Competitive swimmers race over a series of distances and using different strokes (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle).  They are normally members of swimming clubs, and have coaches to guide their training and competition.  At competitions, officials make sure that swimmers abide by the rules of the sport.  The first step into competitive swimming can be in a club swimming event (a ‘gala’ or ‘meet’), or a school gala. Swimmers usually compete against others of a similar age, in a single year band (e.g 12 years old) or sometimes a double age band (14/15 years old). Most competitions are run as Age on Day of gala, or at the end of a competition if it is run as a series of galas. In England, there are levels of competition that you can enter when you achieve a certain qualifying time.  These times get faster and harder to achieve as you progress up the competition levels, which are County, Regional and National level galas.  There are other galas you can compete in such as Licensed Meets (normally run by clubs or a collection of clubs) and Leagues. 

In the East Region, the Swimming Manager Don Neate oversees a Swimming Committee.

The region maintains a list of swimming Records that are updated monthly. Results of regional events are available on this website.  The region works with clubs and the national governing body (the Amateur Swimming Association) to co-ordinate development opportunities for swimmers.