Background Information on Competitions

Firstly to compete in any events you need to be a member of a swimming club, typically one that is Swim England affiliated.  LTSC are a Swim England affiliated club, and you can compete if you join with us.

When you join a club you either sign up to the Swim England membership for 'Club Train' or 'Club Compete'.  The Club Compete option is needed if you wish to take part in competitions and the price for this level of membership is more than the Club Train.

Competitions take place in either a 25m pool - which is known as Short Course, or a 50m pool which is know as Long Course.

All meets that are organised by swimming clubs are licensed via Swim England.  These will range from a Level 4 through to Level 1.  These meets are throughout the year, and are hosted by individual clubs, some are invite only - others are open which means any one swimmer or club can enter.

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1. Level 1 Meets are long course (50m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships.  Minimum age requirement for a Level 1 meet is 10 years, or 9 years if they turn 10 on the last day of the competition.

2. Level 2 Meets are short course (25m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships.  Minimum age requirement for a Level 2 meet is 10 years, or 9 years if they turn 10 on the last day of the competition.

3. Level 3 Meets are long and short course events.  Minimum age requirement for a Level 3 meet is 10 years, or 9 years if they turn 10 on the last day of the competition. Except for single club events, where the age requirement is 8 years.

4. Level 4 Meets are entry level events in pools 25m or greater. They are for inexperienced athletes and swimmers seeking to compete outside their club environment. If times are good athletes progress to Level 3 Meets. Minimum age requirement for a Level 4 meet is 8 years.

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Age categories for L1-l4 events are typically 'Age on day' of the event, or they will be age at the end of the year.

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Qualifying Times

Each event is different, some organisers will implement a qualifying time of some kind - some won't have a qualifying time.

• Upper Level Qualifying Time: this means that the swimmer should not enter if their fastest time is quicker than the UQT.  If you do enter, and your time is faster than the UQT then typically you won't win a medal but you will receive a 'speeding ticket'.

• Qualifying Time: this means you need to have a time faster than the advertised qualifying time to compete.

At licensed meets each event will have a number of heats and these are arranged from the slowest swimmers starting first, finishing with the last heat being the fastest swimmers. This means that on the day swimmers could be racing in heats with lots of swimmers of all different age groups.  

When swimmers first start competing they find this a bit daunting, especially if you are 9 and in the next lane there is a 14 year old.  Swimmers just need to know that this is only for the heats - the results are based solely on your time versus people of the same age groups.

The swimming season starts in January of each year.  Swimmers compete at Open Licensed meets through the previous year to get qualifying times at these events:

County Championships - weeks 2-9

The beginning of the season starts with each respective English county hosting their 'County Championship'.  Swimmers qualify for this event by achieving a qualifying time in the previous 12 months.  The starting age group for this championship is 10/11 years.

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Regional Championships - weeks 14-22

The next phase is regional championship, each region holds their own championships in April and May, where swimmers qualify based on achieving qualifying times in the previous 12 months.  The starting age group for this championship is 11/12 years.

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Summer Nationals - weeks 29-33

The National Summer Summer Meet takes in the week after the British Summer Championship and is a long course event. The starting age group for this championship is 12/13 years - qualification to these events are by invite only, the top 24 swimmers nationally in each stroke/age category are invited.

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Winter National - week 51

The final event of the year is the National Winter Meet whereby the best of British swimmer battle it out in a short course pool. - same as the Summer Nationals for qualifications.

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Age Categories

Its worth noting the the age category you swim in for the County and Regional Championships is actually the swimmers age at the end of the year that the Championship is held in. 

For instance, in the swimming year 2023 if a swimmer is currently 11, and they are looking to gain County Qualifying times for the Championships in 2024 - the qualify age group times they are aiming for would be the 12 years - as that would be their age by 31st December 2024.  

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You can find the current qualifying times that LTSC follow here:

Worcester County Qualifying Times 2024

West Midlands Regional Qualifying times 2024

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