Swimmer Placement

• Swimmers are placed into practice groups, according to coach assessed ability, and age of swimmer.
• Younger swimmers during the summer season might not swim the length of the practice, so as not to overwork and overwhelm them.

Swim Meets:

• Swimmers of the same sex compete in divisions by age determined by BCSSA guidelines.  Swimmers normally spend 2 years in one division, then one year in the next division and so forth.
• Swimmers under the Div 3, may compete in Novice 25m (one length of pool) events.  BCSSA Guidelines state:
• A Novice swimmer is swimming 25m events to gain swimming experience.
• A Novice swimmer will not be disqualified for any infraction, and will not receive an official time, and will not be entered on official results, but may be awarded a participation ribbon.
• This option is no longer available to them once they achieve a time of under 30 seconds in a particular stroke. (i.e. A swimmer may be Novice in Butterfly but not in Freestyle.)
• Novice swimmers can not compete in a relay.
• BCSSA guidelines state any swimmer that practices under the supervision of a coach for more than 2 hours from October to April, will then be placed in a separate division called “O” Cat 1 or 2.  “O” Cat 1 is for Div 1-3 who have practiced over the 2 hour rule, and “O” Cat 2 is Div 4-7 over the 2 hour rule.