Internal competition refers to participation at club night and season club championships meets.

External competition refers to participation at meets hosted by other clubs, area meets, and metropolitan, state and national competition. Mount Annan’s annual LC meet and state qualifying time trial are considered external competitions.

School swimming is considered to be outside competition and swimmers are not able to use times swum at school meets within club’s internal and external framework (unless they are ‘official times’ and submitted to Swimming Australia).

Many swimmers choose to train in a squad and compete in external competition however this is not a pre-requisite. Please speak to a member of the committee or the club head coach if you would like to begin competing externally. The annual MASCA (Macarthur Area Swim Clubs Association) is a great inter-club meet suitable for swimmers new to competition. This is held in November of each year.

Keeping a record of a swimmer’s personal best times (Pb’s) is a great way to show progress and improvement.

When recording swim times, note the official time as posted at the swim meet or time trial and be sure to record where the time was achieved (name of swim meet) and the date.

Remember that all times used for entering a swim carnival must be able to be verified by the race secretary or officials. If a swimmer is attempting an event at a carnival for the first time, the abbreviation NT for ‘no time’ is used.

Upcoming Carnivals

For the latest information on any upcoming carnivals click here to visit our club calendar, or keep an eye out on our Facebook page, as any new meets will be shared to our members as a reminder to register.

Timekeeping

Swimming clubs running carnivals will ask attending clubs to supply timekeepers for the day. If MASC has been asked to assist with timekeeping the External Race Secretary will create a timekeeper roster and distribute to the members. The External Race Secretary will also keep a roster of who has participated in timekeeping to make sure everyone gets a turn – Timekeeping Roster

Please be aware if your child(ren) have been entered into that meet you will be required to help with timekeeping. It helps to know this ahead of time to organise babysitting for younger siblings if required. If you haven’t been involved with timekeeping before, it is very easy and we are happy to help.

Meet Mobile

Are you attending carnivals? Want to see your times in real-time, Meet Mobile is the essential swimming app for swimmers, coaches, meet hosts and fans, Meet Mobile provides you with real-time meet results and standings from anywhere, at any time. Visit your App Store and search for Meet Mobile Swim.

Uniform

All new swimmers who join will receives club uniform which includes a shirt, shorts and club cap.

For those swimmers who achieve a State time will be awarded with 1 Mount Annan State Representative Shirt and Cap.

For those swimmers who achieve a National time will be awarded with 1 Mount Annan Nationals Representative Shirt and Cap.

Note: any future shirts, shorts or caps required due to damage, loss, growth etc… will be purchased at cost by the parent from the Mount Annan Swimming Club. Visit the Merchandise page for details.

Fundraising

Money raised from Club fundraising activities will support our swimmers through

• specialised training events and activities
• relay entry fees
• club night equipment, including Dolphin timing equipment
• uniforms

Relays

Relay teams are decided by the Club Committee. The Club Committee delegates this responsibility to an elected Sub Committee (Race Committee) in all instances. The Race Committee will determine the most current competitive relay for any available competition. The Race Committee may use varying forms of criteria, such as:

• Current seasonal times
• Last season’s times
• “In form” swimmers

The Race committee will consist of 3 members they are:

• External Race Secretary,
• Internal Race Secretary, and the
• Club Coach.

It is the club preference to have the most:

• relay teams entered

• competitive teams entered

A relay team will consist of four (4) swimmers and preferably one (1) reserve swimmer.

The Race Committee will display selections for upcoming relays approx. 1 week from competition day and it will also be emailed to all Club Members.

If a swimmer is unavailable to fulfill their commitment to the Relay team, they are required to discuss this matter as soon as possible with a member of the race committee.

Failure to meet your Relay Commitment – will result in the matter being discussed in a committee meeting and appropriate action will be taken.

This decision of what action is to be taken will be at the Committee’s discretion and discussed at the first meeting following the Carnival.

Swimmers will be notified in writing of the Committee’s final decision.

Bio Island Australian Junior Excellence Program  (JX)

The Bio Island Australian Junior Excellence Program (JX), recognises rewards and encourages junior swimmers who, through their development of aquatic skills and fitness, achieve a high standard of swimming excellence. For further visit Swimming Australia website here.

Behavioural Guidelines

Swimming Australia promotes the following behavioural guidelines to all individuals involved in any way with the sport of swimming. This particularly applies to those responsible for activities involving members under the age of 18 years. These behavioural guidelines highlight the principles and values of Swimming Australia and are the core principles of the Member Welfare and Child Welfare Policy documents.

For further details please visit the clubs ALMANAC.

If you have any questions about external races please contact Michelle Sullivan our External Race Secretary (mountannanracesecretary@gmail.com).