This program is typically for athletes 6 years and up. For our little swimmers, 6 and under, we have guppies! Here, the swimmers will practice 5 times a week for about an hour depending on the age group. The swim team prepares athletes for competition by focusing on stroke correction and racing strategies. Our primary focus is to ensure that all participants have fun while, at the same time, gain a sense of competitive discipline. The summer swimming season consists of 5 dual meets against other NAA pools, a divisional time trial, and the NAA championship. The league meets are held on 5 consecutive Wednesday nights, commencing the first week of July. The competitions begin about 5:30 pm and usually end up finishing by 9:00pm. The divisional time trial and championship meet are scheduled early in August.
Throughout the regular season all participants will have a chance to swim. The NAA swim team rules restrict the number of participants in each event so depending on the number of participants in any one category, swimmers may not swim each session. It is very important to advise your coach if you cannot make a meet so that we don't have an empty lane and so that we can give another swimmer an opportunity to swim.
Time Trials and the NAA Championship Big Meet Every year, once the dual meet season is complete, the swim team shifts from the dual meet phase of the summer competition to the Finals Phase. This changes how the swim team function for the last 10 days of the season. In the dual meet phase, each meet is against only one other pool in the division in which Fairview competes. These meets are organized to allow for the maximum participation possible. In the Finals Phase Fairview will participate in a division Time Trial. In this event, we try to qualify our swimmers against not only the other 5 pools in our division but against all the 19 NAA association pools who will be simultaneously doing the other two division Time Trials with their own sections. These Time Trials are organized so we can determine the fastest 12 swimmers for each event across the entire NAA. These 12 swimmers compete in the NAA Championship Big Meet which is held one week after the Time Trials.
For our coaches, strategy for this phase of the summer competition starts before the first week of the Dual meet season even begins. During the Time Trials, each pool can put a maximum of only 2 swimmers per age-category event and, with the exception of the 15 and over "Open" category, each swimmer can swim a maximum of 2 events each plus 1 relay. Organizing our team to put the optimum swimmers into the optimum events is a challenging task. To do this, the coaches must consider a variety of factors including the swimmer's best times so far during the summer, the speed of swimmers at other pools and the number of swimmers who can fit into a particular category. As you might imagine, unfortunately, it's not always possible to have every one of our athletes able to swim in the Time Trials.
If a swimmer is part of the Time Trials, the coaches will know during the next couple of days if they have been fast enough to qualify in the top 12 swimmers for that event in their age group from across the entire NAA. Only once the results have been compiled from all 3 divisions this information is made available to each pool. We encourage all swimmers who are part of Time Trials to attend the extra swim team practices that are typically scheduled during this week.
Whether a swimmer is part of the Time Trials or the Big Meet or not, it is important to attend the Big Meet. Swim Team is a
team event and the participation of every member and the swimmers who will be in the water will be greatly encouraged by the cheering and well-wishing of the entire team.
There are no direct costs for the swim team program.