Glossary of Swimming Terms

25 One length of the pool. Also, a term referring to the length of an event, as in 25 back.
50 Two lengths of the pool. Also, a term referring to the length of an event, as in 50 breast.
A Champs See League Championships.
A Meet A dual meet in which the generally more experienced swimmers participate. There is no time a swimmer must attain before competing in an A meet.
A Prelims See League Prelims.
A Time See the Midlakes B disqualification times.
Age groups A method of defining swimming events by age. Each swimmer remains in the same age group for the entire season.
B Champs See Division Championships.
B Disqualification Times A defined time for every stroke within each age group. Once a swimmer has achieved this time, s/he cannot swim in that stroke in a B meet or in Division Championships. Commonly called an A time. Defined time is different for boys and girls, and for yard pools vs. meter pools. (Disqualification times are available here, and in your swim team handbook.
B Meet A dual meet in which the generally lesser experienced swimmers participate. A swimmer who has attained a B Disqualification time in an event may not swim in that particular event (individually or as part of a relay) in any B meet.
Division Championships Each Midlakes division holds a Division Championship meet at the end of the fifth week of the season, with all teams within its division. Any swimmer who has not achieved a B Disqualification time in a particular event may compete. Commonly referred to as B Champs.
DQ A term indicating a swimmer or relay team has been disqualified in a particular event because of an error. The DQ call is made by the stroke-and-turn judge. Typical reasons for a DQ include incorrect turns (particularly on back stroke), more than one underwater pull and/or incorrect kick on the breast stroke, and relay team members starting before the swimmer has touched the end of the pool.
Exhibitions (exhibition heat) Additional races of any of the events can be added by the coach of either team. Usually exhibiition heats have swimmers from just one club and allow the newer swimmers to try a new stroke, be timed in competition and to participate in the meet. Exhibition heats do not count in the total paint score for either club, but usually the swimmers are provided with a ranked ribbon. Exhibition heats swim just prior to regular heat.
False Start A swimmer moves in his position once the starter has called Take your mark. A false start results in a DQ for the swimmer who moved. Sometimes, one swimmer moves and causes a chain reaction of swimmers who dive prematurely. The swimmer who actually moves is the one who should be DQ'd, not the swimmer who was caused to dive. Under Midlakes rules, all 8 and under events are allowed one false start without penalty to a swimmer.
Heat Many events have more swimmers entered than can swim at one time. In that case, there are several heats of swimmers competing in the same event. At dual meets, only the last final heat in an event counts for points. At League Championships, there are two heats for each event: the consolation heat swimmers compete for places 7 through 12, and the final heat swimmers for places 1 through 6. (For champs held at 8-lane pools, there are 8 swimmers per heat.) These places are regardless of the swimmers' times in their champs' heats; for example, even if the first place finisher in a consolation heat has a better time than anyone in the final heat, that swimmer still places seventh.
IM The common term for the Individual Medley, an event in which a single swimmer swims all four strokes.
Individual Event A swimming event in which just one swimmer participates from beginning to end.
League Championships A meet at the end of the season between swimmers from all 26 teams in the Midlakes League. Features the top 12 (or 16) swimmers in each event. Commonly referred to as A Champs.
League Prelims Meets held during the beginning of the week prior to League Championships to determine the top 12 swimmers in each age-group event. The top swimmers will compete at League Championships. Commonly called A Prelims.
Midlakes A summer swim league composed of 26 teams. Philosophy of fun and good sportsmanship, rather than win at all cost.
Order of events
Dual & Div. Champs League Champs Event
Girls Boys Girls Boys
1 2 12 & under 200 Freestyle
3 4 14 & under 200 Freestyle
5 6 15 & over 200 Freestyle
1 2 7 8 8 & under 100 Medley Relay
3 4 9 10 10 & under 100 Medley Relay
5 6 11 12 12 & under 200 Medley Relay
7 8 13 14 14 & under 200 Medley Relay
9 10 15 16 15 & over 200 Medley Relay
11 12 17 18 10 & under 100 Individual Medley
13 14 19 20 12 & under 100 Individual Medley
15 16 21 22 14 & under 100 Individual Medley
17 18 23 24 15 & over 100 Individual Medley
19 20 25 26 8 & under 25 Freestyle
21 22 27 28 10 & under 50 Freestyle
23 24 29 30 12 & under 50 Freestyle
25 26 31 32 14 & under 50 Freestyle
33 34 15 & over 50 Freestyle
35 36 12 & under 500 Freestyle timed finals swum at prelims
37 38 14 & under 500 Freestyle timed finals swum at prelims
39 40 15 & over 500 Freestyle timed finals swum at prelims
29 30 41 42 8 & under 25 Backstroke
31 32 43 44 10 & under 50 Backstroke
33 34 45 46 12 & under 50 Backstroke
35 36 47 48 14 & under 50 Backstroke
37 38 49 50 15 & over 50 Backstroke
39 40 51 52 8 & under 25 Breaststroke
41 42 53 54 10 & under 50 Breaststroke
43 44 55 56 12 & under 50 Breaststroke
45 46 57 58 14 & under 50 Breaststroke
47 48 59 60 15 & over 50 Breaststroke
61 62 8 & under 50 Freestyle
63 64 10 & under 100 Freestyle
65 66 12 & under 100 Freestyle
67 68 14 & under 100 Freestyle
27 28 69 70 15 & over 100 Freestyle
49 50 71 72 8 & under 25 Butterfly
51 52 73 74 10 & under 25 Butterfly
53 54 75 76 12 & under 50 Butterfly
55 56 77 78 14 & under 50 Butterfly
57 58 79 80 15 & over 50 Butterfly
59 60 81 82 8 & under 100 Freestyle Relay
61 62 83 84 10 & under 200 Freestyle Relay
63 64 85 86 12 & under 200 Freestyle Relay
65 66 87 88 14 & under 200 Freestyle Relay
67 68 89 90 15 & over 200 Freestyle Relay
Relay Event A swimming event in which four team members each swim a portion of the event. In the Medley Relay, each swimmer swims a different stroke. In the Free Relay, each swimmer generally swims the crawl stroke (freestyle).
Scoring Scoring is done through a point system, and differs for dual meets and the championship meets.
Dual Meets
Place Points awarded for
1 2 3
Individual 5 3 1
Relay 8 4 2

One team cannot receive points for all three places. If one team places 1st, 2nd & 3rd, the other team is awarded the points for 3rd place.

Division and League Champs
Place 6-Lane Pool: Points awarded for
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Individual 16 13 12 11 10 9 7 5 4 3 2 1
Relay 32 26 24 22 20 18 14 10 8 6 4 2
Place 8-Lane Pool: Points awarded for
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Individual 20 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 9 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Relay 40 34 32 30 28 26 24 22 18 14 12 10 8 6 4 2
Stroke & Turn Common reference to a person who judges the correctness of swimming strokes and turns during meets. Training sessions are required to be a Stroke and Turn Judge, and are available to all interested parents on two dates: June 1st at 6:30pm, at Newport Yacht Club, and June 7th at 6:30pm, at Newport Hills.
Strokes The four swimming strokes used in competition: crawl stroke (freestyle), back stroke, breast stroke, and butterfly.
Timers The wonderful volunteer parents who use stop watches to record event times at swim meets.
Time Trials A Mercerwood-only event in which each swimmer swims each stroke to obtain a basic time to start the season.
Yard pools vs. Meter pools Yard pools are 25 yards long; meter pools in our league are 25 meters long, i.e. longer than yard pools. B disqualification times are longer for the meter pools. Mercerwood has a meter pool.