What Is Arm Marking?
You must mark your swimmer to reflect which event, heat, lane, and relay they are racing. This is used to help remind the swimmer of their events and volunteers. Use the Heat Sheet to find and highlight your child's events or the SwimTopia app.
Mark the arm as illustrated below in the picture in the order of Event/Heat/Lane/Relay Leg. Write on clean, dry skin before applying any bug spray or sunscreen. You should also write your swimmer’s name and age on their upper back/shoulder blade. When we compete against other teams you will also write HR under their name (for Hampton Ridge) to confirm their team.
Marking up your Swimmer
- Find your child’s race information on the Event Reports/Heat Sheets or the SwimTopia app.
- Label your swimmers with a black sharpie with their race details.
- On their forearm or thigh, mark their event information: (See further below for Stroke labels)
| E | H | L |
What is E/H/L?
E = event, H = heat, L = lane
Stroke Abbreviations:
- MR = Medley Relay (Each swimmer swims a different stroke: 1st = back, 2nd=breast, 3rd=fly, 4th=free)
- Fr = Freestyle
- Bk = Backstroke
- FrR = Freestyle Relay (All swimmers swim freestyle)
- Fly = Butterfly
- Br = Breaststroke
- IM = Individual Medley
🎥 Here is a brief video tutorial on marking a swimmer’s arm: https://www.facebook.com/iohsharks/videos/how-to-mark-your-swimmer-for-a-meet/383140130767026/
How to read Heat Sheets
The Heat Sheet is a program that shows all the participating swimmers and what events they will participate in, as well as the heat number and lane number. The announcer will say the event and heat number. Whenever possible we will also combine events to speed up the meet and better utilize all lanes. For example, if we have 3 girls swimming Butterfly in the 7-8 age group and 3 boys, we will combine them into one race to save time. The announcer will say if events are combined. Please pay attention when it gets close to the time of your swimmer's event.
Event Number: The number of events at a meet can vary. We want our swimmers to swim everything! Events: Medley Relay, Freestyle, Backstroke, Freestyle Relay, Butterfly, Breaststroke, and Individual Medley (100 IM).
Heat Number: In each of the events, there are heats. Each heat has 1-6 swimmers depending on the size of the pool. Depending on how many swimmers are in an event will determine how many heats are needed.
Lane Number: This will tell you which lane your swimmer is scheduled to be in.
