What is Arm Marking?
You must mark your swimmer to reflect which event, heat, lane, and relay they are racing. This is used to help remind the swimmer of their events and zoo volunteers. Use the Heat Sheet to find and highlight your child's events or the SwimTopia app.
Mark the arm as illustrated below in the picture in the order of Event/Heat/Lane/Relay Leg. Write on clean dry skin with no sunscreen. It is best to do this the night before in order to minimize sunscreen washing it away. Please also write your child's full name on their upper back.
Marking up your Swimmer
- Meet events are standard for most in season meets. An event might be eliminated due to time constraints.
- Find your child’s race information on the Event Reports/Heat Sheets or the SwimTopia app.
- Label your swimmers with a black sharpie with their race details.
- On their forearm, mark their event information: (See further below for Stroke labels)
| E | H | L |
(E = event, H = heat, L = lane). For relays, add a slash followed by the position on the relay after the lane# (1, 2, 3 or 4)
Example of Arm Marking:
- Write Clearly and Legibly on your child's LEFT arm as illustrated in the picture.
Stroke
OPTIONAL: If you'd like to note the stroke do so after the lane designation. It can be difficult to fit legibly on smaller arms, though.
- FR = Freestyle
- BA = Back Stroke
- BR = Breast Stroke
- FLY = Butterfly
- IM = Individual Medley
- FRR = Free Relay (All swimmers swim freestyle)
- For Medley Relay put the actual stroke (each swimmer swims a different stroke: 1st = back, 2nd=breast, 3rd=fly, 4th=free)
Relay Marking
This will designate the relay leg the child is swimming.
- 1/1 = Lane 1, first relay leg
- 4/2 = Lane 4, 2nd relay leg **If the Medley Relay this will be Breast Stroke
Parent Marking
