To help you make a smooth start into the world of swimming, the following is information that new families may find useful...

Swim strokes:

Freestyle - basic stroke on your stomach, rotating arms, flutter kick.
Backstroke - on your back, rotating arms, flutter kick (this stroke uses the flags to count distance to end)
Butterfly - on your stomach, overhead double arm pull, dolphin kick.
Breaststroke - on your stomach, underwater two arm pull, frog kick.
Individual Medley (IM) - one lap of each of the strokes in order of butterfly, back, breast and free.
Relays - the only group event; Four (4) swimmers. Strokes, gender and ages vary with swim meets. Swim Coach puts the teams together the morning of the meet, based on who reports in.

Lap Distance:

Most pools are based on a 25 yard distance per lap.
Swimmers Eight and under swim 25 yards (one lap) for each event.
*Some meets may have 50 yard events for swimmers Eight and under.
Once a child turns Nine, each event is 50 yards, the IM is 100 yards. Some meets may have longer distances for swimmers Nine years and older.

An "A" meet and a "B" meet:

All swimmers can participate in all "A" meets. However, in order to swim in the Championship Meet, a swimmer must have swam in at least three "A" meets. Please note that a two-day meet counts as one meet.
For the "B" meets, if the swimmer has achieved a time faster than the "B" meet time standard in any stroke, the swimmer is not eligible to swim that stroke. Once a swimmer has achieved faster times in 2 of the 4 events, the swimmer is disqualified from swimming any stroke at any of the "B" meets.

Miscellaneous Terms:

Aging Up - moving up an age bracket
Counting Flags - the number of strokes to the end of the lane after you see the flags in your backstroke vision. Each pool is different, and wind can be a factor.
Scratching - to pull out of an event you are rgistered for. If you are not going to race, it is good etiquette to tell the clerk of course first thing in the morning which events you registered for and will not be swimming. Please not that a "scratch fee" will be assessed if you scratch the day of the meet if the team is charged.
Heat - When the pool has 6 lanes, each group of 6 swimmers is called a heat. When there are more than 6 swimmers in one event, then there is more than one heat for the event. Swimmers with the slowest seed times for the event will race in the first heat. Swimmers with the fastest seed time will swim the last heat. However, the championship meet uses circle seeding, which will be explained later.
DQ - disqualification based on improper technique.