Kids are different these days. The world they live in has changed and accelerated. Instant gratification is the norm. Globalisation is a fact. However, often when I look around at the world of swim meets not much has changed… We still expect our swimmers to enter and endure 2 to 3 day meets, which run from dawn to dusk and include every event from 50m to 1500m and every age grouping, never mind those that include heats and finals too. The modern family is resource rich, but time poor. The average time spent at Saturday morning sport is 2 – 3hrs. Perhaps we can learn from this… When planning my annual calendar my goal for most of our events (excluding Major Championships and National titles) is that we can complete the meet in one 3 to 4hr session. Here are 10 great meet ideas you might like to try at the club, local, regional or even International level. If you host it, they will come!
Dual Meets
The American High School and College system thrive on these. Invite one other team to your pool for a head to head meet. Both coaches agree a sensible number of events (4 – 6 usually and ALWAYS relays) and then go at it. Short and sweet, these meets build great rivalry and friendships. You can host on an alternating basis.
Single Stroke Meets
Host a series of four small meets instead of one massive one. Offer only 1 stroke at the event. E.g. At the Freestyle Meet you can offer 25m, 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m Freestyle only.
Mini Meets for 8 & Unders
For swimmers in these age groups the worst introduction to swim meets is an event where they swim once then wait for 3hrs for their next event. Host their meets separately. Four 25m events, a novelty event or two and a 4 x 25m relay then head home. You can get it all done and dusted in one morning session.
Seniors-Only Meets with a Social Afterwards
Host a sprint and relay meet for swimmers aged 13yrs + (No Swim-ups Permitted). Swim under lights, crank up the tunes, give out non-medal prizes (cash/iTunes credit/goggles) and finish with a pizza party or a dive in movie.
PB Meets
Host a standard meet but award the 1st, 2nd 3rd medals to the biggest improvers not top 3 finishers.
Pentathlons
Five events; 4 x 50’s + 100m/200m IM for Juniors and 4 x 100’s + 200m/400m IM for Seniors). Swimmers compete for points and prizes are awarded for the combined high point winner in each age group. Great for age groupers as it reinforces long term athlete development and guards against early specialisation.
Open Mixed Seeding
Hy-Tek’s Meet Manager™ is a powerful tool and allows you to structure events as Multi-Age/Gender for results and scoring purposes but swim as Mixed and Open for seeding purposes. This means fast, homogenous heats and a chance for Boys and Girls to race against one another. This approach also saves times.
Travel Meets
Never under-estimate the power of getting on a bus (or plane/boat/train) as a team (coaches, managers and swimmers only) and competing away from home. Travelling, eating and staying away from home together builds bonds and lifelong memories. You don’t need a big budget either. If need be you can car pool, camp and self-cater.
Online Virtual Meet
Host a time trial (this works great for Long Distance Freestyle events) and partner with a club/team in an exotic far flung corner of the country or globe. All times are submitted and collated in the virtual world and prizes can be team caps for the brother/sister club. This is the new age version of the postal meet and pen pal.
Charity Meets
It’s a fact that as the world has become more “connected” we are less likely to be actively engaged in our local community. Why not host a meet whereby no awards are given out and instead entry fees are directed to a local charity group. You can also engage sponsors, hold raffles, a bake sale and invite your beneficiaries to be there. Giving back is a great example to our children and a meet focused on “times and smiles” rather than “medals and point-scores” can produce some great results.
So when you are writing your next annual plan or helping to plan your regional meet calendar do consider something that’s a little “out of the box”. Better yet ask the swimmers themselves – they’ll be sure to tell you what they do and don’t enjoy.
This article has been previously published by the Australian Swimming Coaches & Teachers Association.
Our club hosted a mini meet – girls in morning and boys in afternoon. So for most parents and swimmers – only a 3 hour attendance required. Much better for all!
Love these ideas. They all sound like fun, but there is a flip side I would like coaches and booster clubs to consider as you plan meets.
My granddaughter swims on a rural team. On average, we have to drive 3 hours to a meet! So short meets, where entry is limited to say 3 events is just not worth either driving to the venu and getting a hotel room the night before or leaving in the wee morning hours to be at the pool for 7 am warm ups.
More than likely our team will choose classic meets that stretch over the weekend. We do appreciate meets where the older swimmers swim in the mornings, younger swimmers in… Read more »
Yes, keep the FUN in Swimming!
I’ve been at meets where they play music during random heats and if you win that heat, you get a prize, like a swim chamois towel or SWIM car magnet, etc!
The Charity idea is great. Many kids need “service hours” in their community, and giving them a chance to work at the meet for hours (ie, older kids time and do other jobs at a 12U meet).
Sorry, didn’t read above .. yes the “Hot Heat” thing is great! Love how it gets the crowd involved! Wake up those spectators and make this the # funnestsport!!!!
The best part about the meet was that the swimmers in the hot heat didn’t know they were in the hot heat because it would be announced after they were already in the water. The whole deck would immediately start cheering like crazy and it would get really loud and exciting. Even teams who didn’t have a swimmer in the heat would usually be dancing along to the song. It was always just a fun atmosphere while encouraging kids to swim they’re best and rewarding them with a little extra insentive, wether they were in heat 1 or heat 9.
Another fun meet my team used to go to back when I was an age group swimmer was a “hot heat” meet. Randomly throughout the meet (usually once or twice per event), after the heat dove off, a song would start playing over the loud speakers and the announcer would get on and say “It’s a hoootttt heatttt” (kind of like “let’s get ready to rumble” is typically said) the winner of a hot heat would get a little ribbon after they finished and then would be able to pick a prize from the prize table/ treasure chest
The title of this article is a bit deceiving considering most members of Generation Y/Millennials (those born from 1982-2000) are over 20 with the youngest being 15. A better title would be “10 Swim Meet Ideas for Youth Swimmers.” (Although as a millennial closer to the top of the range I would still enjoy many of these meets!)
dmswim – while Time Magazine arbitrarily defined Millennials as 1982-2000, there isn’t a good sociological definition so far. That has a lot to do with the fact that the historical metrics used to define generations aren’t the same as they were with Gen X, Baby Boomers, and all of the prior generations. It will probably be another decade before sociologists can get a good grasp on when the Millennial generation ends. The general consensus right now seems to be “early 2000’s.”
“give out non-medal prizes (cash/iTunes credit/goggles) and finish with a pizza party or a dive in movie.”
Please, Please,Please,Please,Please,Please,Please,Please do NOT give out cash/iTunes credit.
#IneligibleforCollegeSwimming
THE Other Hulk – The author of this piece is Australian…and roughly 40% of our audience isn’t American either, but yes, everyone should be aware of their own personal ramifications before accepting prizes.
Completely understandable!
An idea my Masters team has played around with, but never done anything with, is an all relay meet. 100, 200, 400, and 800 relays of all the strokes (yeah, the backstroke relay would be a challenge to pull off) and 100, 200, 400, and 800 medley relays.
I’ve had my Masters swimmers do a 90% relay practice where we ended up doing a variation of those, but we’ve never hosted a meet like that.
…and since it’s Masters, the idea would be to offer men’s, women’s, and mixed relays.
We do an all relay meet in my high school swim conference. It’s a lot of fun. For the backstroke relays we just do a normal relay start and then turn on our backs