Heat Sheets 101
Marking Your Swimmer
Once heat sheets have been posted, you can use the Swimtopia app to determine which events your child will be swimming in for the upcoming meet. From the home screen, select your child's name, then select the upcoming meet. Your screen should look similar to the picture below. Note the event number, heat, lane, and leg position, if the event is a relay.
Swimmer Markup: Using the information above, mark either the swimmer's arm or leg as follows:
Note the stroke after the lane designation.
- FR = Freestyle
- BA = Back Stroke
- BR = Breast Stroke
- FLY = Butterfly
- IM = Individual Medley
- FRR = Free Relay (All swimmers swim freestyle)
- MR = Medley Relay (Each swimmer swims a different stroke: 1st = back, 2nd=breast, 3rd=fly, 4th=free)
Heat Sheets
The heat sheet is a listing of all events for a swim meet. Printed copies of the heat sheet are available during meets for bullpen parents and coaches. Digital copies of heat sheets will be posted in the team calendar of the Swimtopia app on the day of the meet for parent viewing and/or printing.
Events are listed in order and each event is a race for a specific age group. The home team swims in even lanes with the visiting team swimming in odd lanes. Often, events will be combined to speed up the meet depending on the number of swimmers in the events and the number of lanes available. In that case, boys and girls will swim simultaneously, but each event will be scored separately.
Below is an example of a medley relay event as seen on a heat sheet.
And below is an example of an individual event.
Seed time is the fastest time a swimmer, or a team of swimmers for relays, has swum an event before the submission of entries for the meet. For individuals, this is the time entered for the swimmer for the event and is a good goal to try to beat. It also factors into lane placement and heat number. Occasionally, a time will be listed as NT, which indicates there is no time on record for that swimmer.
The individual medley (IM) order is 1) butterfly, 2) backstroke, 3) breaststroke, 4) freestyle.
Medley relay order:
Swimmer 1: backstroke
Swimmer 2: breaststroke
Swimmer 3: butterfly
Swimmer 4: freestyle.
100-yard Relays: In 100-yard relays, swimmers 1 and 3 enter the water at the starting blocks, and swimmers 2 and 4 at the opposite end. Each swimmer swims one length of the pool.
200-yard Relays: In 200-yard relays, all swimmers start and end at the same end of the pool, and each swimmer swims two lengths.
