How to Lane Time

WHY WE LANE TIME

All the meets we attend are Sanctioned by USA Swimming. Our Local Swim Chapter (LSC) of USA Swimming is called si-swimming (San Diego Imperial Swimming). Our LSC requires that each team provide lane timers at the swim meets. As a parent you must help lane time during the meet. If we don’t provide lane timers we WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to attend the meet. Timing is very easy to do and does not take that much time. Other parents will help show you how to do it. Here is how it normally works.

BASIC EQUIPMENT

Pad Times, Pickle Times, Watch Times

Three finish times are recorded for each race. A pad time, a pickle time, and a watch time. The primary time is the pad time. When a swimmer finishes the race he touches a pad on the wall and the Timing System records his finish time. Sometimes a swimmer doesn’t touch the pad hard enough or touches the wall above the pad and doesn’t trigger a proper pad time. So lane timers provide a backup finish time by pressing a pickle button at the finish of each race. The pad time and the pickle times are averaged together by the Timing System Computer to determine the correct time for the finish of the race. Now sometimes the Timing System Computer isn’t working correctly, so a third finish time is used. This comes from a stopwatch. One lane timer will time the race with a stopwatch and the other timer will write down the watch time at the finish of the race.

Timers and Timing Chairs

Each lane has two timers. You will notice that behind each lane at the swim meet there are two chairs. So when you hear someone say Lane 3 Chair 1 or Lane 3 Chair 2 that is what they are talking about. These are for the timers. They are not for the swimmers. Swimmers will usually sit in them and get them wet and then you can’t sit in them anymore but they are actually placed there so you can rest during a long race. Most of the time you will be too busy to sit in them anyway so don’t get mad at the young swimmers sitting in them while they wait for their next race.

Clipboards and Stopwatches

There is one clipboard and one stopwatch on each lane. One timer holds the clipboard. The other timer holds the stopwatch.

At the beginning of each event a Runner will walk down the start end of the pool and give the timer with the clipboard the Timing Sheets for that event. The timing sheet contains the list of swimmers that are swimming in that lane during this event. Remember that each Event is broken down into multiple Heats. So lets say you are given the timing sheet for for Event 1 and Event 1 has 5 Heats. You will see 5 lines one the timing Sheet. One line for each Heat with the name of the swimmer who is swimming in that heat. There is a place next to each swimmer’s name to write his ﬁnish time down at the end of his Heat.

The timer with the the stopwatch starts the watch when the Heat begins and stops the watch when swimmer ﬁnishes. Then the timer with the stopwatch tells the timer with the clipboard the time and the timer with the clipboard writes down the time. The timer with the stopwatch then resets the stopwatch so it is ready for the next heat.

Pickles

There are two funny black wires hanging down from the canopies or each lane on the start end of the pool - these are called pickles. Each pickle has a button on it. Each timer takes a pickle and presses the button at the ﬁnish of the race. HOW TO LANE TIME

1) The Starter blows short whistles (this means the current heat is ending and swimmers in the next heat should step forward) 2) The Starter blows a long whistle (this means swimmers should step up on the blocks or step up to the edge of the wall) 3) The Starter says Take Your Mark (swimmers should assume starting position) 4) The Starter starts the race by pressing a button on his microphone. (This sounds a Horn and triggers a Strobe Flash next to him). 5) The Watch Timer starts his stopwatch when the Horn sounds and the Strobe goes off. 6) If the Watch Timer started his watch late or accidentally stops it before the end of the race he raises his hand up and calls out WATCH ON LANE 3 (or whatever lane he is on). The Head Timer will come down and give the Watch Timer another watch. The Head Timer always starts two watches at the beginning of each race in case a lane timer has a problem. 7) Once the race has started the Clipboard Timer looks at his clipboard and calls out the name of the swimmer who is swimming in the next heat so he is ready to go. 8) When the swimmer is coming in to the ﬁnish BOTH timers take a pickle in the hand and step forward to the edge of the pool and look down to witness the ﬁnish of the race. When the swimmer touches the wall BOTH timers press the pickle button. The Watch Timer will also press the STOP button on his stopwatch. 9) The Watch Timer now shows the Clipboard Timer the time on the watch and the Clipboard Timer writes it on the Clipboard. 10) The Watch Timer now resets his watch for the next race.

After all the heats in an Event are ﬁnished a Runner will walk down the start end of the pool and collect the Timing Sheets from the Clipboard Timers.

TIMING TEAMS

SBA uses timing teams. Timers are always assigned to a team. The team will cover certain chairs on certain lanes for a certain block of time. Everyone on the team should report to the starting blocks when it is their turn to time. The timing team then decides who will time ﬁrst and for how long. Teams are usually only responsible for timing for one hour. If you have enough team members then you can divide it up and work a shorter shift. If you are timing on deck do not leave your position until someone else steps up to take over.