If you’re reading this, you’ve probably spent a Saturday morning standing poolside, watching your child swim, and staring at a results board full of numbers that might as well be in code. You know they got a “PB” (good, apparently?), someone mentions “Regional Qualifying Times”, and you’re nodding along whilst internally panicking because you have no idea what any of it actually means.
I’ve been there. My daughter swims at RTW Monson, and I vividly remember my first gala thinking “is 38.4 seconds for 50m freestyle… good? Bad? Should I be excited?”
Here’s what I wish someone had told me then.
What’s a PB and Why Does Everyone Care?
PB = Personal Best. It’s the fastest time your child has ever swum that particular event. That’s it.
When your swimmer “gets a PB”, they’ve beaten their own previous record for that stroke and distance. It doesn’t mean they won the race (they might have finished last). It doesn’t mean they qualified for nationals (they probably didn’t). It just means they swam faster than they ever have before.
And honestly? That’s brilliant. Because in swimming, you’re ultimately racing yourself.
Why PBs matter more than race results:
- Swimming is about incremental improvement, not just winning
- Your child might be in a heat with older, faster swimmers and still get a PB
- It’s a clear, objective measure of progress that doesn’t depend on who else shows up
- It builds intrinsic motivation (“I’m getting better”) rather than external validation (“I beat them”)
Practical tip: Most clubs track PBs in their records. If yours doesn’t, keep your own simple spreadsheet. Just the date, event, and time. Watching those numbers come down over months is genuinely motivating.
Age-Related Standards: The Confusing Ladder
This is where it gets a bit more complicated. Swimming has a series of “qualifying times” that create a pathway from club level to national competition. These change every year and vary by age group.
Here’s the hierarchy (as of 2026):
- Club Championships — Your club’s internal standards
- County Qualifying Times — Allows entry to county-level championships
- Regional Qualifying Times — Allows entry to regional championships (e.g., South East Region)
- National Qualifying Times — Gets you to British Summer Championships or Age Group Nationals
Each level has different time standards for each age group (typically 10&U, 11 years, 12 years, etc.) and each event (50 free, 100 back, 200 IM, etc.).
What you need to know:
- These are minimum times to enter the competition, not to win it
- They reset every year as standards adjust
- Your child can hold multiple standards simultaneously (e.g., County for 50 free, Regional for 100 back)
- Not every swimmer will achieve every level, and that’s completely fine
- Modern competition systems can track these automatically
The pressure trap to avoid: Don’t make qualifying times the only measure of success. Your 11-year-old knocking 2 seconds off their 100 fly PB is brilliant progress, even if they’re nowhere near Regional times. Some children develop earlier, some later. Swimming is a long game.
What Do the Numbers Actually Mean?
This is the bit that genuinely confused me for months: how do you know if a time is “good”?
Here’s the honest answer: it depends.
A 38-second 50m freestyle is:
- Outstanding for a 9-year-old
- Solid for an 11-year-old
- Not competitive for a 14-year-old
Context matters. Age, gender, stroke, distance, pool type (25m vs 50m), even time of season all affect what’s considered fast.
Practical benchmarks (very rough guide for 11-year-olds in 25m pool):
- 50m Freestyle: Under 35s = fast, 35-40s = solid club swimmer, 40-45s = developing
- 100m Freestyle: Under 1:15 = fast, 1:15-1:25 = solid, 1:25-1:40 = developing
- 50m Backstroke: Under 40s = fast, 40-45s = solid, 45-50s = developing
But honestly, the best benchmark is your child’s previous time. Are they improving? That’s what matters.
CSS: The Coaches’ Secret Weapon
You might hear coaches mention Critical Swim Speed (CSS). Without going deep (we’ve got a whole article on that), CSS is essentially the speed your child can sustain for medium-distance swims.
Coaches use it for training sets. You don’t need to calculate it yourself. If you’re curious, ask the coach — they’ll appreciate your interest.
What Should You Actually Do With All This?
Right, so you understand PBs and qualifying times now. What next?
1. Celebrate PBs, regardless of race position If your child gets a PB but finishes 6th, that’s still a win. Make sure they know it.
2. Don’t compare your child to their lane-mate The 12-year-old next to them might be 6 months older, training 6 sessions a week, or just built differently. It’s not relevant.
3. Keep a simple record Date, event, time. That’s it. You don’t need a fancy system. A notes app on your phone works fine. It’s incredibly motivating for your swimmer to look back 6 months and see how far they’ve come.
4. Ask the coach for context when needed If you’re genuinely confused about whether a time is progress or not, ask. Good coaches love engaged parents who ask thoughtful questions.
5. Remember why they’re swimming Most children swim because they enjoy it. The times are just data. If your child is happy, improving, and still wants to get in the pool, you’re winning.
The Uncomfortable Truth About Swimming
Swimming is brutally transparent. In football, you can have an off day and your teammates cover for you. In swimming, the clock doesn’t lie.
Some children thrive on that. Others find it overwhelming. Your job as a swim parent isn’t to become a stopwatch expert — it’s to help your child build a healthy relationship with those numbers.
Times are useful feedback. They’re not a measure of your child’s worth, your parenting, or their future. They’re just data.
When my daughter gets a PB, we celebrate. When she doesn’t, we talk about what felt good in the swim. The times will come. Or they won’t. Either way, she’s learning discipline, resilience, and how to set goals — skills that matter far beyond the pool.
Making Life Easier
If you’re a committee member at a swim club and you’re currently tracking PBs in a spreadsheet (or worse, not tracking them at all), there’s a better way.
Modern swim club software can automatically track every swimmer’s PBs through competition management systems, compare them to qualifying times, and surface that information for parents through the parent portal and coaches without manual work. Swimly does exactly that — because committee members shouldn’t be spending Saturday nights copying times from results into Excel.
We’re working with founding clubs right now. If your club’s still doing this manually, let’s talk.
Mike Tempest is a swim parent at RTW Monson and founder of Swimly, modern software for UK swimming clubs. He’s spent too many Saturday mornings poolside trying to work out if 1:42.37 is fast.
Is your club still using spreadsheets? Modern swim club management software makes life easier for parents and committees alike. See how clubs compare options at Swimly vs the alternatives or view pricing.