Swim Meet Etiquette for MAC swimmers and their families

We have a lot of new families that have recently joined MAC as well as those families that are seasoned veterans of this super, terrific sport called competitive swimming.  With this in mind, we feel it is a great time to educate and also remind swimmers and their family members about the behaviors we would love to see from everyone.

Swimmers should arrive 10-15 minutes prior to the start of warm-up.  This gives them time to find a place to put their chairs and bags and still be able to get in the water at the start of warm-up.  Please understand that when a swimmer arrives to the edge of the pool 10-15 minutes late, the team has already completed their first portion of warm-up.  This is very disruptive for the flow of warm-up (especially with 10 kids in a lane). Sometimes you will see that we ask the late swimmers to wait until we can free up some space so that everyone can get the proper warm-up.  Other times you will see us ask them to go to another part of the pool to warm-up because we know we won’t be able to free up space where we are located.  This can all be avoided by being on time!  Parents – we truly appreciate your help with this!

Swimmers should come to their assigned coach before and after their race.  Parents- please do not accompany your swimmer to the coaches’ table before or after their races.  There is very little space at the coaches table and we really need to give the swimmers their last minute instructions/encouragement with few distractions before their event.  Directly following their race, swimmers should warm-down first (after a quick “high five” from their parents) before coming to see their coach for a breakdown of their race.  Parents- feel free to ask your child what the coach said when your swimmer comes back to the team seating area.  This will allow the swimmer to repeat the critique/praise and we all know if a swimmer hears (coach’s words), sees (swimmers splits) and speaks (repeats what coach said) something, that swimmer will have a better chance of remembering it!  

Parents – you will see that the above paragraph says “assigned coach”.  Some kids are coached by 2 different coaches, so the coaches will let them know a few days before the meet which swimmer should go to which coach during each session.  Other times, multiple coaches are unable to attend a session, so the kids are assigned a coach from another group for that session.  Even though all MAC coaches do not have the same personality, we all share the same swimming philosophy and the same desire to help swimmers improve.  The same would hold true for warm-up.  We have tried to be very consistent with what we give the kids for warm-up, so that any coach can warm-up any swimmer and the swimmer will feel comfortable.

All MAC swimmers and family members should always respect the volunteer officials.  Please do not approach an official with anything.  Please allow the coach to submit all inquiries or complaints.  Also, let’s just show respect to all humans on deck!  Be kind, smile, and show AZ swimming that we are a different breed of people at MAC. :0)  We hope this helps all our MAC families understand how the coaches try to give the swimmers a routine to follow at meets.  Remember: Racing is mental, not so much physical.  If we can get the kids committed to a routine at the meet, then they can just focus on the excitement and fun of racing!  Thanks for taking the time to read.  Have a great day!