Competitive swim meets are held throughout the year. Swimmers are encouraged to participate in all meets in which they qualify. The meets provide a good gauge of a swimmer’s individual progress and are a lot of fun for the participants. These meets are put on by various clubs in the area. Your coach is the best judge of when you are ready to compete in meets and what events you should enter.

When a meet is designated as "G-S-B" or "Slower than Gold", that refers to the National Age Group Time Standards scale. This is a chart which tells the minimum time in which a swimmer of a certain age must be able to swim a specific event to achieve a "Bronze", "Silver", or "Gold" time. G-S-B meets give awards (ribbons and/or medals) to usually first through sixth place in each category. A "Slower than Gold" meet means that a swimmer cannot enter an event in which he/she has already achieved a "Gold" time.

In competitive swimming, the swimmer competes against others in his/her own age group. The established age groups are: 8 years and under, 9-10 years (or 10 and under), 11-12 years, 13-14 years, and 15-18 years (or Senior). On many occasions, swim meets will have an age group called Open. This normally takes the place of the 15-18 years or Senior age group. However, in Open events, all swimmers are eligible to participate regardless of age. For example, a 12 year-old swimmer may want to swim the 500 freestyle in a certain meet. However, in most cases, the 500 freestyle event is not offered for that age group. In this case, the 12 year-old swimmer would sign up for the Open 500 Freestyle if it is available.

The United States Swimming competitive year is broken down into two seasons. These seasons are Short Course and Long Course. The Short Course season runs from September through the beginning of April. All meets are held in a 25 yard pool, like the one at the Liverpool High School. The Long Course season runs from May to the middle of August. All Long Course meets are held in 50 meter pools, like the pools used in the Olympics.

Junior Olympics (JO’s) and the Niagara District Championships are the championship meets for age group swimming. Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels all have their own JO and District meet. Silver and Gold JO’s and Districts have qualifying times.