Welcome to Dolphin Swim New Parent Swim Guide

Welcome to the Watertown Area Swim Club (WASC) - We are so excited to have your family join the team! There is a lot to learn as a new swim family, but don’t be scared. Here’s a guide for your family to follow with everything you need to know to support your swimmer and support them at swim meets.

Equipment

Thankfully swimming requires less equipment then most sports, and it’s all small stuff! Here’s a list of what your swimmer will need.

Swim Suit

WASC does not have team specific suits. Swimmers wear what they find comfortable in any color.

Girls - Look for competition suits, they’ll stay on better and won’t dig in to their arms. Sizing is a bit interesting on these so there are two things you can do to find your best fit:

Measure your child and refer to a size chart on each brand. Keep in mind, brands do run different and you will need to refer to measurements.
WASC does have swimsuits on hand to purchase. This is an easy way to find a good fitting suit for your daughter.

Boys you have 3 choices:

Jammers- they’re tight and go to their knees, like bike shorts (this is what most younger boys prefer)
Square Legs- These are shorter shorts, they cover to just a couple of inches below their butt.
Briefs- These are the wee tiny ones you see on the Olympic swimmers, some high school kids wear these, but most younger swimmers shy away from them.

Goggles

Invest in a good pair of quality goggles and having a few pairs is best (they tend to get lost and/or broken - and they always break right before the heat!) While cheaper goggles work okay for starting out, you will find as your swimmer progresses, they will break easier, fall off or fill with water off the block. High quality goggles can be purchased directly through WASC.

Swim Cap

You will be given a team cap that your child is encouraged to wear during meets. It’s a great idea to have a practice one, especially if you have a girl with long hair! Chlorine is harsh on hair so protecting it during practice is a good idea. Extra swim caps are also available for purchase direct from WASC.

Practices

The practice schedule is based off of your swimmers current level. While practices have no set attendance requirement, those who practice more, progress faster. Children need to master a set set of skills prior to advancing to the next level. It's okay to ask questions!

Terms to Know

There are a lot of terms to learn when your child becomes a swimmer- here’s a run down of terms you need to know. More information on some of these will be provided as you read through the guide.

Strokes – There are four main strokes your child will learn as a swimmer. The freestyle, backstroke, breast stroke, and butterfly. These are often shortened to free, back, breast and fly.
Races - Your child will swim one of the four strokes in each race. The only exception is an IM (individual medley) where they’ll swim all four strokes in one race. The races are numbered with event numbers, and often there are multiple heats (or smaller races) within an event followed by your swimmers lane number.
Flip Turn – If your child is swimming freestyle or back stroke they’ll learn to perform a flip turn at the end of each lap. Rather than coming up they’ll flip and kick off the wall.
Disqualified or DQ’d – There are officials that follow the swimmers alongside the pool making sure they follow the rules. They can be disqualified for a variety of things- touching the bottom or sides of the pool, adjusting their goggles during a race, doing a different stroke then they’re supposed to be doing, or going too early in a relay. The coaches are notified during the race and will address any issues during practice. Please don’t let your child (or you) obsess over being DQ’d - it is a right of passage and a bridge we all must cross as we are learning. Our favorite motto - if your child is DQ'd they get DQ!
Fly Over Starts – During a meet, to make things go quickly, they’ll do fly over starts, except for the backstroke. What that means is that the swimmers who have just finished their race will stay in the water, while the swimmers getting ready to race step up on the block, and start their race “flying over” the swimmers still in the water. This helps keep the meet moving along and the swimmers have less time waiting for their events.
The Block – Just another name for the platform the swimmers dive from.
Seed Time - This is the best time your swimmer has for the event they’re swimming in. For instance, if they’re swimming the 5o freestyle for the second time, the time they had the first time they swam it will be their seed time. This is their best time ever and what they’ll be trying to beat! Often heats are organized by seed time putting the fastest swimmers against each other. If your child has never swam, they will have “NT” listed on the heat sheet. This simply means “no time” - they will also have an NT if they have swam it before but were DQ’d.
Heat Book / Program – When you go to a meet you can usually buy a heat book for around $10. This is a listing of all of the events, who is swimming and their seed time. It’s not necessary to purchase them but they can be nice to have to keep track of what your child is swimming, and see what their current record time is. Some parents prefer to share. Some teams send these out to print prior to arrival. More on this below under the “Meet” section.
Declaration - For each meet, you will need to decide if your swimmer will commit or decline the meet. There is a registration deadline to attend meets. An email typically goes out a week or two before the deadline to remind you to commit or decline each meet. Please remember to log in to the website to declare. OnDeck, while wonderful, doesn't always get the declarations correct.

Navigating swim Meets

This is the most intimidating part of joining the swim team. I promise, it’s not as bad as it seems. Do not be afraid to ask other parents (even from other towns) or kids if you are unsure of something. Other parents are insanely helpful!

The rules are all “mostly” the same and are typically emailed out prior to the meet with the warm up schedule. A few differences will be how many events your child can sign up for and how many will receive ribbons/medals/trophies. You can read through them prior, but they are always in the front of the programs as well. Here is the link to upcoming meets to find any info you may be looking for in case you miss the email. This is the official SD Swimming site link, click the link and scroll for more information:

Meet Info and Rules

Future Meet Schedules - These can change - also, coaches have recommendations as to which meets the team should attend. Not every meet will have coaches available. Once again, this is the SD Swim official site, so you will want to look at "Current Season Meets" or "Master Three Season Calendar":

Future Meet Schedule

What do I bring?

Two Swimsuits - it’s best to be prepared with an extra suit just in case of wardrobe malfunction!
At Least Two Pairs of Goggles - you always want at least one spare. Make sure you bring the ones they have been practicing in, you really want to avoid trying out new gear in a meet.
2-3 Towels - When one gets soggy your swimmer will want another one! A robe is a great coverup between their swims. Team parkas are also available to purchase/order. You will see a lot of these at a meet, they are warm and fleece lined - but a robe gets the job done just as well!
Snacks and/or concession stand money - Your swimmer will get HUNGRY, and most likely so will you. Swim concessions are some of the best concessions I have ever seen. There are lots of great options. It is very important that your child is not hungry during a meet.
Camping/Seating - Swim families refer to waiting areas between swims as camp. We bring camp chairs, blankets to sit on and even folding cots. Most of the winter meets are broken down into 4 hour times - meaning your child will swim in either the morning or afternoon, so you will want somewhere/something to sit on. During outdoor meets, many families bring pop up tents for shade.
Entertainment - There can be a lot of downtime between events so you should bring something along to keep entertained. Books, tablets, magazines, coloring books… whatever your favorite boredom buster is!
A Sharpie - As crazy as it sounds this is a must have. You will want to write your child’s events, heats and lanes on their arm so they “remember” where to go (and others can help them get there) It’s a universal language we all understand.
Highlighter and Pen - you will want to find your child’s names in the Heat Book. I have a few colors in my bag so I can mark each kiddo with a different color.

Pool Sizes

Pools come in various sizes. State times are different based on pool sizes. State times are listed in the front on the Heat Book or you can find them here:

State Qualifying Times

Short Course Yard (SCY): Aberdeen (YMCA), Brookings HS, Fargo (converts from a long course), Lead/Deadwood, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City, Watertown, Yankton (Summit), Sioux Falls (Converts from a long course), Rapid City (Roosevelt Swim Center)
Long Course Meters (LCM): Aberdeen (Outdoor Aquatic Center), Brookings (Outdoor), Huron (Outdoor), Sioux Falls (Indoor), Yankton (Huther), Fargo (Indoor), Rapid City (Roosevelt Swim Center - Outdoor)
Short Course Meter (SCM): Spearfish

South Dakota

Winter - Short Course Season
Summer - Long Course Season (Not every town has a Long Course, so you will swim some short courses in the sumemer)

Apps to Download

OnDeck - this is the mobile version of Go Motion (formerly Team Unify). You see what they are signed up to swim. It also lists your account balances, job signups, practice logs, and much more. You will want to make sure to sign up for meets and jobs via computer as apps don’t always work perfectly.
Meet Mobile - you do not need to have this, but is is a great tool to follow along for times. Keep in mind, the times are not always the official times and can vary once official times are input. Sometimes it is 100% accurate, and sometimes it’s not at all. Pro-Tip - refrain from telling your swimmers they were DQ’d. It is so hard on them. As they are learning, this will happen, it happens to them all. Let the coaches work it out in practice - its all part of learning.

The best way to see what your child’s official time - find the wall where they hang the results. Those are the official times. They can also be found via the link below after they are filed. Official results are not available for two weeks.

Official Meet Results

Arrival

Prior to the day of the meet, you will receive an email which will include warm up times. Make sure you arrive about 30 minutes prior to warmups until you get the hang of it. Kids need to warm up with their team, and they can only warm up with their team. Some of the smaller swimmers who only swim later may elect to skip them with approval, but most children need to warm up. Missing the first part of warm ups means you miss working up to the full warm up and disrupts the team. Please make every effort to be on time.
Purchase your Heat Book - These are often sold right at the front door or at the concession stands. Prior to arriving, you can look at your registration and the events your child is in are listed under their name. Each event is numbered, use these numbers to locate their swims.
You will want that sharpie to write their list of Events, Heats and Lanes in a grid on your child’s arm/hand/leg. (See Photo Below) Some like to add the swim behind each, and some just remind their kids which swim it is.

Heat Sheet Sample - The format of the sheet can vary a bit from meet to meet but the information is pretty standard.

Swim Grid

The Meet: Events and Heats

Once the National Anthem has played, the meet will start. The announcer will call for the first races. They will typically call for the first couple Events to line up.
There is a score board in most of the “Camping” areas. They will have the Event and Heat listed as they are running. Keep a close eye on this! Some of the events only have one heat so they go by quick, and some swims are incredibly fast.
When it is close to your event (3-5 heats prior to your child’s swim - keeping in mind how far away the camping area is) You will want to have your child line up behind the blocks. This was the single most stressful thing for me as a new swim parent. Parents are not allowed behind the block, so you need to trust your child to get to the correct lane - and if your kids are like mine, they get distracted really easy! For new kiddos, the coaches are a HUGE help for this - They will help get them where they need to be.
Oops! What happens if my child misses their heat? Don’t panic - it happens! It gets a bit chaotic behind the blocks - even if they are in the right spot, sometimes they miss it. Just let one of the coaches know and some of the time they can slide them in on another heat. Your swimmer will then stand by an official until the can get them into a heat/lane.

Home swim meets

Home swim meets are so much fun - and a lot of work. We cannot put these on without the help of our parents and volunteers. If your child is swimming, it is expected that you sign up for jobs to help the meet run smoothly. The Job Signup comes out when the meet signup is released to declare your swimmer. Helpful hint: sign up right away if you know what you want to do. The meets are broken into morning and afternoon, make sure you reference when your kids are swimming.

There are a couple of ways you can navigate this. Some choose to sign up when their kiddos are not swimming so they can fully watch their kids swim. Others prefer to sign up while their kids are swimming so they are not there all day. If you are a new family, I would make sure you have help at the meet if you are working. It can be very hard to watch kids and pay attention to a job assignment.

Timing - These are 4 hour slots where you are monitoring the times behind the block. The pool has touchpads, but we also monitor the swimmers manually - with a stopwatch and a button called a pickle. You will always be in a team of two.
Announcer - This is the person who is announcing the events and heats.
Cleaners - There are various opportunities to clean different areas of the PLWC. From the Coaches/Officials rooms, the bleachers, gym, etc.
Concessions - Remember when I said swim teams have the best concessions, well, someone has to work them! WASC has taken over our own concessions starting in 2023. You will help sell various snacks to swimmers and parents.
Meet Marshall - This is someone who makes sure people follow the rules. You get to wear an awesome yellow vest!
Ribbons - Ribbons are awarded based on each swim meets determinations. You will label each ribbon and put them in the correct team’s basket for distribution by their coaches.
Runner - You will run on the treadmill during the whole meet - just kidding! This person picks up the slips from the timers behind the blocks, climbs the timing platform stairs a million times that day, and hangs results. Our second runner (extra person) does whatever the coaching staff needs done.
Sell Programs - You will sit at a desk by the back door of the PLWC and sell programs. It is normally just at the beginning of each session.
Goggles - This is a table set up with shirts, goggle and swimwear sales.

state swim meet

A swimmer's age at the first day of the state meet determines their competition age and times needed to qualify.
Swim times are good for 365 days. While this is great, this doesn't mean we want you to carry over your summer or winter times to the next state meet. The goal is to continue to work hard and improve over the course of a season. Additionally, the time conversions from short course to long course (and long to short) can put them in heats they should be in and can be frustrating to swimmers.

Winter State Times

Summer State Times

Motivational Time Standards and Records

State Bs

Swimmers who do not qualify for State A times can go to the State B meet prior to the State A meet. Your swimmer can swim any swim they have not previously qualified for State A in. This means they get an additional chance to make state. First and Second place automatically qualify for state regardless of time, and, of course, if your swimmer swims a State A qualifying time, they also qualify for State As.

Swimmers may swim up to 7 individual events (max of 5/day), this does not include relays. A swimmer may not swim a relay leg in which they have a state time in.

State As

State As happen at the end of both the summer and winter season. Your child must have qualifying times to swim in the meet. There are a few exceptions to this:

If your swimmer has one state time, they can swim two extra bonus swims.
If your swimmer has two state times, they can add an additional bonus swim to make three individual swims.
A swimmer who has not qualified for any swims may still be asked to come for a relay. Relay teams may have one swimmer who has not qualified for any state times. The coaches select these swimmers based off their meet times - typically the next fastest swimmer who has not qualified for state.

Here are a few extra bits of information about State Meets:

Swimmers may swim up to 7 individual events (max of 5/day), this does not include relays. The goal is to qualify for as many as you can so the coaches can select your strongest swims. Once you have qualified for state, coaches will still have you swim some of them, its important to continue to practice these swims so you are seeded correctly at state.