Rules of Swimming
High School meets:
A meet is comprised of 11 events, 8 individual swimming events, and 3 relays.
A swimmer may enter a maximum of 4 events, no more than 2 of which may be individual events.
Each team may enter a maximum of 3 swimmers per event and 3 relays per event.
Each team may score a maximum of 3 individuals and 2 relays in a particular event
Dual Meet and Invitational Scoring
The Swimming Strokes
BACKSTROKE:
Swimmers must remain on their backs until the final stroke leading into a turn in which the swimmer may roll onto their stomach and complete their turn. As they leave the wall, they must be on their back again. The pennants hanging across the pool are designed to help the swimmers judge distance from the wall and to aid in their execution of their turn.
BREASTSTROKE:
This stroke must be done with some part of the head above the surface of the water, except on starts and turns where the swimmers are allowed one kick and one pull under water. The leg kick must be a squeezing action with no downward thrust of the legs. The arm pull must be simultaneous. There may be one dolphin kick off of each wall after a separation of the hands at the top of the stroke.
BUTTERFLY:
The leg kick must be a downward thrust in simultaneously action. The arm pull must be done simultaneously and the arms must recover over the top of the water. The hand touch at turns and the finish must also be simultaneous.
FREESTYLE:
There are no specific rules for this stroke except that some part of the body must touch the wall at each turn.
RELAYS:
Each swimmer, after the lead-off swimmer, must have contact with the starting platform when the preceding swimmer finishes his part of the relay. Any swimmer who jumps in before the previous swimmer touches is disqualified, and the entire relay scores no points.
THE START:
Any swimmer who leaves before the gun is charged with a false start, thus being disqualified. A swimmer may be charged with a false start for not being steady and motionless or for being late for the command to "take your marks." After the referee blows his whistle, spectators are reminded to remain quiet.
Description of each event comprising a High School swim meet (in meet order)
200 MEDLEY RELAY: Four swimmers each swim 2 lengths. The first person swims backstroke, the second swimmer does breaststroke, third person swims butterfly, and the final person swims the crawl stroke.
200 FREESTYLE: Each swimmer travels 8 lengths of the pool "freestyle." This means any style they choose. The majority will choose front crawl, as it is the fastest of the competitive strokes.
200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY (I.M.): Each swimmer will swim two lengths each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. The swimmer must finish on his back at the end of the backstroke leg of the race and on his front for all of the other strokes.
50 FREESTYLE: Each swimmer swims 2 lengths freestyle.
100 BUTTERFLY: Each swimmer swims 4 lengths butterfly.
100 FREESTYLE: Each swimmer swims 4 lengths freestyle.
500 FREESTYLE: Each swimmer swims 20 lengths freestyle. You may notice that counters are allowed at the opposite end of the starting end so that swimmers will not lose count. The starter will also signal the final 2 lengths of the race by giving the lead swimmer a whistle, buzzer or bell as they do their turn.
200 FREESTYLE RELAY: Four swimmers each swim 2 lengths freestyle.
100 BACKSTROKE: Each swimmer swims 4 lengths backstroke.
100 BREASTSTROKE: Each swimmer swims 4 lengths breaststroke.
400 FREESTYLE RELAY: Four swimmers each swim 4 lengths freestyle.