Beginners meets

Age

All children below the age of 10 may participate in beginners swim meets. Children who turn 10 years in the current year may participate in sanctioned events in neighboring clubs within the region of Eastern Norway. Children who are 11 years and older can attend the sanctioned national events.

Signing up and participation 

All swimmers should, together with their coatch, make a plan ahead of the competition to be prepared. Together, the coach and swimmer agree on what exercises they should participate in. During the trainings, the coach will teach the swimmer what routines one should be able to do during these meets. this includes warmup, diving from the blocks, flip turns and a general behavior.

Registration is done through the membership register (MR)

At the meet, the coach will go through the plan with the swimmer before/after each exercise. This often involves personal goals for each exercise and what one should do in the available time between the exercises, such as eating, clothing and rest.

Sanctioned compared to beginners meets

Sanctioned competitions follow national and international rules. These meets rank times per agegroup and only the top three will get rewarded.

Beginners competitions are somewhat different as the race-times for the swimmers are not ranked and all swimmers will receive a prize for participation. No one gets disqualified, but a judge might inform about what you can do better the next time, as this is a learning arena for young swimmers.

Why participate in a beginners competition?

As a swimmer, the beginner meets are the first steps to becoming an experienced athlete. These meets are about getting a sense of achievement in a safe and somewhat casual arena. The wwimmer gains experience and establishes routines that will elevate ones performance in future competitions.

The swimmers who participate in the beginners meets are an important part of this club, and the next generation of elite swimmers.

You can find the schedule for beginners meets Here>> 

Glossary – a small selection

Heat ; a heat is a group of swimmerswho compete at the same time, based on even times; the number of people per heat is dependent on the number of lanes the swimming pool has. There are most commonly between 6-8 swimmers per heat when the heat is full 

Disk; disket; An abbreviation for the norwegian word diskvalifikasjon, meaning disqualification; This termed is used when a swimmer breaks the rules during a a race. This leads to the time being annulled. This is mainly in the sanctioned events,

Plan; in OI, a plan includes goals and objectives per exercise and for the whole meet.

Fri ; 50/100/200/400/800/1500 free; in races with the stroke free, a swimmer can choose which stroke he/she wants to swim without being disqualified; usually this menas the swimmer selects crawl as this is the quickest stroke.

 IM ; Abbreviation for individual medley. This swimming exercise involves all four swimming strokes. The order is butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke then crawl. in a medley relay, the order is changed to backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and crawl. 

If you have any more questions about beginners meets, feel free to contact:

Nick Dillon, nick@oi-svomming.no, In charge of sjøløve, delfin, hai and U2.