FREQUENTLY USED ACRONYMS AND TERMINOLOGY
- ASA: Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British swimming. Link to ASA website
- Age Group: Division of swimmers according to age, usually in one
FREQUENTLY USED ACRONYMS AND TERMINOLOGY
- ASA: Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British swimming. Link to ASA website
- Age Group: Division of swimmers according to age, usually in one or two year bands.
- Anchor: The final swimmer in a relay.
- 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 back up time is initiated by the time keeper pressing a button when 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
- Beep: The starting sound made from an electronic timing system
- Blocks: The starting platforms which are located behind each lane.
- Club Championship: A swimming competition open to all members of the club regardless of their age or experience.
- 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
- CQT: County Qualifying Time.
- Course: The length of pool: Long Course = 50 metres / Short Course = 25 metres.
- Disqualified: The swimmers performance in an event is not counted because they breached the rules.
- Short Courses Distances
25 metres = 1 length
50 metres = 2 lengths
100 metres = 4 lengths
200 metres = 8 lengths
400 metres = 10 lengths
800 metres = 32 lengths
1500 metres = 60 lengths
- Long Course Distances
50 metres = 1 length
100 metres = 2 lengths
200 metres = 4 lengths
400 metres = 8 lengths
800 metres = 16 lengths
1500 metres = 30 lengths
- 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.
- Final: The championship final of an event in which the fastest eight swimmers from the heats or semi-finals compete.
- Fins: Rubber training fins worn on the feet designed to help develop kick and ankle flexibility
- Flags: The flags / pennants that are suspended over the width of each end of the pool. These are designed to assist backstroke swimmers to determine how far away the end of the pool is.
- Free: Freestyle is a category of stroke defined by the FINA rules, in which competitors are subject to only limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. (In other words, they have great freedom with respect to their swimming style.) The stroke used almost universally in freestyle races is the front crawl, as this style is generally the fastest.
- Gallery: The spectator viewing area.
- Goals: Short, Medium and Long term targets for the swimmers to aim for
- Heats: When an event has too many swimmers to allow them to all compete at the same time. The swimmers are split into heats and then the overall results for the event are given after all heats of the event are finished.
- IM: Individual Medley, The swimmer uses all four competitive strokes in the order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
- Kick Board: A flotation device used by swimmers during training when swimming with legs only.
- Kick: The leg movements of a swimmer.
- Late Entries: Meet entries from a club or individual whic