Welcome to Milngavie and Bearsden Swim Club

We would like to welcome you to M&B Swim Club and we hope your child enjoys the experience of competitive swimming.  The club is run by parent volunteers and therefore depends on parents contributing to keep the show on the road.  At some point you will be approached to help out, whether it be as a timekeeper, running a tombola at our home swim meet or as a parent rep. Please help out: most of the parents involved in running the club started out knowing very little about swimming, so please do not feel intimidated by a lack of swim knowledge.

Swim Portal

Each swimmer has a swim portal through which they can
 register as a member of the club
 see their personal best times
 enter meets
 pay for meets

Registering

When you initially join the club you will need to register online.  You will be sent an email with a link to a website which guides you through the registration process. During this process you will have to create a password to allow you to access your swimmers Swim Portal which you can then access by signing in through the club website Milngavie & Bearsden Swim Club Home (mandbswim.co.uk).

At this point, you should also download the ‘OnDeck’ app to your phone which makes it even easier to keep on top of upcoming meets, etc.

Personal Best Times

Personal best times can be accessed on the portal.

1. Log on to portal
2. Go to ‘My Account’, ‘Account Info’
3. Click on ‘Members’
4. Select the swimmer you want to see
5. Go to ‘Best Times’
6. You will be able to see PBs for Short Course (25m pool) and Long Course (50m pool) events
OR
1. Log into the app
2. Go to the menu and select ‘Membership’, ‘Personal Bests’

Meet Entries

Types of Meet

1. Graded meets: these are usually for younger swimmers.  The swimmers have to have an entry time that is slower than the one stipulated by the organisers.This stops all meets being dominated solely by the fastest swimmers.

2. Open meets:  these are open to everyone and the fastest swimmers get priority.

Qualifying times can usually be obtained at a time trial or a meet (including mini-league). In some instances, swimmers might be accepted without a qualifying time if there is capacity in the meet. At the other end, some meets required an ‘accredited’ time for entry with more information on this below.

The coaches decide which swim meets each squad will attend.  Once they have decided on a meet, our meet entry secretary will email the whole squad tonotify you that this meet has been added to your swim portal and that you should choose which meets you wish to enter.  There will be a closing date. Late entries cannot be accommodated. If the meet does not appear on your portal it will be because your swimmer does not have eligible times for this meet.

To Enter a Meet

You will be notified of a meet by email but you can also enter a meet by:
1. Logging in to your Swim Portal
2. Go to ‘Events & Competition’, ‘Team Events’
3. Find the meet you want to enter and select ‘Attend/Decline’
4. Select your swimmer
5. In the declaration box, select ‘Yes, please sign [swimmer] up for this event
6. Scroll down and select the events you would like to enter
7. CLICK ‘SAVE CHANGES’

OR 

1. Log into the app
2. Scroll down and select 'Upcoming Events' 
3. Find the meet you want to enter and select ‘Declare’
4. Select your swimmer
5. Under 'Sign-ip' select 'Yes, please'
6. Scroll down and select the events you would like to enter
7. CLICK ‘SAVE CHANGES’

Accredited Meets

Another term that will be used to describe a meet is whether it is Accredited or not. To be Accredited a swim meet requires to have a certain number of Swimming Technical Officials (STOs – Referees, Judges and Timekeepers) on duty for each session. If there are not enough STOs the meet will not be accredited and times cannot then be used to enter National events, like Scottish National Age Groups (SNAG), or even some District level meets. 

Few clubs are able to provide sufficient STO’s from their own parent group to run an accredited meet and rely on visiting clubs to assist. At District level there is a requirement for each club to provide a certain number of officials depending on the number of swimmers they enter or fines are imposed.

We would therefore encourage parents sign up for one of the regular Timekeeper or Judge training courses that the Club runs and come poolside to help out.  It helps the swimmers and you get a better view!

Paying

Our meet entry secretary will then send off all the entries to the organising club.  At this point you will be billed for the entries and meet fees will be charged to your registered card. 

Scratches and Alternate Swims

Entering a swim at a meet does not mean that your swimmer will get that swim.  If a meet is oversubscribed, some swimmers (usually the slower ones) will get scratched from one or more events (i.e. will not get a swim). Quite often the organisers will make a couple of swimmers ‘alternates’ or ‘reserves’ (ALT/RES). This means that if a swimmer drops out of an event, the ‘alternate’ or ‘reserve’ swimmer will automatically be entered into that event. Information about acceptances to a meet is usually emailed out to you about 2 weeks before the date of the meet.

There are 2 entry reports that you might see.

The first is the ‘club entry report’. In this example, ‘Hannah Miley’ has tried to enter 6 events. She has been successful in 50 Fly and 50 Back, scratched for 3 events and is a reserve for 100 Back. It is very common for ‘reserves’ to get to compete as often swimmers will not show up due to illness, etc.

1 Miley, Hannah - Female - Age: 14 - Ind/Rel: 6 / 0 - This shows Hannah was entered for 6 individual events and no relays

#103 Girls 11&O 100 Back 1:44.76 RES

#109 Girls 11-14 200 IM 3:10.97 SCR

#303 Girls 11&O 100 Free 1:16.09 SCR

#206 Girls 11&O 50 Free 33.77 SCR

#105 Girls 11&O 50 Fly 40.85 - Where there are no letters after the entry details, the swimmer has been accepted into the event

#307 Girls 11&O 50 Back 41.06 - This number indicates this race is event 7 in session 3 – on a weekend meet this is likely Sunday morning but always check

The other form you may see is a ‘Psych’ sheet. This shows all the events and swimmers entered, even those who have been scratched. If your swimmer has been scratched, they won’t get to swim, even if others don’t turn up.

In the below example extract, only 9 swimmers have been accepted for the 11-13 age group based on their ‘seed time’ (entry time – usually their personal best when entries closed).

Refunds

Refunds are done online and will be credited to the card you used to pay for the entries.

You will be refunded for

1. Scratched swims

2. ‘Alternate’ swims which the organising club was not able to offer to a swimmer

You will not be refunded for

1. ‘Alternate’ swims which the organising club was able to offer to a swimmer, even if the
swimmer does not swim in the event

2. Withdrawals from events which you make after M&B has sent the entry file to the
organising club

3. Meets or swims which you have entered but are unable to attend even if it is due to
illness/ injury

Attending a meet

Swim meets are made up of sessions.  Sessions usually last 3 hours each and there are usually two sessions per day.  If it is a one day meet the sessions will be 1 (usually Saturday morning), 2 (Saturday afternoon), 3 (Sunday morning) and 4 (Sunday afternoon). Each race is called an event and each event is made up of several heats. The events are numbered depending upon which session they are in.  Event 101 will be the first event in the first session, event 206 will be the 6th event in the second session- I am sure you get the idea.

When attending a meet, check which session your swimmer is in and check the start times. No matter what event your swimmer is racing, turn up for the warmup– this is usually 1 hour before the events start. If your swimmer is not there for the warmup, the chances are that they will be withdrawn from the
session to allow the ‘alternates’ to swim.

Results

Some venues have electronic scoreboards that allow you to instantly see results. In other venues, results may be posted on the wall periodically and medallists announced over the PA system.

Many of the meets are now also covered on the phone app ‘Meet Mobile’ which can give almost instant updates on times, again depending on the venue.

After the event, times will be uploaded to the Active portal and if the swimmer has achieved a personal best, this will be automatically updated. Note that in relays, only the first swimmer’s time can be considered for personal bests/meet entries.

Contacts
Hopefully this gives you a flavour of what is to come. It seems like a lot to take in but you’ll be surprised how quickly it becomes second nature. Don’t be scared to get involved, it’s the best way to learn; but if you do have any questions, we’re always happy to hear from you:

Head Coach: Craig Houston, [email protected]
President: Colin Calder, [email protected]
Meet Entries: Nick Kirk, [email protected]

Best of luck to your swimmers. Listen to the coaches, work hard, support each other and most importantly HAVE FUN !