Updated July 3, 2020: added demo video recording about running virtual meets in Meet Maestro
A few months ago, as we all witnessed the world changing around us, SwimTopia decided to focus on what we were hearing from our customers. If they could have a season, they would. If they could run swim meets, they would. The idea of running virtual swim meets became a focus for swim teams around the country, and so it became a focus for SwimTopia. The idea that they could run safer meets, with fewer people on deck, but still give their kids the “swim meet” experience this summer, gave swim team admins the motivation to forge on, and try to have some kind of swim season.
SwimTopia has now launched a number of feature enhancements in Meet Maestro that make it easy to run a virtual meet with any other team, anywhere. It doesn’t matter if your pool has 4 lanes and is 25 meters, and the other pool is 6 lanes and 25 yards, you can easily run a virtual meet against each other. Even if your pool is 22 yards you could swim against another team and Meet Maestro can convert the times to create a fair swim meet! You can even change the course and the correction factor mid-meet, and Meet Maestro will recalculate all the times for you.
See a recorded video the demonstrates running virtual meets in Meet Maestro below
Meet Maestro helps you run your virtual meets by creating one “session” in the software for each pool. Heat sheets and session reports reflect the separate locations, yet the psych sheet, results, and awards are combined as if the meet was in the same place. And now it’s possible to specify or edit all these factors per session (i.e. per pool, for virtual meets):
- The number of lanes at your pool
- The course length
- A custom correction factor if necessary (this is for pools with unusual lengths). The conversion factor in Meet Maestro to and from 25 yards to 25 meters is the industry standard conversion factor (1.11). See this article for everything you ever wanted to know about conversion factors
- The start date, time and location (in case of last minute changes)
- The estimated time interval between heats (used for creating the session report with event and heat start times)
- The CTS Dolphin wireless timing system configuration (if used)
- Plus, reports can be combined or printed per session
If you’re swimming a team with a pool that’s a different length than your pool, Meet Maestro has a host of features that make it easy to convert times and follow results. The time entry interface in Meet Maestro displays the actual time swum and entered, plus the “official” time that’s been converted to the course of the Home team. Printing your results report in the one-column format also shows both times, the “actual” and the “official.” Parents can follow the results on the SwimTopia mobile app with a Pro subscription (7-day free trial, then $1.99 per month).
Interested in Connecting With Others to Run Virtual Meets?
If you’re interested in running a virtual meet, but you don’t have any local teams to compete against, we’re happy to help connect teams around the country. Fill out this Google Form to be connected to other teams interested in running virtual meets.
Meet Maestro is included in the price of SwimTopia. If you already have SwimTopia, you also have Meet Maestro! If you don’t yet use SwimTopia, you can start a 2-week free trial today and have immediate access to all SwimTopia and Meet Maestro features.
Demo Video: Running Virtual Meets in Meet Maestro
Running time: 71 minutes
Note: the video has defined “Chapters” to help you skip to the parts of the video you’re most interested in.
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