COMPETITIVE SWIMMING - Southern sydney Swim team

 Southern Sydney Swim Team (SSST) was established in 2018, with Craig Chantler being the head coach and president of the club. Joining SSST allows squad members to establish great friendships, a healthy lifestyle, great discipline and learning how to work well as a team. 

This page will help provide you with information needed for those who are new to competitive swimming.

Swimming carnivals also known as swim meets is the heart of competitive swimming. Competitive swimmers regularly attend carnivals to improve their speed and times from previous meets. Swimmers use their times from qualifying carnivals to then be able to qualify for other meets such as metro carnivals, state carnivals or national meets. 

Carnival racing is spilt into two seasons across the 12 months. Over the summer months it is known as ‘Long Course’ season where all meets are swam in a 50m pool and throughout the winter months it is known as ‘Short Course’ season where all the meets are swam in a 25m pool. 

• Attend club nights, on a Friday fortnightly basis
• Allowing to compete at swim meets and represent SSST
• Attend special events, camps and presentation nights 
• Access to SSST apparel

• 25th & 26th June 2022 Metsea Winter Championships - SOPAC

* SOPAC - Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre

On the day of a swimming meet the events run off a timeline so you know approximately when your event(s) will be held, this is normally on the organiser’s website a day or two ahead of the carnival.  Unfortunately, though swim meets can run late due to operational issues, or early if things are running smoothly. Thus, you should plan to arrive in time to warm up ahead of your event(s) – usually 1.5hrs ahead of your event, or the start of warm-up, whichever is more suited. 

A full start-list of competitors by event may be available ahead of the event on the organiser’s website, this consists of a list with the other competitor’s name’s and their club. Full programs showing heats are not generally available until the day in paper form at the venue. 

Come dressed in your SSST club uniform and joggers.

All memberships need to be completed through Swim Central. Instructions for new members on how to create a new membership using Swim Central can be found at the link below:

Swimmers who are currently members of other swim clubs are welcome to transfer clubs on Swim Central at any time. Instructions on how to do this can be found at the link below. 

Once you have become a member of SSST through Swim Central you will then be able to register an account with AnotherPB. 

https://www.anotherpb.com/

This website allows you to enter in to any up and coming meets including our swim club nights.

Swimmers will have the opportunity to practice their race skills in events run during club night. 

Each club night will allow swimmers to race in a number of events with strokes and distances changing each week. 

Each club night will have events in some of the four strokes ranging in distance from 12.5m, 25m, 50m, 100m and 200m. This is a great chance for younger swimmers to try racing in the shorter distances.

Everyone can attend club night though swimmers do need to be club members in order to race, however before becoming a member each swimmer is allowed to attend two FREE club nights. This is a great opportunity for new swimmers to come along and try swim club before deciding if they would like to become a member of Southern Sydney Swim Team. 

Our club is entirely volunteer run by parents and the coaches. Unlike some other clubs and sports, parent support is encouraged but not mandated. You are likely to be invited to help with some tasks, including timekeeping at club nights and carnivals. We find that the majority of our parents enjoy the social side of participating in club activities. Becoming part of the Southern Swim Team Committee is also encouraged.

Working with Children Check 

All parents volunteers do require to have a working with children check, which can be done via the link below, free for volunteers:

https://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/child-safe-organisations/working-with-children-check

BF / FLY = Butterfly
BK = Back stroke
BS = Breast stroke
Country = the non-Metro part of NSW
DQ = Disqualified
DNS = Did not start (a race)
DNF = Did not finish (a race)
FLY / BF = Butterfly
Form = any stroke other than Freestyle
FS = Freestyle
IM = Individual Medley = FLY, BK, BS, FS swum in that order
Invitational = A meet open only to those clubs invited
LC = Long Course (refers to an event swum in a 50m pool)
Metro = Metropolitan Sydney, i.e. the non-Country part of NSW
NT = No Time (no entry time submitted)
Open Water = a swim course in an outdoor lake
PB = Personal Best (time)
QT = Qualifying Time
SAL = Swimming Australia Ltd.
SC = Short Course (refers to an event swum in a 25m pool)
METSEA = Metro South East (our local swimming Area)
SNSW = Swimming NSW
SOPAC = Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre at Homebush
Sprint = usually 25 & 50m events only

 The MetSEA Development Squads allow swimmers from a range of abilities from within our area the chance to further their skills and knowledge of swimming, whilst making new friends and receiving advice from a variety of coaches and professionals in their field.

Swimmers within these squads are given the opportunity to represent MetSEA at Swimming NSW Inter-area meets and attend overnight training camps.

MetSEA have a number of different squads based on ability. The criteria for each squad can be found by clicking on the name of each squad. 

National A Squad - Swimmers who have qualified for National Age. The aim of this squad is to equip the athletes with the skills to qualify for the following National Age Championships and step up to finals.

Senior State Target B Squad - Swimmers aged 13-18yrs who have qualified for State Age. The aim of this squad is to prepare swimmers to qualify for the following National Age Championships.

Junior State Target C Squad - Swimmers aged 9-12yrs who have qualified for State Age. The aim of this squad is to prepare swimmers to qualify for the following National Age Championships.

Achiever D Squad - Swimmers aged 8-14yrs who have qualified for MetSEA championships. The aim of this squad is to prepare swimmers to qualify for the following State Age Championships and to increase participation and improve swimmer retention.

Junior Establishment E Squad - Swimmers aged 7 yrs and above who have not yet gained a MetSEA Championship qualifying time. The aim of this squad is to prepare swimmers to qualify for our area championships, increase participation and improve swimmer retention. 

For more information visit:  https://metsea.swimming.org.au/