race times to be official and recognised by British Swimming, they must be swum at a licensed meet. There are four levels of meet with level 1 being the highest. The qualification for higher level meets will be harder and aimed at higher level swimmers MEET MOBILE: a useful app that provides real time results at selected galas OT OFFICIAL TIME: The swimmers event time recorded to one hundredth of a second (.01) OFFICIALS: these are the people in white you see poolside at galas. They are all qualified and registered officials who are there to make sure that swimmers abide by the official rules. Open meets are dependent on having a certain number of officials to meet their license so if you want to support your swimmer this is a great way to get involved OPEN COMPETITION: Meet Competition which any qualified club, organisation, or individual may enter OVER THE TOP START: At some meets and galas for Front Crawl (Freestyle), Breaststroke and Butterfly races to save time the swimmers will remain in the water after their event until the next race starts. PERSONAL BEST (PB): The best time a swimmer has done so far in each stroke and distance QUALIFICATION TIME (QT): often the conditions of a meet will require you to have swum a minimum (and occasionally maximum) time at a licensed meet in order to qualify SIGN IN: most meets will require you to arrive by a certain time to sign in for your events. If you miss this you won't be able to swim WITHDRAWAL/SIGN OUT: some meets will have a withdrawal system rather than a sign in. This means you need to let the organisers know if you are NOT swimming - sometimes there are financial penalties for not advising them so keep on top of this!

14 Land Warm-Up, Blood Flow Stretching Warm Up on Land. As well as a swimming warm-up, it is important to know how to warm up on land before you swim. After a hard week of training the morning of your meet is likely to be accompanied by tired, stiff, aching bodies. It's important to prepare those bodies properly before diving in to the pool for warm up (equally important before training). To do that, we work through a dry land warm up to make sure muscles have an adequate blood supply and are warm and supple before trying to swim. The bigger the movement, the more blood flow is generated, the warmer and more awake you become, and the better the flow of fuel and nutrients to the muscles. Blood Flow Stretchign Routine. Below is listed the basic blood flow stretching routine, you may choose to add variety to this selection - follow the lead of older swimmers. Skipping or jumping/jogging on the spot Arm swings (left arm forward, right arm forwards, left arm backward, right arm backward) Shoulder touches Bent over swings (alternate arms and double arms) Bent over hugs (single arm and double arms) Leg swings (left leg and right leg) Cross body leg swings (left leg and right leg) This needs to continue for at least 10mins for maximum benefit. There are 14 activities listed (left arm, right arm, etc) so spend approximately 40sec to 1min on each. Remember: we do blood flow stretching as a team! Everyone needs to be pool side 15mins prior to the first warm up irrespective of whether that is a boys or girls warm up! Pool Warm-Up One big difference between Elite swimmers and average club swimmers is that the former know exactly what they need to do during the 30min pool warm up. Swim Fc 400m, with easy, smooth strokes Swim #1 2x100m, with race quality* turns Swim Fc 200m, increasing Stroke Rate and Kick Speed every 50m Swim #1 2x100m, spike 10m at some point Swim #1 2x25m, race quality* with target pace Swim Choice 200m, recovery with perfect technique Make sure if you are new to racing, to check your backstroke stroke count from the flags at 'race speed'. Total: 1250m. Pay attention to the detail during warm ups. Start the day swimming with perfect skills to reinforce how you want to swim your race. If the warm up states "Race Quality", then that particular skill should be done exactly as you plan to execute it in your race. The race quality speed work, should always have a target pace in mind. If your main event of the day is a 200m Butterfly, your target pace should be the split that you want to swim through the first 25m of your race not your 25m Butterfly PB! Do your home work before the big day and work out what that 25m split needs to be. Then be aware that in a 50m pool you need to swim through the 25m mark as coaches time to the head mid-pool, not to hand (the hand won't be at the same point of the stroke cycle every time, the head will never vary). In a 25m pool you need to finish to feet (i.e. go

15 through the turn). Obviously, after any kind of speed work, no matter how short, we need a brief recovery swim. Swimming at a high intensity produces lactic acid in the muscles and we need to make sure there's adequate blood flow through the muscles to remove it before we sit around on pool side for hours. The #1 stroke refered to in the warm up is the stroke you're focusing on in the upcoming session, your main event this session. After sitting around for an hour or so waiting for your event, it's important to wake up the muscles and increase the blood flowing through your body again. Blood transports fuel to the muscles and you want that fuel supply to be in the muscles ready to be used before your race starts, not arriving half way through your race. Whether you feel it necessary or not, make sure you're repeating the blood flow stretching from earlier while waiting in the ready-room. If the gap between session warm-up and your first event is longer than a couple of hours, it's probably worth jumping in the swim down pool for 10-15mins before heading to marshalling. This helps you to refocus on swimming instead of chatting with your friends. Pre Race Warm-Up After sitting around for an hour or so waiting for your event, it's important to wake up the muscles and increase the blood flowing through your body again. Blood transports fuel to the muscles and you want that fuel supply to be in the muscles ready to be used before your race starts, not arriving half way through your race. Whether you feel it necessary or not, make sure you're repeating the blood flow stretching from earlier while waiting in the ready-room. If the gap between session warm-up and your first event is longer than a couple of hours, it's probably worth jumping in the swim down pool for 10-15mins before heading to marshalling. This helps you to refocus on swimming instead of chatting with your friends. As stated earlier, any intense exercise leaves lactic acid in the muscles and you don't want to be sat around for any length of time allowing it to accumulate. It's also beneficial to control how the heart rate returns to normal over 15-20mins to aid the recovery process. Swim Down As stated earlier, any intense exercise leaves lactic acid in the muscles and you don't want to be sat around for any length of time allowing it to accumulate. It's also beneficial to control how the heart rate returns to normal over 15-20mins to aid the recovery process. Swim down will need to be adjusted to suit individual needs, so listen to your coach and do exactly what they ask for. However, some variant of the following can be used, although this does depend on how much time is available between races. Swim 100m on-stroke (whatever stroke you've just swum) Swim 100m off-stroke (a different stroke) Kick 100m with a 15m spike (i.e. FAST) Repeat the above 3 times Remember to adjust for different pool sizes! Total: 900m

16 Recovery Food Recovery is also improved by eating/drinking a high-carbohydrate snack as you walk back from your race or head over to swim down (within a few minutes of your race). An energy bar, banana, or recovery drink would be ideal. There's a short period of time following intense exercise where the body absorbs the energy from such a snack much more efficiently. Take advantage of that. See Nutrition pages on the website under swim info for further info and downloadable sheets