Hamptons Hammerheads Swim Team

Heat Sheets

Heat sheets are emailed prior to meets. They include swimmer names, events, strokes, heat numbers, and lanes for all 62 events. Events are done by age groups: 8 & under, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18 for girls and boys. Swimmers are placed in heats and lanes by time. The coaches must know when your child will not attend a meet in order to avoid last minute adjustments on the pool deck.

Meet Events

Each swimmer is eligible to swim 3 individual events and 2 relays. For swimmers ages 10 & under, races are 25 yards/meters. For swimmers ages 11 & over, races are 50 yards/meters. The Individual Medley is 25 yards/meters of each stroke.

Individual Medley Order: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle

Relays

Each age group participates in freestyle and medley relays. Relay teams are made up of four swimmers based on individual times. For swimmers ages 10 & under, relay events are 100 yards/meters with each relay team member swimming 25. For swimmers ages 11 & over, relay events are 200 yards/meters with each relay team member swimming 50.

Medley Relay Order: Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, Freestyle

Arm-Marking

Swimmers should come to meets with their events marked on their arms. This practice allows the coaches, child gatherers, clerk of course, and swimmers to know when they are swimming. An example is below.

A swimmer is swimming:

#3 Girls 9-10 100 Medley Relay, heat 1, lane 3, 3rd swimmer

#13 Girls 9-10 25 Free, heat 6, lane 1

The events will be written on her arm as follows:

E    H    L

3    1     3  med rel (3)

13  6     1  free

Note: relays also include the swimmer's order in the line-up.

Disqualifications (DQs)

In the North Star Swim League, each race is judged by Stroke & Turn Judge volunteers. The judges watch for the basic elements of strokes and will DQ when they are not performed properly. The benefit of the doubt always goes to the swimmer.

Example required elements:

Freestyle: Must start and end the race in the same stroke.

Backstroke: During flip-turn (50 yd/m race), must glide on stomach without extra pulls after flipping to stomach to make turn.

Breaststroke: Kick must be from bottom of foot, arms may not pull past hips, must finish race with two hands on the wall.

Butterfly: Two hand finish, arms moving simultaneously, legs in dolphin kick only.

Scoring Points