How to Become an Official

To become an official, one must commit to learning the rules and protocol of swimming as well as take the time to become proficient. A swimmer improves because of practice and so does an official. Officials do not need any swimming experience.

There are four levels of certification within Oregon Swimming.

Electronic Timing (ET) - This position runs/troubleshoots the timing equipment and calculates the correct times for the swimmers.
Stroke and Turn Observers (S & T) – These are the people you see spaced around the deck observing the swimmers.
Starter – Responsible for fair and equitable starts for the swimmers.
Referee – The person in charge. Responsible for running the meet.

To progress up the ranks, there are certain requirements that have to be met. You have to be an S & T before you can become a starter and you have to be a starter before becoming a referee, therefore only ET and S&T are covered here.

To become an ET Judge:

Register with Oregon Swimming – Training Record/credentials will be mailed to you.
Begin volunteering at a meet where you will work with a trainer or certified official to learn the timing equipment and how to calculate the official times. Your trainer will complete an evaluation for you and discuss with you any areas that you need to work on as well as those areas in which you are doing well.
Sometime in the first 20 hours of training, attend an ET clinic which discusses the calculation of the official time as well as the reason we have electronic timers.
After 20 hours of training – get 2 positive recommendations from certified ET’s.
Forward training record and last two evaluation criteria to Electronic Timing Chair. Await confirmation to take the on-line test.
Take and pass the on-line open book test.

* It is not necessary to attend a clinic prior to registering as it was decided that you would understand more in the clinic if you had some actual hands on time first.

To become an S & T Observer:

Attend an introductory clinic. This must be completed before being able to work on deck. The clinic introduces video or pool observation time, rules summary, procedures, and discussion of Evaluation Criteria sheet. At conclusion of clinic (or shortly after), trainees take short, open book quiz on rules, scorable by any referee or trainer.
Register with Oregon Swimming.
After receiving credentials, begin working on deck. You will be working with a trainer or other certified official throughout your training. They will walk you through the actual process of observing the swimmer and making any disqualifications. The trainer/official will complete an evaluation for you and also discuss with you any areas that you need to work on as well as those areas in which you are doing well.
After working the recommended sessions and receiving the required evaluations, you forward your training record and your last two evaluation criteria to your Area Officials Chair (you can find out who this is on the website under the Officials/Area Officials tab) and await confirmation to take the test.
Take and pass an on-line open book test.

Officials are required to register as a non-athlete with Oregon Swimming. Your registration makes you a member of USA Swimming, which provides insurance for its registered members. This protects the host clubs as well as yourself.

To learn more about the entire training process, you can go to Officials/Training on the Oregon Swimming Website.