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Last updated
11-03-08 10:39 PM
Get Directions to MPSC-PatriotsFt Meade Local Weather
MPSC-Patriots
Coach Kay Williamson
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MPSC
BOX 353
Ft Meade, Maryland
20755

 
MPSC-Patriots: FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), or, "More About Swimming Than You Really Wanted to Know"
**This page is a work in progress, at any given time there will be questions, which have not been answered--takes time.  If there is a question you really think needs to be answered here, please drop me an email, I'll check it out**

What are the competitive swimming strokes? go to
Why do the officials disqualify swimmers? go to
How are lanes assigned? go to
What does NT mean? go to
What's a relay? go to
What do the different distances mean and what is SCY, SM, LCM? go to
What is the meet format in Maryland? go to
Why is it so important for swimmers to know their times? go to
What do "set, repeat, interval, ascend, descend, build, negative split" mean? go to 
What's a "drill"? go to
What's the purpose of warm-up before a meet? go to
Why are parents NOT allowed on deck at most swim meets? go to
Why should parents NOT do supplemental coaching? go to
How do you get to be an official (and therefore get to be on deck at meets)? go to


  What are the competitive swimming strokes ?

Backstroke:  Starting from in the water, toes at or below the water line, hands grasping either gutter or backstroke bars.  Swimmer throws body (head back towards flags) in an arch over the water.  Upon entering the water on the start swimmers should kick hard--better swimmers do a rapid, small dolphin kick--with arms overhead in a streamline position, swimmers should try to stay submerged until past the flags.  Stroke is rotating arms, head back (level with body, ears in water), and small rapid flutter kick throughout the swim--toes should be on surface of water.  Turns may be open--swimmer touches wall on back, turns around and pushes off the wall on their back--or flip (too complicated to explain here).  Finish MUST be on the back.

Butterfly:  Also known as the "fly", swimmers propel themselves forward with a combination of a forward double-arm pull and a feet-together dolphin kick (picture Flipper).  Except while breathing, the head is generally down (in a body neutral position) and the stoke follows a "head, butt, feet" progression through the water.  Both hands must exit and enter the water together; the feet must stay together through the swim.  A difficult stroke to master, almost anyone can learn the basics.  Most common mistake, other than using a flutter kick (which is illegal), is using hands and feet at the same time, making the kick into a clamshell maneuver--this stroke should flow in an undulating movement.  A 2-hand, simultaneous touch must be done on all turns and finishes.

Breaststoke:   The most complicated stroke that often takes the longest to master, however it seems to be a stroke most kids want to do... Breaststoke is swum with a double-armed underwater pull.  Except on the start and turns, the arms may not go past the hips. The kick is a simultaneous, double-legged kick, the feet MUST be turned OUT during the propulsive part of the kick--a FLUTTER, a SCISSOR, or downward BUTTERFLY kick is NOT permitted.  The basic sequence of the stroke is GLIDE-PULL-KICK-GLIDE, and every arm stroke (pull) must be followed by a kick.  Traditionally, a swimmer breathes once every stroke cycle, at the beginning of the pull phase. As with Butterfly, turns and finishes MUST be 2-handed and simultaneous.  There is a new variation on the start where a SINGLE, downward dolphin kick is allowed between the arm and leg sequence of the underwater pull-out -- talk to a coach before attempting this maneuver.

Individual Medley:    An individual medley, or IM, is an event with all of the competition strokes in a proscribed order.  Butterfly-Back-Breast-Freestyle, the overall distance of the event determines the distance of each stroke.  Competition events range in distance from 100 IM to 400 IM, practice distances vary by club/coach.  Turns from one stroke to the other (transitions) must be a legal finish in the stroke that starts the turn.  Fly to Back must be 2-handed, Back to Breast must touch on back and push off on front, Breast to Free must have a 2-handed touch.

Freestyle:   Most common name for the front crawl stroke, however technically, when a race is advertised as "freestyle" a swimmer may swim any style, or a combination of the styles (except in a medley relay or individual medley event).  Front crawl is a body forward, face down stoke, where the arms rotate and the kick should be between 2 and 6 beats per stroke cycle.  Head should remain still, except while breathing, and the body should rotate from side to side--rapid hip movements with a rapid 6-beat kick will increase speed.

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  Why do the officials disqualify swimmers?
 
Swimmers of every age and ability level NEED to be disqualified when they are doing something wrong in the sport.  Often a swimmer will ignore admonishments from coaches regarding swim technique or swimming rules, regardless of how many times they have been reminded to "touch with two hands" (stay on your back, no flutter kick with breast/fly, toes out on breast, etc.)--when they are disqualified at a meet for performing the same actions they have been taught NOT to do, somehow it sticks with them a little longer.  Young swimmers are just as capable of understanding the rights and wrongs of the sport and, as in life, everything will not always go their way. Kids are mighty resilient and a DQ can often result in a renewed determination to correct a stroke problem. A DQ can be disappointing but it teaches better habits.  Officials may also DQ swimmers for a "delay of meet" if the swimmer is disruptive at the start or not prepared when the whistles blow.

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How are lanes assigned?

Competition pools are usually a minimum of 5 lanes and a maximum of 10 lanes wide ("Y", High School, and Summer Recreation leagues may have different requirements). Swimmers are first divided into "heats" based on time of previous swim and total number of swimmers divided by number of lanes available.  Fastest swimmers go in the final heats (note: "Championship Seeding is slightly different), and those submitted with "no times" are in the initial heats.  Once divided into heats, swimmers are further separated into their lanes also based on speed of previous swims--the swimmers with the fastest submitted times go into the middle lane (lane 3 of a 6-lane pool), then spread to each side (3-4-2-5-1-6).  Heats with all “NT” swimmers are placed into their lanes randomly, and a heat mixed with NT and timed swimmers the timed swimmers will form the basis for lane assignments and the NT swimmers are placed at random.

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   What does NT mean? 

NT designates swimmers with no previous, official time in the event.  While it may often appear that a swimmer entered at NT clearly has experience at the event--that swimmer may have never swum the event legally (without a DQ), may not have swum the event in the US, or may never have swum the event in a United States Swimming-sanctioned meet, therefore the time is not an official time. While it may provide a slight psychological edge to be the fastest swimmer in a slow heat, eventually it will catch up and swimmers will have to swim in heats of appropriate speed/ability.  USA Swimming maintains databases of all sanctioned swim meet results (most valid since 2003), so technically there should be no possibility of "cheating" in this area.

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    What's a "Relay"? 

A relay is a team event, four swimmers all swimming the same distance, one after the other.  Relays may be Freestyle (competed at distances of 4x25or 100, 200, 400, or 800 yds or meters), or Medley (competed at distances of 100, 200, and 400 yds/meters).  Because backstroke MUST start in the water, the medley relay is swum out of order from the traditional individual medley--backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle (alphabetical--easy to remember).  Except is senior/open meets, or non-traditional meets, all swimmers must be of the same gender and in the same age group.  All swims must be legal as if the swimmer was competing in an individual event, the only difference is that the second, third, and fourth swimmer may have movement on the blocks prior to the start (their toes MUST NOT leave the block until the previous swimmer touches the wall.

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    What do the different distances mean and what is SCY, SCM, and LCM? 

Let's start at the end of that question...  SCY stands for short course yards--that is swum in a 25-yard pool--standard for USA-Swimming age group swimming during the fall, winter, spring seasons. SCM stands for short course meters.  Much of the rest of the world swims in 25 meter pools, however there are not that many in the US.  The USA-Swimming SCM season is fall and early winter only, but only in certain areas of the country.  Summer recreational leagues in many areas swim in 25-meter pools. LCM stands for Long Course Meters--a 50-meter pool, Olympic-sized (ignore what the hotel chains promise you...).  The LCM season in the US is from early spring to early fall. There are meets swum "out of season" throughout the year in many locations in the US.  Most elite-level swim meets compete in LCM pools. 

 Each event is set at a proscribed distance and distances vary among the age groups. 8 and unders are the only age group which swims 25s (one length of the pool), 12 and unders are the only ones who get to swim 50s (a "lap" or two laps, depending on how you describe a length), except for the 50 Fr.  13 and over swimmers swim 100s and 200s of the various strokes, 50, 100, 200, 400/500, 800/1000, 1500/1650 Freestyle, and 200/400 IM.  Non-traditional meets may allow older swimmers to swim short distances.  Most meets will offer opportunities for younger swimmers to swim events of the same distances as the older swimmers.

To most coaches, and many swimmers, a "length" is called a "lap" (don't ask me how/why), so when the coach says to swim 200--that means 8 laps, although it really is 8 LENGTHS and only 4 laps--please don't confuse us anymore than we already are--it works for us, explain it to your children.

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   What is the meet format in Maryland?

The majority of meets in Maryland are 2-day events, separated into four sessions, with two age groups at each session (there are, of course, variations).  MD Swimming rules dictate that each meet session for 12 and under swimmers last no more than 4 hours (from start of meet, not warm-up) and host teams are actually fined when meets run over that 4-hour point.  Occasionally there will be 3-day meets that include swimming on a Friday--these are usually the "distance" events and the meets start at around 5:00PM.  Championship meets in MD are 4-days with the Distance events on Thursday.  Some meets (Elite, Senior, some A &up meets, Championship meets) run in a trial-final format.  Trials and finals mean that the fastest swimmers will swim events twice in one day--the first time in the trials where the fastest 8 or 16 are then brought back to participate in the finals.  When 16 (or even occasionally 24) are brought back, the first 8 are in the A final, second 8 in B, bonus, or consolation final, and the same for the last 8).  These meets can be very tiring for swimmers who don't swim much during practice.

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   Why is it so important for swimmers to know their times?

Swimmers really need to know their times, both in practice and at meets, as well as their personal best times for all their events, because, ultimately a swimmer is swimming against the clock, not another person.  Winning a race but not swimming a best time is more of a disappointment (or SHOULD BE) than not winning but swimming a personal best.  Not swimming a personal best implies that the competition was too slow for the swimmer and the swimmer did not actually do their best in the pool.
Coaches stress knowledge of work-out/practice times because swimmers NEED to know at what level they are working.  A swimmer who's best 50-meter time is 32.65 but fastest swim in practice is 38.04 is simply NOT working at an appropriate level.  Repeats, descending, and ascending sets all require knowledge of individual swim times.  A coach should be able to tell a swimmer, " each swim in this set should be within 7 seconds of your best time in this event" and the swimmer, regardless of ability level, should be able to attempt that set--with full knowledge of their own best time in that event.
A swimmer who doesn't know their best time cannot race effectively, simply because they DON'T know what they are trying to do -- if you don't know your time then you can't remember how you felt during the swim of that best time, you cannot focus on achieving a best time.  Nothing irritates a coach like a swimmer NOT knowing that they swam a best time.

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  What do "Set”, “Repeat”, “Interval”, “Ascend”, “Descend”, “Build”, “Negative Split" mean?

SET:  A number of repeated swims on a given interval
REPEAT:  The same swim REPEATED (depends on length of set).  10 x 100 FR, 5 X 200 IM, 12 X 25 FL are all examples of repeats
INTERVAL:  A) Repeat INTERVAL -- the time that you have to swim each REPEAT.  10 X 100 Fr @ 1:30 means that the swimmer has 1 minute 30 seconds to swim a 100 freestyle and then REPEAT that 10 times.  Whatever time is left between when the swimmer finishes their 100 Free and the 1:30 is their rest time--if they want rest then they must swim each 100 FASTER than 1:30 (or whatever interval they were given)
           B)  Rest INTERVAL -- the amount of time the swimmer gets to rest between each swim of the set.  Regardless of how fast or how slow the swimmer swims the repeats, the rest remains the same (although there can be descending/ascending rest intervals, also).
           C)  Swimmer INTERVAL -- the amount of time between each swimmer in the lane.  Usually 5-10 seconds depending on the number of swimmers in the lane, it (theoretically) prevents swimmers from swimming on top of each other, prevents drafting, and forces swimmers who wish to lead the lane to swim faster--either to keep following swimmers from passing or to pass swimmers in front of them.
ASCEND:  When a swimmer is told to ASCEND a set of repeats, this tells the swimmer that each repeat should be slower than the swim previous.  This helps teach swimmers clock management, feel for the water as they slow down, and discipline.
DESCEND:  Making each repeat of a set FASTER than the previous one while remaining on the same repeat interval.  Swimmers MUST check the clock when they leave the wall and when they return, so they know how fast they must swim the next swim. Descend swims also teach clock management and discipline but also teaches them how to negative split longer swims and  how the water feels as they swim faster but may be more tired.
BUILD: The speed of the swimmer increases throughout the individual swims.  Starting out at an even pace and completing the swim as fast as possible.  Often used in meet warm-ups build swims help to raise heart rate and increase feel for the water at a high speed.  Building through a turn enables (encourages) swimmers to learn to enter and exit each turn as fast as possible -- optimum for good meet performance.
NEGATIVE SPLIT:  This is when the first half of a swim (practice or meet) is faster than the first half.  A solid strategy to learn, it encourages swimmers to stress the back half of a race at a time when the whole field is often fatigued.  A swimmer who successfully learns to negative split swims is often far more successfully than the swimmer who doesn't bother.  In practice a coach will often ask for a negative split swim (requiring the swimmer to learn a feel for each swim and how to read a clock quickly on an open turn) to teach the swimmer the fundamentals of the strategy and how a fast swim by a fatigued swimmer can be an exhilarating experience.

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What's a "drill"? 
  
Drills are repetitive movements usually stressing or exaggerating a specific portion of a stroke.  There are as many stroke drills as there are coaches (more probably), furthermore, there are also drills for speed, starts, turns, race strategy, etc.  Can't even begin to break them out here so I will focus on a few of the more common.

FINGERTIP DRAG:  (FTD) Usually a freestyle drill used to emphasize high elbow recovery.  Fingertips are dragged through the water (rather than exiting completely), which forces the elbow to stay high and the arm bent on the recovery.
CATCH-UP:  (CU) Also usually a freestyle drill, often used in conjunction with fingertip drag.  Hands must touch at the end of each recovery (in front of the head).  Forces faster kicking, increases length of stroke, can help decrease the "surfboard stroke", helps decrease number of strokes taken per length.
ZIPPER: (Z) Also known as the thumb drag, the hands come up the body on the stroke recovery, touching the body from the hips to the armpits.  Also emphasizes high elbow recovery and increased kicking speed.

What's the purpose of warm-up before a meet?
Why are parents NOT allowed on deck at most swim meets?
Why should parents NOT do supplemental coaching?
How do you get to be an official (and therefore get to be on deck at meets)?


 
 
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