FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS …. and some you were afraid to ask..
ACRONYMS
Parent on duty (POD)
Long Course 50m (LC)
Short Course 25m (SC)
Qualifying Time (QT)
Consideration Time (CT)
Personal Bests (PBs)
Swim Club Manager (SCM)
DEFINITIONS
GALA: Focus is on FUN in individual and relay events
MEETS: Focus on performance position and time in individual and relay events
Intra-Club Galas: from 7yrs upwards (in-house time trials)
Inter-Club Galas: from 8yrs upwards (dual meets)
Club invitational/Open Meets: from 9yrs upwards. Such meets are predominantly to be used for entry into the Future Challenger Series and Aspiring Championship Series. However, they may also be used to qualify for Regional Championships and National Meets subject to licensing requirements.
Regional Skills Challenge (In-house or intra-club) from 8-12yrs in the year that the season starts.
Regional Future Challenger: Series from 10-14yrs
Regional Age Group & Senior LC Championships and National Summer Meets: from 12yrs upwards
Regional SC Championships, National Championships; from 13yrs upwards
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Swim Club Manager is a web-based management system and companion mobile app designed to help swimming clubs administer their operations online, covering aspects like member databases, financial management, website content, event calendars, and communication tools. It allows clubs to manage all aspects of their club in one place, from handling membership details and fees to organizing training sessions and galas.
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Upon completion and return of the Dolphin membership pack to the Membership Secretary your swimmer and parent will be issued a SCM log in. This comes as an email from the membership secretary to the email address you supplied when completing the membership pack. The email will contain the username for the swimmer (example username: JACK_123) and a second separate email will indicate a password to be used for the first Login. Once you have logged in for the first time, you should change your password.
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Parents can log into their swimmers profile and see the Dashboard. From here you can check emails that have been sent by the club (COMMS) events that the swimmer has been invited to participate in (EVENTS) and the status of invoices/credit notes/and payments for that swimmer (FINANCES). Swimmer details, including Swim Ireland Number can be found in the DETAILS section.
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A swimmer's eligibility for gala events is primarily determined by qualifying times, which can be upper limits (no faster than) (for local or developmental galas) or lower limits (must have achieved)> (for championship meets). Other factors include age group, ability level, stroke, distance, and whether the event is a team event. Some events may also require previous participation at a certain level or official records from a licensed event.
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An eligibility report outlining all swimmers times achieved can be generated from the HY-TEK system. This can be generated and shared by the club to the swimmers in advance of selecting events in a gala or meet. Note: while we do our best to have the HY TEK system up to date in some instances this may not be possible so we advise parents to utilise the Meet mobile app also.
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The "Hy-Tek system" in swimming refers to a suite of software products and services, primarily used to manage and score swim meets/galas, and to provide a point-based system to evaluate swimmer performance. Developed by Hy-Tek and ACTIVE, this ecosystem includes software like Meet Manager (for managing meet setup and results) and Team Manager (for managing athlete data). It also features Power Points, a scoring system that assigns points to a swimmer's time based on age and gender to allow for fair comparisons and goal setting.
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Meet Mobile is the app used at most galas. The Meet Mobile swim app allows users to follow swimming competitions by providing access to real-time results, heat sheets, psych sheets, and team scores. While the app is free to download, access to meet results and certain features requires a monthly or annual subscription. The app works by receiving data from HY-TEK Meet Manager, which is the most widely used swimming management software, and is used by fans, swimmers, and coaches worldwide
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The Age category of a swimmer is determined by the age they will be by the 31st Dec in that year. Eg: If Marys will be 14 on the 30 Oct 25, then she is in the 14 age group for all of 2025.
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In advance of the gala/meet the Dolphin Gala Secretary will send out via email a link to the swimmers specific Event Selection Page on Swim Club Manager. A notification will also go out via Whats app group text highlighting this.
The Event Selection Page will detail the Swimmers Name, the meet type, conditions, location and date of the meet/gala. It will also list the events that can be selected, including PBs and QTs as applicable. There is also a section to capture details if you cannot participate in the meet/gala. The swimmer should select the events that they are eligible for and would like to compete in. Some galas/meets will accept participants that don’t have a time already for that event. We highly encourage all swimmers to enter new events where they can and achieve a time. For the Junior squads, the coaches will select the events for participation. For Intermediate & Senior squads the coaches will advise swimmers the type of events that they should target and will review selections. The coaches will select relay teams.
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Athletes aged 12yrs and younger (age as that prescribed by each meets entry conditions) will not be permitted to compete in a tech suit in any swimming competition which falls under the jurisdiction of Swim Ireland - all Swim Ireland licensed /sanctioned meets on the island of Ireland.
The following statement must be added to the meet conditions/information for all competitions in Ireland.
“Athletes aged 12yrs and younger (age as that prescribed by each meets entry conditions) will not be permitted to compete at this meet in a tech suit. A tech suit is defined as any male of female swimsuit manufactured using fabric with water repellent properties or using any bonded or taped seams regardless of its fabric. Athletes aged 12yrs and under will be disqualified if officials observe such an athlete competing in a tech suit.”
See Swim Ireland website for further information:
https://swimireland.ie/competitions-events/competition-information-2/