Swimming Glossary
AGE AT: Recently most meets have moved to grouping swimmers according to their age at the end of the year, i.e. 31 December. This is in line with the major swimming competitions such as Nationals. However, some promoters still run their events according to your age on the day of the race
AGE GROUP: Division of swimmers according to age, usually in one or two year bands
ASA: Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British swimming
ASA NUMBER: A unique reference number that you will be provided with when joining a swimming club and asked to provide when entering galas
BACK UP TIME: The time given to a swimmer when they fail to stop the electronic timing by hitting the timing pad hard enough or the pad fails to record a time. The backup time is initiated by the time keeper pressing a button as soon as the swimmer finishes the race
BAGCATS: British Age Group Categories are a point-based system operated by the ASA. Their objective is to encourage development across multiple strokes and distances for girls under 14 and boys under 15 and to discourage specialisation at too early a stage in a swimmer’s career
BLOCKS: The starting platforms which are located behind each lane
BRITISH RANKINGS: this is a database maintained by British Swimming which records all times of all swimmers at licensed meets. You can see all your own PBs as well as looking at how you rank against others at County, Regional or National level
CLOSING DATE: The last date when entries into a competition have to be received by the club in order to send them to the Meet Organiser. Entries will not be accepted after the closing date
CONVERTED TIME: normally for meets you will be asked to provide either a LC or SC time (see below). For most (but not all) meets you are allowed to use a converted time which means using official conversion tables to switch times e.g. from a race swum in a 25m pool to an equivalent time for a 50m pool. NB 50m times are slower because of the lack of turns. Use the Pullbuoy website converter to help you work out your times.
COURSE: The length of pool: Long Course (LC) = 50 metres / Short Course (SC) = 25 metres
DNF: Did Not Finish - you will see this against the results of a swimmer who fails to complete a race
DNS: Did Not Start - you will see this against the results of a swimmer who fails to start a race
DQ: Disqualified - it happens!
ELECTRONIC TIMING: A timing system that is operated electronically which normally has touch pads in the water that hook up to a computer and records the swimmers split and finish times when they touch the pad
ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE: The status of a member swimmer that means they are registered with the ASA and have met all the entry requirements
ENTRY FEES: The amount per event a swimmer or relay is charged. This varies depending on the type of meet
ENTRY LIMIT: Normally meets have a maximum number of swimmers they can accept for each race
EVENT: A race
FINA: Federation Internationale de National de Amateur, the international governing body of competitive swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming
FALSE START: When a swimmer leaves the starting block or moves on the block before the starter has started the race. The swimmer will be disqualified for making a false start
FAULTY START: When a swimmer or swimmers leave the starting block because of an error of an official or failure of the starting equipment
HEAT DECLARED WINNER (HDW): open meets will normally be run on an HDW basis which means that only heats are swum, not heats and finals. Swimmers are put in heats according to entry time which means you get a mix of age groups swimming in the same heat. The winner is the swimmer in the relevant category, usually age, with the fastest time over all of the heats, not the winner of a particular heat. A headache for spectators wanting to know the result because you have to identify all the swimmers in a particular age category and note all their times before you know how well your swimmer has done (barring disqualifications)!
HYTEK: you will see reference to Hytek on the website in various places and often in relation to competitions. It is an official database, maintained by the club, that records your times
LICENSED MEET: in order for race times to be official and recognised by British Swimming, they must be swum at a licensed meet. There are four levels of meet with level 1 being the highest. The qualification for higher level meets will be harder and aimed at higher level swimmers
MEET MOBILE: a useful app that provides real time results at selected galas
OT OFFICIAL TIME: The swimmers event time recorded to one hundredth of a second (.01)
OFFICIALS: these are the people in white you see poolside at galas. They are all qualified and registered officials who are there to make sure that swimmers abide by the official rules. Open meets are dependent on having a certain number of officials to meet their license so if you want to support your swimmer this is a great way to get involved
OPEN COMPETITION: Meet Competition which any qualified club, organisation, or individual may enter
OVER THE TOP START: At some meets and galas for Front Crawl (Freestyle), Breaststroke and Butterfly races to save time the swimmers will remain in the water after their event until the next race starts.
PERSONAL BEST (PB) - The best time a swimmer has done so far in each stroke and distance
QUALIFICATION TIME (QT) - often the conditions of a meet will require you to have swum a minimum (and occasionally maximum) time at a licensed meet in order to qualify
SIGN IN: most meets will require you to arrive by a certain time to sign in for your events. If you miss this you won't be able to swim
WITHDRAWAL/SIGN OUT: some meets will have a withdrawal system rather than a sign in. This means you need to let the organisers know if you are NOT swimming - sometimes there are financial penalties for not advising them so keep on top of this!
AGE GROUP: Division of swimmers according to age, usually in one or two year bands
ASA: Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British swimming
ASA NUMBER: A unique reference number that you will be provided with when joining a swimming club and asked to provide when entering galas
BACK UP TIME: The time given to a swimmer when they fail to stop the electronic timing by hitting the timing pad hard enough or the pad fails to record a time. The backup time is initiated by the time keeper pressing a button as soon as the swimmer finishes the race
BAGCATS: British Age Group Categories are a point-based system operated by the ASA. Their objective is to encourage development across multiple strokes and distances for girls under 14 and boys under 15 and to discourage specialisation at too early a stage in a swimmer’s career
BLOCKS: The starting platforms which are located behind each lane
BRITISH RANKINGS: this is a database maintained by British Swimming which records all times of all swimmers at licensed meets. You can see all your own PBs as well as looking at how you rank against others at County, Regional or National level
CLOSING DATE: The last date when entries into a competition have to be received by the club in order to send them to the Meet Organiser. Entries will not be accepted after the closing date
CONVERTED TIME: normally for meets you will be asked to provide either a LC or SC time (see below). For most (but not all) meets you are allowed to use a converted time which means using official conversion tables to switch times e.g. from a race swum in a 25m pool to an equivalent time for a 50m pool. NB 50m times are slower because of the lack of turns. Use the Pullbuoy website converter to help you work out your times.
COURSE: The length of pool: Long Course (LC) = 50 metres / Short Course (SC) = 25 metres
DNF: Did Not Finish - you will see this against the results of a swimmer who fails to complete a race
DNS: Did Not Start - you will see this against the results of a swimmer who fails to start a race
DQ: Disqualified - it happens!
ELECTRONIC TIMING: A timing system that is operated electronically which normally has touch pads in the water that hook up to a computer and records the swimmers split and finish times when they touch the pad
ELIGIBLE TO COMPETE: The status of a member swimmer that means they are registered with the ASA and have met all the entry requirements
ENTRY FEES: The amount per event a swimmer or relay is charged. This varies depending on the type of meet
ENTRY LIMIT: Normally meets have a maximum number of swimmers they can accept for each race
EVENT: A race
FINA: Federation Internationale de National de Amateur, the international governing body of competitive swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming
FALSE START: When a swimmer leaves the starting block or moves on the block before the starter has started the race. The swimmer will be disqualified for making a false start
FAULTY START: When a swimmer or swimmers leave the starting block because of an error of an official or failure of the starting equipment
HEAT DECLARED WINNER (HDW): open meets will normally be run on an HDW basis which means that only heats are swum, not heats and finals. Swimmers are put in heats according to entry time which means you get a mix of age groups swimming in the same heat. The winner is the swimmer in the relevant category, usually age, with the fastest time over all of the heats, not the winner of a particular heat. A headache for spectators wanting to know the result because you have to identify all the swimmers in a particular age category and note all their times before you know how well your swimmer has done (barring disqualifications)!
HYTEK: you will see reference to Hytek on the website in various places and often in relation to competitions. It is an official database, maintained by the club, that records your times
LICENSED MEET: in order for race times to be official and recognised by British Swimming, they must be swum at a licensed meet. There are four levels of meet with level 1 being the highest. The qualification for higher level meets will be harder and aimed at higher level swimmers
MEET MOBILE: a useful app that provides real time results at selected galas
OT OFFICIAL TIME: The swimmers event time recorded to one hundredth of a second (.01)
OFFICIALS: these are the people in white you see poolside at galas. They are all qualified and registered officials who are there to make sure that swimmers abide by the official rules. Open meets are dependent on having a certain number of officials to meet their license so if you want to support your swimmer this is a great way to get involved
OPEN COMPETITION: Meet Competition which any qualified club, organisation, or individual may enter
OVER THE TOP START: At some meets and galas for Front Crawl (Freestyle), Breaststroke and Butterfly races to save time the swimmers will remain in the water after their event until the next race starts.
PERSONAL BEST (PB) - The best time a swimmer has done so far in each stroke and distance
QUALIFICATION TIME (QT) - often the conditions of a meet will require you to have swum a minimum (and occasionally maximum) time at a licensed meet in order to qualify
SIGN IN: most meets will require you to arrive by a certain time to sign in for your events. If you miss this you won't be able to swim
WITHDRAWAL/SIGN OUT: some meets will have a withdrawal system rather than a sign in. This means you need to let the organisers know if you are NOT swimming - sometimes there are financial penalties for not advising them so keep on top of this!
