The 'Trailer' is What Makes a Swim Meet Work

 

June 15, 2022

The all volunteer crew collects, verifies and uploads every swimmers time after each event to keep an accurate fluid record of what happens. Each Federation Division (East/West) has its own trailer that travels from meet to meet each week. Both then upload the results to a group Federation Site for accurate record keeping.

The 'Trailer' as it is referred to is where all the results are processed, saved and eventually uploaded to the Montana Federation of Swimmers Headquarters. There are two divisions in the Montana Federation of Swimmers organization, East and West. Each has its own trailer that is maintained and staffed by each meets host. Swim teams pay a fee for each swimmers individual entry into the meet and those funds are what pays for upkeep of the trailers and maintenance of the system. The host team also receives a portion of the entry fees.

At the conclusion of each meet the Host team crew that operates the trailer takes all the information and uploads all the results from the weekend to a Montana Federation of Swimmers site operated by elected officials. The Federation is truly a tight nit family of volunteers.

The results are then compared and checked for any new pool or state records and the files are updated as necessary. The Host team of the following weekend swim meet then drives the trailer to their location.


During the week coaches will submit their entries to the next meets host and new programs will be created and ready to go at the start of the next meet. Then the process starts all over again.

Years ago swimmers had to rely on the quick reaction of three volunteer timers in each lane to compare what their stopwatch had, average the results and that was your official time.

Now the system is a lot more technical, simpler and much more accurate. The result being each kids finish is accurately recorded. Touch Pads are installed on the finishing wall that start when the started sounds the horn and stops on the swimmers touch.

The pads go from the pool edge and down a short distance so there is the chance that a swimmer may miss the touch pad. In that case the trailer would refer to the 'pickle' time. The 'pickle is a little push button that each lane has that is pressed when the swimmer touches the wall. The third backup is the two timers recording the finish the old fashion way with the good old stopwatch.

In the end, getting each swimmers time accurately recorded is the ultimate goal. /Pool and state records often comes down to a hundredth of a second and it;s only fair to the swimmer and the record holder that the times are accurate.

The trailer then gathers all the information and makes sure there are no discrepancies for any swimmer and records the time. The computer software is designed to look for patterns and errors in both equipment and human hands to further ensure accuracy.

 
 

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