Swimming Glossary

Organization

USA-Swimming - is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States.
LSC - A Local Swimming Committee is the governing body for swimming at the local level.
OSI - Oregon Swimming, Inc; the name of our LSC. The geographic territory of Oregon Swimming encompasses the State of Oregon, except Malheur County, and also includes Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania and the western portion of Klickitat counties of Washington.

Time Standards

Time Standard - Performance requirements to enter a swimming competition. Standards are determined for local swim meets by the LSC.
"A" Time - a time standard set calculated each year by the Time Standards committee. Achieving an "A" time qualifies an athlete for the LSC championships. A complete listing of this year's OSI time standards can be found in the standards section.
"B" Time - a time standard calculated each year by the Time Standards Committee. Achieving a "B" time qualifies athletes for certain meets. A complete listing of this year's OSI time standards can be found in the standards section.
Zone Time - a time standard set calculated each year. Achieving a Zone time qualifies a swimmer for the Zone Championship team.
NRT - national age group time standard used for compiling top 16 USA Swimming Age Group times each season.

Registration

Athlete - A competitive member of USA Swimming. Athlete registrations must be renewed at the end of every year. Seasonal registrations are valid from April 4 until August 31. Athlete registration forms can be downloaded in the forms section.
Non-Athlete - A non-competitive member of USA Swimming such as coaches, officials, board members, etc.Attached - An affiliation with a club. Non-athlete registration forms can be downloaded in the forms section.
Unattached - No affiliation with a club. Athletes may register with OSI even when no affiliation with a member club is sought.

Competition

Short Course - A pool 25 yards of 25 meters in length. United States Swimming, Inc. conducts most of its winter competition in short course.
Long Course - A pool 50 meters in length. United States Swimming, Inc. conducts most of its summer competition and all of its National Championships in long course pools
Prelims - Slang for preliminaries, also called Heats or Trials. Those races in which swimmers qualify for the championship and consolation finals in the events.
Final - The championship heat of an event in which the top six or eight swimmers from the preliminaries compete, depending on the number of lanes in the pool.
Time Trial - A time-only swim that is not part of a regular meet.
Sanctioned Meet - A meet conducted by USA Swimming and member clubs for which a sanction number has been issued. All entrants and clubs must be members of USA Swimming and, for meets held within OSI boundaries, OSI rules must be in effect
Observed Swim - A swim observed by assigned USA Swimming officials for conformance with USA Swimming technical rules in a meet conducted under other than USA Swimming rules, such as high school. Times made in observed swims during championship-type meets (such as the high school state meet) may be used for USA Swimming purposes.
Coach-Athlete-Parent Triangle - It has been shown that a balanced positive relationship between the coach and athlete, the coach and parent, and the parent and swimmer offers the swimmer the best opportunity for both high swimming performance and positive life experience.

*Portions of this glossary originally appeared in Pacific Swimming's swim guide, USA Swimmings Parent Handbook and the USA Swimming website.