Swimming at Meets in Cold Weather 

As temperatures begin to drop, it is very important that swimmers take appropriate steps to ensure they can swim at their highest potential at meets.  A swimmer wouldn’t go run a mile right before a race.  Letting the cold get to you can have a similar effect on performance.

1. Dress Appropriately.  If you start to get cold, your muscles may begin to tighten up.  This makes it much harder to swim fast.  Swimmers need to make sure they are properly covered.  The biggest mistakes are leaving their head and feet exposed.  Swimmers should wear a beanie or hood, especially if they have wet hair.  Wearing flip flops, sandals, or crocs is not acceptable (even if wearing them with socks).  Swimmers should have shoes and socks, or boots.  You can’t stretch in tight clothes or with a small parka.  If you have slightly looser clothes you can stretch while staying warm.
2. Pack Appropriately.  A cold towel is no fun.  For colder meets, pack an extra towel or two and extra sweatpants and socks.  Remember that the temperature when you arrive will probably not be the temperature when you leave.  Cold morning temperatures may give way to warmer temperatures as the day goes on.  Being too hot is just as bad as being too cold so make sure to have a t-shirt or shorts if they may be needed.  Decent afternoons may end up in cold evenings, so have the warm clothes available.
3. Stay bundled as long as possible.  Taking everything off to go up to the blocks is not a good idea.  You can wear your sweats, boots, and parka behind the blocks.  You don’t need to take it off until the heat before you is finishing.  You can still keep the parka and boots on until you start to hear the short whistles as long as you are in position and the timers know you are there. Hand the clothes to a teammate or parent. Don’t try to stack things on the timer’s chair.  Those items often fall and get wet.
4. Dry off and bundle up quickly.  After warm ups, or a race, swimmers need to towel themselves off and put their clothes back on immediately.  Just because you don’t feel cold at the moment doesn’t mean it isn’t cold outside.  Sitting in a chair with a towel wrapped around you to be completely dry before getting dressed is a poor decision.
5. Drink water!  You can still get dehydrated even when in the cold.  Make sure you keep drinking throughout the day.
6. Yes, you still have to warm up.  Telling a coach or parents that it’s too cold to warm up before a race is really telling them you are too lazy to do things the right way.  Warm up is important and can make a difference in your races.  Just make sure to plan things out.  Gather everything you need for your race (sticking a drink bottle in a pocket isn’t a bad idea).  While bundled, walk to the warm up pool.  Take your clothes off quickly and stash them in a dry spot or give them to a friend or parent.  When you are done, get out, towel off quickly, and put your clothes back on.  Then you can get a drink, and head behind the blocks for your race.
7. Don’t stay in the cold.  If you have a long time between races, you don’t need to be sitting out in the cold.  Some meets have an indoor area (or bathrooms) that you can go sit at.  For other meets going and sitting in the car with the heater on is a good idea.  The more time you can spend out of the cold, the better you will swim.