Swimmingly 4+

I am a supervisor for a local governmental agency and we are host to a variety of swim teams and programs. We have been running our recreation swim team through CARA and up until we made the switch to Swimmingly, we were still seeding and heating our meets using the pink and blue cards! Using Swimmingly has been the best programming transition that we have ever made.

We have already saved time and money as well as running out meets more effectively and efficiently. Parents love being able to see results, having a record of their kids times, and love volunteering to help with meets! Meets are fun and well organized now because everyone has the same information and the same tools to share the information!

Teaching parents and kids how to use the app was easy and super user friendly! There are videos and lots of information to help walk you through the set up of a meet and how to run a meet effectively and set up is so much easier than using touch pads!

Support staff is awesome, helpful and available. We appreciate them for and all their help in making this change. Awesome staff, awesome app!

Meet central has potential however there are too many issues to recommend this to others. The system is marketed to eliminate volunteers however it takes the same number, requires tech savvy volunteers to run a meet smoothly, and volunteers to print and process ribbons. It seems difficult to use with a league that has different configuration of pools with regard to the number of lanes and the length of the pools (meter vs yard pool). To run adequately you will need a dedicated iPad to run the meet, an iPhone or iPad for both the starter and stroke judge, and timers who have iPhones. All devices must not have charging issues (an Apple ongoing complaint). Sprint carrier iPhones are inferior and will not work with the system. The starter's cord did not work for us. To maximize the system both teams must be subscribers. Customer service is inconsistent to say the least if not insubordinate to the "customer ". They need field customer service agents to support their subscribed team's first couple of meets to assure a smoothly run meet.

I am the starter/ref at swim meets in our league. All 22 teams use Swimmingly to run their meets and I can’t begin to tell you how many headaches this app continues to save me. Teaching the volunteers before the meets is a lot of fun and the timers truly enjoy it. Can you imagine not having to worry about a start...ever? Amazing.

Of course with any new technology there is a learning curve! It is so much easier to learn than what is out there today. Not to mention, the Swimmingly team has the BEST support whenever you need it!