What a heat sheet actually is
A heat sheet is the running order for the session: every event, heat, lane, and name. In Ireland you will also hear start list or programme. In the US and Canada people say heat sheet or meet program. Same object. Hy-Tek Meet Manager prints most of them, which is why an Irish Level 2 gala and a USA Swimming meet look like cousins. It is not a results sheet. Find a name, read three numbers, follow the day.
Event, heat, and lane
Every swim is pinned by three numbers, in the order the gala runs.
Event is the race on the schedule — Event 7 might be Girls 11–12 50 Freestyle. Events go in numerical order. If the announcer is on Event 5, you are two events away, not two minutes away.
Heat is one trip down the pool. Twenty-three girls in an eight-lane 50 free means three heats. Heat 1 is first. “Heat 2 of 3” is the only timeline that matters on deck.
Lane is the block, and only for that event — lane 6 in the 50 free can be lane 2 in the 100 back. Irish club notes say write E, H, and L on the arm. North American Sharpie columns are the same idea.
Seed time and NT
Beside the name is a time — 39.88, or 1:23.45, or NT. That is the seed time: the entry time used to sort heats and lanes, almost always last official best. It is not a prediction, and it is not today's result. The full parent version is what is a seed time.
Under a minute: 39.88. Over a minute: 1:08.22. Irish sheets say SC or LC in the title — 25m or 50m. Compare like with like.
NT means No Time: nothing official on file. First licensed 50 free, a new stroke, or an entry without a time. Not a DQ. Those swimmers usually sit in the earliest heats. The full parent version is what NT means on a heat sheet.
Treat the seed as last best, and keep last best in one place. I built Finzy for that — so the number on the sheet matches the number you already know.
Heat sheet, psych sheet, results
Three documents get treated as the same page. They are not. Irish regional sites often post a psych sheet days before a bigger gala — ranked by seed time, no heat, no lane. Useful for the field. Useless for the block.
The heat sheet — the start list — has heat and lane. Marshalling follows that. Results come after: official time, place, maybe a split. Compare seed to result. Do not treat the heat sheet as a medal table.
| Document | When | Shows | Does not show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psych sheet | After entries close | Entries ranked by seed time | Heat, lane, or a result |
| Heat sheet / start list | Once heats are seeded | Event, heat, lane, name, club, seed | Today's official time |
| Results | After the race | Official time, place, sometimes splits | The planned start |
Why the fastest swimmers go last
Heat 1 is not the final. In most timed-final galas — the usual Irish club format, and the usual USA Swimming / Swimming Canada age-group format — heats run slowest seed to fastest seed. The last heat is the fast heat.
Empty lanes and first-timers get the session moving. In a heat-declared-winner meet, places are decided by time across every heat, so the last heat is often where the winning time is swum.
Championship prelims may circle-seed the fastest swimmers across the last two or three heats. Dual meets sometimes run fastest first. If the meet information says something else, believe that — this is a normal Saturday, not a World Aquatics by-law.
Heat 1 is starting the event, not hiding anyone. A drop still counts. A first official time still becomes the next seed. Lane-by-lane and timed-finals vs circle seeding: why the fastest swimmers go last.
How lanes are seeded
Inside a heat, the fastest seed gets a middle lane. Six-lane pools: usually lane 4 (sometimes 3). Eight-lane: typically lane 4, then 5, 3, 6, 2, 7, 1, 8 — centre out. World Aquatics uses that idea for eight-lane racing; Meet Manager implements it at the galas we attend.
Lane 1 or 8 is outside: a slower seed in that heat, not a slower child. I have seen plenty of outside-lane PBs. Seed times are history. The race is not.
Typical timed-final seeding in an eight-lane pool. A six-lane pool uses the same idea with lane 4 (or 3) in the middle. Championship prelims may circle-seed the last heats instead.
A worked example — Event 7
A made-up Event 7, Girls 11–12 50 Freestyle, eight-lane short course, three heats. Names and clubs are invented. Follow Holly Ryan — Heat 2, lane 4, seed 39.88.
| Lane | Name | Age | Team | Seed time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brennan, Aoife | 11 | EXSC | NT |
| 2 | Patel, Maya | 12 | DEMO | 48.21 |
| 3 | Walsh, Ciara | 11 | SHRK | 46.80 |
| 4 | Byrne, Sophie | 12 | EXSC | 45.12 |
| 5 | Doyle, Emma | 11 | SHRK | 45.55 |
| 6 | Kelly, Niamh | 12 | DEMO | 47.03 |
| 7 | Murphy, Leah | 11 | EXSC | 49.10 |
| 8 | — |
| Lane | Name | Age | Team | Seed time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brennan, Lucy | 12 | EXSC | 43.22 |
| 2 | Lynch, Sarah | 11 | SHRK | 42.04 |
| 3 | Fitzgerald, Chloe | 12 | DEMO | 40.90 |
| 4 | Ryan, Holly | 12 | EXSC | 39.88 |
| 5 | O'Neill, Grace | 11 | SHRK | 40.21 |
| 6 | Power, Ella | 12 | DEMO | 41.15 |
| 7 | O'Connor, Kate | 11 | EXSC | 42.60 |
| 8 | Keane, Molly | 12 | SHRK | 44.01 |
| Lane | Name | Age | Team | Seed time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foley, Hannah | 12 | DEMO | 38.10 |
| 2 | O'Brien, Mia | 11 | EXSC | 36.88 |
| 3 | Collins, Ava | 12 | SHRK | 35.40 |
| 4 | McCarthy, Isla | 12 | EXSC | 34.12 |
| 5 | Walsh, Freya | 11 | DEMO | 34.80 |
| 6 | Dunne, Saoirse | 12 | SHRK | 36.05 |
| 7 | Gallagher, Erin | 11 | EXSC | 37.50 |
| 8 | Nolan, Ruby | 12 | DEMO | 38.95 |
Aoife, heat 1 lane 1, is NT. Sophie, heat 1 lane 4, is fastest in that heat. Holly (highlighted) is fastest in heat 2, so lane 4. Isla, heat 3 lane 4, is fastest in the event. Places still follow the times they actually swim. Names and clubs are examples only.
Circle the name. Write E7 H2 L4 in the margin. Take a photo. A highlighter through your club's names is how Team Managers survive a four-hour session.
Write it on the arm
Deck is loud. A Sharpie on the upper arm is the cheapest meet management in the sport. Three columns: E, H, L. Irish notes often write E12 – 50FR – H3 – L4. The full how-to is how to mark your swimmer's arm. If Holly also had a 100 back and a 50 fly, her arm would look like this:
E7 H2 L4 (50 free) · E12 H1 L6 (100 back) · E19 H3 L5 (50 fly). Write it the night before; check for a reseed in the morning.
Keep your own copy. Parents are not on Irish pool decks. If the Team Manager asks who is in the next heat, the child with numbers on their arm can answer.
Paper, Meet Mobile, and Irish start lists
In Ireland you rarely buy a heat sheet at a table the way US decks do. The host sends a Hy-Tek start list to each club. Your Team Manager highlights the names and drops the PDF on WhatsApp. That is the heat sheet. Some Level 1 and 2 galas still sell a printed programme.
Bigger meets — Connacht Open, Leinster, Irish Open, McCullagh — usually publish a psych sheet first, then heats, often on WhatsApp. Meet Mobile shows sheets and live results when the host publishes the database. Common at Leinster and Swim Ireland meets; not guaranteed at a Sunday Level 1. If the meet is not in the app, use the PDF. The balcony how-to — lag, paywalls, unofficial times, and not refreshing into a panic — is how to use Meet Mobile.
US and Canadian parents will recognise the columns: event, heat, lane, seed. The Irish words are gala, start list, programme, and Team Manager.
Marshalling and the call room
The heat sheet gets your child to the right chair. Marshalling — line-up or call room — is where they sit in heat and lane order before the blocks. Present yourself, ready to swim, in good time — club guides say 15–20 minutes before the event. The announcer will call it. The first-timer's map is marshalling and the call room.
At a small gala it is chairs and a printed page. At a championship meet it is a call room. They line people up by the same three numbers on the arm. Copy the start list, not the psych sheet.
Do not send a first-gala swimmer to the gallery without a plan for Event 7. Parents are not on most Irish decks. The Team Manager should not be hunting the building while heat 2 is behind the blocks.
Night-before checklist for parents
Better on the kitchen table than on a wet bench at 7:40am.
- ✓Confirm the session and warm-up. Arrive about 30 minutes before they are supposed to be in the water.
- ✓Get the start list (WhatsApp PDF, Meet Mobile, or the host site). A psych sheet has no heats or lanes yet. If Meet Mobile is empty, trust the PDF — why the app often never lists a Level 1.
- ✓Find every event, including relays. Highlight the name. Write E / H / L for each swim.
- ✓Write the same numbers on the arm, plus stroke if they will mix the races up.
- ✓Note the seed time beside each event — last best going in, the baseline.
- ✓Pack a Sharpie, a highlighter, and a photo of the start list. Signal dies in leisure centres.
- ✓Know the Team Manager. Your swimmer stays with the team on deck.
- ✓Check in the morning for a reseed. Numbers can move.
Keep the seed time as a baseline
The seed time is why your child is in heat 2, lane 4, and not heat 3. After the race you get a new time — a drop, an add, or a first official time if they were NT. The seed is still the “before”.
I keep those in Finzy: event, course, seed going in, time coming out. One place, so next month's sheet is not archaeology. If this is the first gala, read Your Child's First Irish Gala. For PBs and courses, see How to Track Swimming Times.
Event, heat, lane. Find the name, write the three numbers, treat the seed time as last best. Everything else on the page is decoration.
