Arm Marking - Sherwood Oaks Swim Team

Meet Info

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 Shepherds (age group) tent or ready bench volunteers. Use the Heat Sheet to find and highlight your child's events.

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.
Label your swimmers with a black sharpie with their race details.
On their back, mark their name ‘JOHN SMITH’. You can abbreviate so long as it is enough information for ready bench volunteers to easily identify your swimmer.
On their forearm, mark their event information: (See further below for Stroke labels)

E	H	L
11	2	5
19	3	8/2
33	2	8
41	2	6

(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.