Greenbriar Dolphin Swim Team

We are all members of the Greenbriar Pool Club, Inc, which owns the facility that we use (or are renting someone else’s membership). Although each member of the swim team pays a fee to join the team, the pool membership funds part of the team cost. The club is governed by a board of directors; one director is designated to oversee the swim and dive programs. To be a member of the swim team, your family must own or rent a membership and meet other general NVSL criteria.

The people you'll run into the most in your swim team dealings are the team reps and coaches. The team reps are volunteer parents who are responsible to the pool board for running every aspect of the swim team. They represent the team to other swim teams and the NVSL. It's a job that is impossible to do successfully without help from a great many parents. The team reps hire the coaches, with the approval of the pool board, who are responsible to the team reps for the swimming portion of the swim team program.

Time Trials takes place the weekend before the first meet of the season. It gives swimmers the opportunity to swim for a time in all of the events that they have legal strokes. Returning swimmers should plan to swim all four strokes. Six and unders and new 8 and unders should plan on swimming freestyle and backstroke, unless a coach recommends breaststroke and/or butterfly.

We use these times as the basis for future swim meets and gauging improvement over the course of the season. It also serves as a great place to train our parents on running the meet. Parents should consider signing up for a job for time trials as there are many positions to fill and a full crew makes this meet go faster. 

In 1956, eight Northern Virginia pools founded the NVSL. Today, the NVSL has over 10,000 swimmers on over 100 teams and is the largest summer swim league in the United States. During the offseason, the NVSL ranks each team, based primarily on swimmers’ times, and places the teams into divisions made up of six teams, with the fastest teams placed in the lower numbered divisions.

Dual Meets

The six teams in each division swim the other five teams, one at a time, on five consecutive Saturdays, in a series of dual meets. A dual meet is simply a meet with two teams competing. Based upon the results of these five meets, a division champion will be named.

Relay Carnivals

The division relay carnival takes place on the Wednesday between the third and fourth weeks of the season. All six teams in each division converge on one pool for an evening of relay races. These include freestyle relays (each swimmer swims freestyle) and medley relays (each swimmer swims a different stroke). The next night, the division coordinators meet and select the fastest relay teams to swim at the All-Star Relay Carnival the following week.

Divisionals

On the Saturday following the fifth dual meet, each division has an individual championship meet, commonly referred to as "Divisionals". Each team is allowed to enter two swimmers in each event and a swimmer can enter no more than two events. If a team does not have two swimmers for an event, the other teams can bid in other swimmers to fill the empty lanes. This is an individual meet and is not scored.

To qualify for Divisionals, swimmers must have participated in at least 3 Monday meets and have been available to swim in at least 3 Saturday meets.

All Stars

After divisionals, the division coordinators meet to select swimmers for the all-star meet the following week. The sole criterion for selection to All-Stars is to have one of the eighteen fastest times swum in an event in the divisional meets. All-Stars can be overwhelming for a first time swimmer, as approximately 600 swimmers, plus parents, coaches, and officials, converge on a pool for a meet that takes about six hours. If your swimmer is fast enough to be named an All Star, it is a thrill they will never forget.

Greenbriar, Brookfield, Little Rocky Run, Pleasant Valley, Poplar Tree, Oakton, Sully Station and Virginia Run pools have joined together for the conduct of unscored developmental swim meets on Monday nights. Swimmers who have taken a second or third place in any Saturday meet cannot "officially" swim the stroke that they ribboned in and a swimmer who took first place cannot "officially" swim any stroke except the IM, because it is not swum in Saturday meets. These swimmers can, however, swim as “unofficial” in events they cannot swim officially. The idea is to get ribbons to as many kids as possible, even if only a participation ribbon.

USA Swimming is the governing body for swimming in the United States. USA Swimming establishes rules for the strokes and for the conduct of competition. The NVSL swimming rules are USA Swimming rules with minor changes to accommodate the facilities and skill levels found in our league.

Potomac Valley Swimming (PVS) is the local “branch” of USA Swimming. It consists of year round swim clubs in the Washington area. PVS conducts “short course” competitions (25 yard pools) from October to April and “Long Course” competitions (Olympic-sized 50 meter pools) from May thru July.