How to get ready to do first meet ever?

The main thing is to GO and have FUN! No one will scream at you if you come in last. At the local meets everyone is swimming for their own personal best and NOT for the team. No one is going for scholarships or college recruitments--that's over at your age. Aside from that--make sure you have a good pair of goggles that don't leak and you have learned how to dive into the pool without losing the goggles! Bring a couple of extra towels to take poolside (it gets chilly between events). I used to take a plastic bottle of Orange Juice (for something to drink) and I know alot of people bring grapes in a baggie or even orange slices. You need something to eat - so this is it. Bring a pencil and paper with you to write down your times (someone will give you them at the end of the heat) -- you'll get the final results later. Also--if you wear glasses--it makes it better if you do bring them poolside so you can SEE the other events taking place--just make SURE to bring a case for them. And a pair of floppies (or flip-flops) are a good idea--there may be people watching who are wearing street shoes and bring in all kinds of things on their shoes. Make sure you're comfortable in your swimsuit -- it isn't too small or baggy. You may want to experiment with a cap BEFORE the meet. I wore a cap with the goggles OVER it but some prefer the goggles under the cap. Don't worry--all the people are friendly and don't bite. Everyone is in this both for the spirit of competition and the friendships. edited to make it DIVE instead of DRIVE

Make sure you go to a meet with some teammates. The experienced ones can give you advice, the newer ones sympathy. :cool: If you are very concerned about starts, then you can start from the side. (Some people are self conscious, but you have to weigh a tiny social pain versus the possibility of doing a belly-flopper. :eek: ) Of course, just because you can start from the pool, doesn't mean you shouldn't be working towards a good block start. ;)

Another suggestion: talk to the referee. They are there due to the love of the sport, not for fame and fortune. :) You should be able to find times to approach them, mention that this is your first meet, and ask basic questions. The refs at Illinois meets are great. (One pointed out a flaw in my butterfly turns, that if it got worse, would lead to disqualification in the future. So alerted, I got a chance to fix it before it became a problem.)

Just do it. Don't think about it too much, don't make too big of a deal out of it. You're going for the experience, and it doesn't have to be perfect the first time out. I did my first meet 3 weeks after I started swimming (at 34). That was just his last August. My times were about the same as yours are right now. Having more experienced teammates there made a huge difference. One thing that helped was that in the past I had come to a few meets with one of my swimmer friends, to watch her, and I got the overview of the basics. Good Luck! Let us know how it went!

Venus, Welcome to the World of Meets! Almost everyone at these Masters events, including myself, have "been there, done that." The "Other Mark" is correct about starts, but there's probably some "physical pain" in doing a belly-flopper, too. :D Continue practicing starts and you will certainly get the hang of it in short order. You might also consider these suggestions that I've learned in just over two years of competing: Bring an extra pair of goggles. I had a teammate break his nose piece just before his next event. The spare pair I had saved him from missing his event. Bring an extra suit. You never know, you might stick a toe in the wrong place and rip a hole into one. And no one really wants to swim in a holey suit. :D Arrive early. Nothing is worse than rushing there, changing your clothes and having scant time to warm up and/or think about what's next. Can't stress this enough! Don't be afraid to ask questions even if you are with teammates. Ignore the butterflies. You are there to do you personal best and THAT'S all that is expected ... and to have fun. Do take in what's going on. It will make the next meet easier! After it's over, you probably feel that you are one Cloud Nine. You deserve it as you done something that most folks would never contemplating doing ... participating in a swim meet. Now, go get 'em. As ConnieKat says, let us know you how ya did. Regards, Mark

The rules are on this master's web site. Look for the topic rules on the homepage. Freestyle is the stroke that you are least likely to get DQ. You can swim it anyway you want. Just don't false start and if you do a flip turn make certain your feet touch the wall. I know when you are tried that you can barely touch the wall and do a turn o that's too faraway. I have done that but managed to have both my feet make it. I would suggest the 100 to 500 yard swims at the first me. The 50 yard takes a lot of speed and if you are not in too good of shape, the 1,000 and 1,650 can be killers.

Thank you all very much this is just the kind of information I was looking for. As far as my team this sounds weird I know but they practice at lunch and I don't have time to practice with them due to work so I am practicing early morning. The coach is there to talk to and I'm told some others on the team are there too but I don't know who is on the team because we don't wear signs hah. Once I do my first meet I will finally get to know who is on the team and then I can ask them questions. I am planning to do a meet later this year after hopefully getting a bit better than I am now, but who knows maybe sooner. I will follow up after it's over. Thanks again! :)

My "meet experience" is limited to 3 whole meets, but the first one I ever went to was 2 years ago. I was real nervous about starts because I had only ever dove off the side, never off a block. So the Masters coach had me practicing a lot of starts the Friday before. I did a lot of smacking the water mostly hitting my upper quads hard because I was not getting the angle right. The blocks at our old Y are very high and akward, so the next day I woke up and had huge bruises all over my upper legs. I had to go to the meet Sunday just covered with bruises. I looked like a newbie, that's for sure. I also made sure my goggles fit, but even so, sometimes they slip on the start. My 50 free race was done with water filled goggles! Things I wished I had brought that first meet was something to read. I went to a meet a long way away, and did not know anyone. Most people had things to do, so I just sat there and watched the swims. Bring water, and light things to eat, and don't be surprised if you are real, real hungry afterwards. Give yourself allowance to eat a good meal afterwards. Also, I got there right at the start of warm-ups and made sure I was the first in. A lot of people come a little later, so I had a lane to myself for a good 20 minutes, which was nice to get the feel of the pool. I did open turns because I had just learned flip turns, and it felt wierd to do an open turn in a different pool than my own. I also missed one of my events because I got mixed up on the order of events. Since I run my kid's age group meets on computer, I knew that there would probably be an empty lane to slip me in, so I immediately went to the computer person and asked if I could get in to an empty lane, and then got to swim. I had the advantage of being to many, many of my kids meets, so knew how swim meets run. However, there is a big, big difference between the kids meets and Masters. Masters meets have an extremely relaxed feeling about them. People are there to swim their best and socialize. There are all kinds of shapes, sizes and speeds at a Masters meet, people who did their starts in the water, very overweight people, and very slim trim fast people. Mostly people just do there swims, get out and read, talk, eat, or sleep. Good luck.

Originally posted by msgrupp Aside from that--make sure you have a good pair of goggles that don't leak and you have learned how to drive into the pool without losing the goggles! This is great advice! You see a lot of people end up with their goggles down around their mouths during Masters meets. Most people aren't exactly doing a lot of starts from the blocks during practice. I think goggles tend to come off when people don't dunk their heads enough. Your eyes should probably be looking toward the bottom of the pool, and definitely not at the far end of the pool, when you enter the water. It will take you some experience to learn how to properly pace your races. It you're swimming all fairly short events (say 100 yards/meters or less), make sure you start out close to "all out." You'll be disppointed if finish the race and think you still have lots of energy. On the other hand, if you die a little at the end at least you know you gave it your all, and you'll have a better idea of what to do next time. Good luck and have fun! Don't sweat the rules too much. Heck if you do something wrong and get DQed, big deal. You'll learn from it and do it right the next time.

Just to add my 2 cents, here's a quote from Coach *** Jochums of the Santa Clara Swim Club that sums up my viewpoint ---> participating in life is truly better than standing on the sidelines: “Those who strive, those who leave nothing on the table, those who will take the risk, will all be winners. Life is truly sweeter for those who truly live it. The world belongs, and will always belong, to the people who participate. Those who stand on the outside, who never risk, who never fail, cannot now, or will they ever, understand the beauty of each breath of life. So don’t feel sorry for those who fail, feel sorry for the majority that never participate. They’ll just never understand, let alone feel, all that life can and should be.” I had a fellow Masters swimmer give me the push to compete and it's an awesome thing to do. Doesn't matter how you do, the Masters community supports every swimmer! I'm actually most impressed by new swimmers just going for it. So, welcome to the family of masters swimming.