UK swimming glossary: gala and training terms explained

Competitive swimming has its own language, and much of it is used without explanation at the poolside. This glossary explains the terms parents most often hear in UK club swimming, grouped by where you are likely to meet them.

Galas and competitions

Gala

The usual UK word for a swimming competition. It means the same as meet.

Meet

The more formal word for a gala, used in meet packs and entry systems.

Club gala

A competition run by a single club, often just for its own members.

Open meet

A competition any club can enter, usually with qualifying times. Most competitive swimmers race at open meets through the season.

Licensed meet

An open meet approved by the governing body to strict standards for timing, officials and the pool. Only licensed meet times count towards national rankings and championship qualifying.

Meet levels (England)

Swim England grades licensed meets by level. Level 1 meets are long course and include national, regional and county championships. Level 2 covers the same championship tiers in short course. Levels 3 and 4 are lower-tier licensed meets, often where swimmers achieve qualifying times.

Short course (SC)

Racing in a 25-metre pool. Most club and winter competition is short course.

Long course (LC)

Racing in a 50-metre pool, the Olympic standard. Most summer competition and the Olympic Games are long course.

Session

In a competition, a block of racing, usually a morning or an afternoon. A meet over several days has several sessions.

Heat

A group of swimmers racing the same event together, sorted by entry time. The number of swimmers in a heat depends on the number of lanes. 32 swimmers in an eight-lane pool make four heats.

Seeding

Sorting swimmers into heats and lanes by entry time. At bigger meets the fastest swimmers are spread across the last few heats so racing stays close throughout.

Relay

A race in which four swimmers each swim one leg. A medley relay is swum backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle. A freestyle relay is freestyle throughout.

IM (individual medley)

One swimmer racing all four strokes in one race, in the order butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle. Note the order differs from a medley relay.

DQ (disqualified)

A swim that does not count because of a rules infringement, such as a false start or an illegal turn. Every competitive swimmer collects a few.

Age-up date

The date a meet uses to set each swimmer's age group. A swimmer competes in the age group they will be on that date.

Times and qualifying

PB (personal best)

A swimmer's fastest recorded time for an event in a given course. Short course and long course PBs are kept separately because the two pool lengths are not directly comparable.

Entry time

The time submitted when entering an event, used for seeding. It may not match the swimmer's current PB if entries were made well before the meet.

Qualifying time

The time a swimmer must already have achieved to enter an event, set by the meet organiser or the governing body.

LQT (lower qualifying time)

The slowest time a meet will accept for entry to an event. A swimmer must be faster than this to enter.

UQT (upper qualifying time)

The fastest time a meet will accept, used to keep an event for swimmers at a particular level.

Consideration time

A softer qualifying standard. Achieving it means a swimmer will be considered for entry, not automatically accepted.

Cut-off time

Another term for a qualifying time, most often used in league and inter-club competitions.

HDW (heat declared winner)

Used at meets without separate finals. Winners are decided on times across all the heats rather than in a final race.

Swim England membership number

A swimmer's unique membership number with the governing body, sometimes still called an ASA number. It is how official times are matched to the right swimmer.

On the day

Poolside (deck)

The area around the pool, for swimmers, coaches and officials. Spectators watch from a separate area.

Blocks

The starting platforms at the end of each lane.

Bulkhead

A movable wall used to divide a 50-metre pool into shorter lengths, or to separate a warm-up area from the competition area.

Warm-up

The period before racing when swimmers get in the water to prepare. Times and lane rules are in the meet pack.

Marshalling

Gathering swimmers behind the blocks by event and heat before they race.

Referee

The official in overall charge of a meet, including final decisions on disqualifications.

Starter

The official who starts each race.

Timekeeper

An official, often a parent volunteer, at the end of a lane with a stopwatch as backup to the electronic timing.

Team manager

The adult who looks after a club's swimmers' welfare and organisation at a meet, working alongside the coach.

Withdrawal

Telling the host, through the club, that an entered swimmer will not race. Many meets have a withdrawal deadline and fine late withdrawals.

Training

Squad

The training group a swimmer belongs to, usually based on ability and commitment rather than age alone.

Set

A block of repeated swims within a session, such as 8 x 100m freestyle. Sessions are built from sets: warm-up, main set and cool-down.

Interval (turnaround)

The time allowed for each repeat in a set, including both swim and rest. "8 x 100m on 1:30" means a new 100m starts every 1 minute 30 seconds.

Descend

A set where each repeat is swum faster than the one before.

Streamline

The tight, arms-extended position used off every start and turn to carry speed with as little drag as possible.

RPE (rating of perceived exertion)

How hard a swim or session felt, usually on a 1 to 10 scale.

Written by Joel Knight, swimming coach and founder of Olympus Swim (about). See also your child's first swimming gala, what gala duty involves and gala entries and meet administration.