Witney & District Swimming Club : Open Meets

Before entering yourself for any open meet, please make sure that it does not conflict with any club galas, home open meets or championships.

These are competitions where Club swimmers enter individually using their previously achieved personal best time for each stroke and distance. Normally Coaches will select the stroke/distance they want a swimmer to enter to help in their personal development. These may not necessarily be either the swimmers favourite or best events. The types of Meet vary according to the capability of the swimmers. The ASA have a licensing system of 4 categories which have been designed to broaden the range of competition available to swimmers.

License 1: These are the highest grade of Open Meet designed for swimmers of National Standard and above. There has to be a �lower qualifying times� (no slower than) but there is �no upper qualifying times (no faster than). Times achieved at these Meets can be used for qualification to Nationals, Regional and County competition.

License 2: These Meets have both �lower qualifying times� and �upper qualifying times� although this is usually much faster than a national qualifying time and therefore not normally are restriction to entry. The �lower qualifying times� however can vary considerably from Meet to Meet. Times achieved at these competitions can be used for qualification to Nationals, Regional and County competition.

License 3: License 3 Meets have �upper qualifying times� but not necessarily a �lower qualifying time�. The cut-off can be anything up to a National Standard. Times achieved at these Meets can be used for qualification to County competitions.

License 4: Intended for club swimmers and those beginning to enter individual open competition. These meets must have an advertised upper qualifying time. Electronic timing is not compulsory, although preferred. Times achieved at these meets may be used for entry into meets at levels two and three and into County Championships.

Even though you may meet the time criteria for an open meet you may not always be accepted. This is because some open meets are over-subscribed. In that instance it is at the discretion of the meet organisers to reject applicants using criteria of their choosing. (Please note it's not Shelley's fault if you don't get in!) Tigersharks recently rejected using the following criteria:

The rejection criteria was as follows

- swimmers entering events which they were ineligible to swim

- swimmers whose entry times were too fast for the meet

- swimmers who entered 2 events or less

- Session 4- priority given to female swimmers who entered 3 and 4 events in the session- entry in 1 event was scratched. 200IM and 50 freestyle were hugely oversubscribed and were reduced to make the meet viable.

- Any swimmer who fell below 3 events as a result of the above were scratched

- Session 3 - reduction in numbers by age

It may be worth bearing these fairly standard criteria in mind when applying to the more popular open meets. Good luck!

Please use the link below for the ASA Licensed Meets Calendar 2012 (Priority must be given to club galas, also be aware of potential clashes with club champs etc)