Internal and External Draft Gala Calendar
We have put together a draft meet calendar for the year 2023/24; it is not exhaustive as we are sure a couple of things will crop up. It should help you to understand which galas are for your swimmer, and might help future planning. Follow the link below for the draft calendar.
DRAFT COMPETITION CALENDAR 2024
Gala information and explanations for all swimmers and parents
For those of you who are new to the Club, hopefully the following will shed some light in terms of the various galas which our swimmers compete in.
Pointscore – this is a competition run by the Club and we encourage all swimmers to attend - This takes place three times per year and the swimmers compete against their own times to earn points dictated by how much they have improved on their own times. There are no other training sessions on evenings when Pointscore is taking place.
Refer to the Pointscore page for details of how to enter.
Club Championships – This is a competition run by the Club for Club swimmers and we encourage all swimmers to participate in the Sprint championships in November/December. The Middle and Long Distance Championships, which take place in June/July, may not be appropriate for some of our younger swimmers so, in relation to those, we would recommend you speak to your swimmer’s Coach (it’s always worth having a word with them generally as they are best placed to give you a steer on what they think is appropriate for your child’s stage of development, and they will be more than happy to help.
The Club competes in three external team competitions (Trafford series (age at 31/12), M&D teams (age at 30/9) and Arena League (age at 31/12)). We field teams in different age groups; selection for these teams is at the Coaches' discretion, so competing at Pointscore and other galas helps with team selection as the Coaches will then have visibility of times. Our Head Coach picks the teams and a notification is sent out via email if you have been selected. If you do receive a notification it’s a massive help if you can accept (or decline) as soon as possible. There is no entry fee payable by individual swimmers for these galas.
Swimmers can compete in external galas as individuals. This is one for swimmers to decide and your Coach will be more than happy to give you some guidance of whether they think entering a gala, or a particular gala is suitable. As a Club, we will encourage swimmers to enter certain external galas and we provide either a Coach or Chaperone on poolside. When entering individual galas, swimmers need to be Swim England Club Compete members – our new members generally enrol as Swim England Club Train members, which means they can swim in internal Club competitions and the team galas we enter, but they need to upgrade to Club Compete once they decide to enter external individual galas. Once your swimmer starts entering galas (including our own Pointscore) their times from those galas will appear on the Swim England website.
Please note that there are fees per race entry for all such galas to fund the events and all external galas will have their own conditions of entry and qualification times, which need to be read carefully to ensure that the meeting and races chosen are appropriate for the individual swimmer.
External Galas
Entering – Our Club encourages all swimmers to participate in external meets. Entries are made via the "Meets" tab on the Swim Manager website (link below).
Swimming Result official times (https://www.swimmingresults.org/) should be used for all meets and these should automatically be completed for you in Swim Manager. However, for some level 3 meets, unofficial time entry is allowed to encourage young swimmers with limited or no competition experience. If you plan to use unofficial time, please consult with the Head Coach. The Club verifies all entry times before submitting them to the organizer. If the entry time does not reflect the swimmer's ability, the Club has the right to reject the entry.
We have made every effort to ensure that the Swim Manager website accurately reflects the meet conditions and program. Nevertheless, please check the meet conditions document for session schedules and qualification times, and let the Club know immediately if there are any discrepancies.
Withdrawals and refunds
After the official closing date, any withdrawals must be approved by the Head Coach, and no refunds will be approved unless it is due to illness or injury. Withdrawals should only be considered in exceptional circumstances, including illness, injury, school commitment or unforeseen circumstances that could not be planned around. If you enter an event, you are committing to swim it.
All of our Officials and helpers provide their services on a voluntary basis. The Club is run entirely by volunteers so if you are interested in getting involved do