The Sharpie Process

Wait…You want me to WRITE on my kid in SHARPIE?!?!?!

YES WE DO!!! … Have you ever noticed swimmers with writing on their bodies? Well, there is a good reason for that! Swimmers don’t have heat sheets, so how do they keep track of what events they are swimming in? By writing on themselves, of course! This is a timeless tradition in the world of competitive swim and youth swimmers LOVE to participate. Each swimmer should have their Event information written on their arm (or leg) a grid showing the Event number, the Heat number, the Lane number. You want to write their info on a place they can easily see and read (do not write their Event info on their back).

Using a waterproof marker (Sharpie) is important to this process. Sharpie will stay on in the water and wears off in a day or two. If you’ d rather not way for the marker to wash away on its own – a soft cloth with a dab of baby oil or spray sunscreen can help speed up the process!

Meet Programs will be posted on the league website 24 hrs prior to a swim meet. Parents are responsible for writing event info on their own swimmers – coaches will not be Sharpie writing on meet day at the pool. We highly recommend doing your Sharpie writing BEFORE arriving at the pool for a swim meet.

WRITING EVENT INFORMATION ON A SWIMMER

The example below has the swimmer participating in 4 events.

Event 2, Heat 3, Lane 4

Event 15, Heat 2, Lane 2

Event 18, Heat 4, Lane 4

Event 28, Heat 3, Lane 6

*The swimmer can choose whether or not to follow the lane number with writing the actual stroke info. The event order always stays the same in the league, so our swimmers learn the order of events. As our swimmers age, they tend to only need the event number info and not the name of the stroke written in Sharpie. While they learn, swimmers can keep track of what event number is in progress by watching the event cards hanging at the Starter’s cart.