| SCORING 101
OK...you have made it through the team
orientation, your child child has a spanking new jammers and you have been
diligently attending practice sessions, but the swim meet scoring has you
totally in a fog. First of all, one never knows whether our team is
winning or losing because you can't see a rolling score on the scoreboard.
Welcome to Age Group Swimming. You might also have heard the terms
"live heats" versus "exhibition heats". The term exhibition quickly
brings up all kinds of thoughts, but what does it really mean? This
short primer is for those parents and swimmers who are new to competitive
swimming. Thanks to our very own Deb Trimmer, we have compressed the
mystery of swim meet scoring into a few short paragraphs. Let's start
with the points scored by finish place.
Most
of the pools we will swim in are six lanes. By order of finish, the
points assigned are as follows:
For Individual events...versus relays:
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1st - 6 points
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2nd - 4 points
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3rd - 3 points
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4th - 2 points
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5th - 1 points
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Each team can only have a maximum of 3 swimmers in each event. The
first 3 swimmers constitute the "live heat", meaning those individuals who
can score points for the team. Subsequent heats in the same event
make up what is call the Exhibition Heats. Any one team can only
score a maximum of 13 points in an event, providing that team takes 1st,
2nd, and 3rd place. Ribbons are given thru 6th place, but unfortunately,
no points are scored for finishing in 6th place.
For relay events, the scoring system is
slightly modified:
In relay events, only the first three (3)
place finishes earn points...........AND, no one team can SWEEP a
relay.....thus, the maximum points that any one team can earn in a relay
event is 12 points...if the 3rd place finishers are from the same team,
they earn 0 points.
A word about Exhibition Events
Team scoring being what it is, makes
selection of swimmers a challenging task for the coaching staff. You
definitely want to have your best swimmers in the events, where they can
produce the most points for the team. Since team members can only swim
in four events; one of which can be a relay, you need to think carefully
about how you use each member of the team for maximum benefit.
Exhibition events also allow the coaching staff to evaluate the skill
development of each swimmer under race conditions. It's not unusual to
see an individual in an exhibition event post a time better than a swimmer
that is swimming in the live heat. It's hard to tell when a swimmer
will "break out" of their normal event times to post a new "significant"
personal best. Exhibition heats allow the coaching staff to make
decisions about swimmers for future events.
It's important to recognize that swimmers
in exhibition heats are trying just as hard to win their events as swimmers
in the live heats. Most swimmers start their swimming careers in
exhibition heats. It's where they perfect their strokes and build
their stamina and reduce their time. Thus, they achieve their
personal goals. |
