Swimming Club Manager help
How your club needs to operate
The tool suits a club that holds regular meets, keeps a members list, takes entries, hand-times swimmers on a running clock and keeps a season point score.
The tool suits a club that holds regular club meets (usually weekly), keeps a members list, takes entries before each meet, times swimmers by hand on a running clock, and keeps a season point score. If your club works this way, the tool fits without changing how you run the pool deck.
Menu items in these pages are written as 🏊 menu › item; the 🏊 menu carries your club’s short name once it is set (in the add-on edition it sits under Extensions).
The club model the tool assumes
| Area | What the tool expects | What you can choose |
|---|---|---|
| Meets | A list of meet dates for the season, each with its events in swim order | Any day of the week; any number of meets; breaks (Christmas, Easter) are just gaps |
| Members | Every swimmer is on the Members tab with name, gender, date of birth and financial status | Extra columns of your own (parent, phone 2, shirt size) |
| Groups | Swimmers race and score in groups worked out from their age on one cutoff date | Age groups (Under 9, Under 10 … Masters) or your own groups (e.g. Junior 0–15, Senior 16–18, Masters 19+) |
| Girls and boys | Gender is recorded for every swimmer: Female, Male, Non-binary or Prefer not to say | Race categories Female and Open (everyone who isn’t female) or Female and Male; race separately or together; score separately or together |
| Racing | Each event is raced in one of three formats | Handicap, Seeded by time, or Scratch – set for the club and changeable per event |
| Timing | One running clock per race; timekeepers write the clock time at the touch | Times like 34.5, 1:05.2 or 12:34.5; DNS, DNF or DQ |
| Lanes | A fixed number of lanes | 1–20 lanes; centre-out (fastest in lane 4) or straight order; no lanes for open water |
| Points | Places in club races earn points for the season point score | Points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, unplaced, time trial and an entry bonus |
| Championships | Optional championship days raced off scratch, by age | Your own championships, distances and age bands |
The three race formats
- Handicap – each swimmer starts at their own time after GO, worked out from their recent average. The slowest swimmer goes off GO; faster swimmers wait. In a well-set race everyone touches together, so any swimmer can win. A swimmer’s first swim in an event is a time trial (off GO, no place) that sets their time.
- Seeded by time – no handicaps. Swimmers are sorted by time so the fastest race the fastest, as at swimming carnivals. Swimmers with no time go in the slowest race.
- Scratch – everyone off GO in their group, placed by time. Championships are always scratch.
Roles on the day
| Role | What they do with the tool |
|---|---|
| Results secretary (sheet owner) | Prepares entries, builds and prints race sheets, types in times, saves results, runs reports |
| Marshal / starter | Uses the printed race sheet: race order, lanes and each swimmer’s start time |
| Timekeepers | Write the clock time at the touch on the printed sheet |
| Committee / coaches | View point scores, PBs and attendance (sharing the sheet or its PDFs) |
Only the results secretary needs to use the menu. Others can be given view-only access, or just the printed sheets and PDFs.
Records the club must keep up to date
- Members: a correct date of birth and gender for every swimmer. Groups, handicaps and point scores all depend on them.
- Financial status: tick Financial when fees are paid. It decides championship eligibility.
- The calendar: every meet’s events, entered before you prepare entries for that meet.
- Finish times: every swimmer on the race sheet gets a clock time, or DNS, DNF or DQ.
Club rules built in
- Nobody races alone in a handicap race if anyone else swims that event; a lone swimmer joins the nearest race of the same gender, and still scores in their own group.
- A group with more swimmers than lanes is split into even heats; with your own groups, the heats run youngest first.
- Entry rules can limit choices, for example “any one of 100m or 200m” or “at most 4 events a meet”.
- Championship eligibility = a minimum number of meets attended, and (optionally) financial.
What the tool does not do
- It does not take payments or manage memberships beyond the Financial tick.
- It does not connect to electronic timing or touch pads; times are typed in.
- It does not run inter-club carnivals or sanctioned meets with official records.
- In the add-on edition there is no online entry page; entries are ticked on the Entries tab (the club’s own-sheet edition can have one).