You should ensure that you/your swimmer has their racing suit/trunks, googles, caps and spares of all of these in case anything rips or breaks or goes missing! (Poolsides are very busy and Athletes may get their kit mixed up with others.) Pack a towel, a pair of flip-flops and some warm clothes for poolside, even though it is warm you will be in and out of the water often and can sometimes feel cold.

A checklist for what you should pack for coming along to a gala is:

• Spare Swimming costume/jammers
• Spare goggles & cap
• T-shirt for poolside
• Towel for poolside
• Healthy snacks
• Water bottle
• Something to keep your swimmer occupied i.e. card game, colouring book etc

G.A.S.C. has team kit available that the you can wear at competitions if you like, this is available to purchase either from our club shop or the club's Splash Boutique.

Athletes can access changing areas for changing and should use the lockers provided to put away any belongings that they don’t want with them on poolside during the day.

Changing areas are zero tolerance zones for mobile phone use and Athletes must NOT have their phones in use whilst in the changing area.

Due to the nature of changing areas, these are off limits to Parents, Carers or other spectators. Athletes should be self-sufficient in using these and getting changed pre and post event.

Athletes will sit in allocated areas for teams and the Club coach will direct you to the area on the day of the competition.

Parents should sit in the spectating gallery and cannot access poolside or into any changing/ team area due to Safeguarding procedures and legislation.

Generally, the meet organisers are well aware of the wide range of devices including mobile telephones which have photographic and filming capabilities. This enables the capture of both static and moving images. It should be acknowledged that the majority of images taken within Scottish Swimming licensed meets are appropriate and taken in good faith.

However, images of children and adults can be misused, and sharing images widely without consent may betray a confidence or identity of a child or adult, which could present a risk of harm to that individual if common sense procedures are not followed.

Spectators who wish to take images are requested to focus on their own family member as much as reasonably possible and to avoid including other participants in images, particularly if those images are being shared with family and friends or through social media platforms.

Warm ups are often split in to smaller groups of gender / age groups or club in order to manage the number of Athletes safely in the water at any one time.

The coach or poolside helper who is responsible for each squad at a gala will let the Athletes know which warm up they are in when they arrive on the deck on the day of competition.

When entering the water at the beginning of the warm up, Athletes must not dive and must enter the water over the top of the starting blocks, jumping into the water feet first. This is to avoid any accidents and to protect the timing pads which are expensive and sensitive.

Athletes must exit the water via the sides and must not climb over the ends of the pool. The warm up will consist of some time spent doing general swimming before some lanes will be set aside for dive practice toward the end of the warm up. Athletes will be under the control of the Club Coaches and Poolside helpers who are allocated to poolside.

Competitions don’t just ‘happen’ they take planning and help before and during the day.

Volunteering is a vital part of club life and your swimmer’s life at training and competitions and even out with the poolside environment. As we all know lots of little jobs taken on make things easy and simple to achieve an outcome.

Please consider a volunteer role within your G.A.S.C.

Without volunteers events within Squads, Clubs and Competition just will not happen and it should not be left to others. The majority of volunteers have full time jobs and a family like anyone else. Many volunteers at present have not had an athlete compete for many years and yet still come along to ensure fairness and athletes get the level of meet they deserve.