Saratoga Woods Swim Team

Swimmer Attendance

Swimmer attendance is due the Tuesday before that week's Saturday meet. Use SwimTopia to mark your swimmers attendance or absence.  If this is not completed then your child will not be swimming.  The Coaches and the Data team need time to prepare swimmer information before the meet.

What to Expect

Meets are busy, fun, and exciting events.  The competition starts promptly at 9am but there is also set-up, check-in, and warm-up time.  Parents of younger children are expected to assist with getting their children to the Clerk of the Course on time for their swim event.  The order of swim events is Butterfly, Backstroke, Breastroke, & Freestyle and start with the youngest to oldest swimmers for every event and by gender.  

What to Bring

Dual meets usually last 3-4 hours starting at 9am so many families bring tents/pop-ups, chairs, and other items for comfort.  Families will generally arrive anywhere between 7-8a to setup, keeping in mind volunteer check-in and kids warm-up times.  The kids should have their team suits, goggles, caps, and usually a couple of towels.  

Heat/Lane Assignments

Heat and lane assignments will be posted the morning of the meet. Your child will only swim 3 strokes in a meet.  These assignments will be listed by age group and gender.  The event number is listed followed by 2 numbers.  The first number is the heat your child will swim in for their event and the second number is the lane they will be in.  

Many children write or have these series of numbers written on their arm/hand to keep track of scheduled swim times.  Sharpies work best and do not work well on sunscreened skin.  

Relays 

Relays are the last and usually most exciting events.  There is one relay event for each age group and made up of multiple teams.  Each of the four strokes are represented by one swimmer and the teams are mixed gender.  The swimmers are usually chosen based on their performance during the meet. Changes are occasionally made depending on the situation and are managed by the coaches.  

Timeline for Home Meet

Parking

At home meets, we reserve our parking lot and parking in the front on Saratoga Creek Drive for our visitors.  Please do not park in the lot for our home meets.

Setup

Tent and space set up for our team is on the left side of our pool grounds (standing at the clubhouse/gate facing the pool).  Our visitors set up on the right side.  

After Home Meet Clean-up

All setup items for the meets need to be put away and the pool and grounds need to be returned to its original setup.  All members are requested to help as a team effort. See the setup and breakdown volunteer job for details or get guidance from the job owner.

Timeline for Away Meets

After Meet

Everyone who can or wants to, meets back at club for ribbons.  There is usually enough time to pick up some lunch to bring to the club and eat.  

The Practice meet is held about two weeks before the first official dual meet at our own swim club.  It is an opportunity for new families and new swimmers to learn new jobs and experience how the meets will be run. In addition, this event will set the baseline swim times for the swimmers and their strokes.  We celebrate with having a team pizza feed at the end of the event.

The Championship meet (or Champs) is the last event of the season and occurs in mid-July with all JSSL league members.  Additional information on sign-up and preparation will be sent out closer to the event.  The season ends with an awards dinner and season review after Champs.