WHICH GALA TO ENTER
Just a brief explanation on types of meets
Whether it is your first gala, or you are aiming to stand on the podium at the Olympics, all swimmers have to start somewhere. Being able to compete at your own club champs is a great place to start, however, if you have to wait a long time for the event, local clubs who hold level 4 and No Time galas is the way to go.
When your child starts swimming competitively it can be overwhelming as a parent understanding all the aspects when trying to enter meets, my advice to a swimmer starting off is, if you can swim it in training, enter all those events in a No Time gala, once you have times on the rankings you can then enter meets that require times. Once you have done a few all will become relatively clear, and if you’re not sure to ask your coach or the clubs gala secretary.
Here is a brief explanation:-
- Level 1 Meets are Long Course (50m) only, swimmers can enter level one (L1) meets with converted short course time if the meet pack states this. The purpose is to gain national qualifying times (NQTs) for entry into National meets such as the British Championships.
- Level 2 Meets are short course (25m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve qualifying times for entry into National, Regional and County Championships in short course. these meets have minimum entry times and upper qualifying times.
- Level 3 Meets are long and short course events. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve times for entry into Regional and County Championships and other Meets at Level 1 or Level 2. these meets have upper qualifying times (UQT), level 3 meets can also have No Time entries.
- Level 4 Meets are entry-level events in pools 25m or greater. Local meets with No Entry times and club champs are examples. They are for inexperienced athletes and swimmers seeing to compete in the home club champs and outside their club environment. If times are good athletes progress to Level 3 Meets.
Please remember the next parents meeting will cover galas, if you have any questions please send me your question so i can have an answer ready for you.
