Artistic Swimming Coach Card

The Coach Card is a fundamental feature of the new World Aquatics Artistic Swimming rules 2022-25. Its function is to provide the Technical Controllers, a new role, with the difficulty score for a routine in advance, to be verified in competition.

Swim England are introducing the Coach Card into all national competitions in 2023 in a ‘shadowing’ capacity before mandatory use in 2024. This phased introduction will support coaches to understand the use of the card and allow officials training to take place.

The key targets for 2023 are:

• Introducing a set number of hybrids and acrobatics for each routine according to discipline and age group. These are listed for in the library below.
• Coaches will complete and submit a Coach Card during the entry windows outlined in the event conditions.
• The only requirement is the first four columns of the Swim England Artistic Swimming Coach Card for each routine in the Swim England National Age Group Championships.
• First five columns for Champs Technical Routines or Mixed duets.

How to complete the first four columns of the Coach card:

We have prepared a ‘How to’ guide on how to complete these first columns of the Coach Card in the library below.

There are examples and a template for each routine in the Swim England Coach Card file in the library below. Coaches are encouraged to start completing the cards as soon as parts of their routine choreography are set, to ensure the required hybrids and acrobatics are included and to have a base difficulty score calculated.

Just before submitting the Coach Cards ahead of events, coaches should confirm the timings and content of routines from video before submitting.

Once a Coach Card is submitted, changes to routine timings, or hybrid or acrobatics choreography cannot be made.

Coaches are encouraged to work with each other, with judges and across clubs to support in checking Coach Cards ahead of submission.

There are online seminar sessions available to all coaches, which will focus on the specific coaching cards for each national event. Please wait to attend the training session relevant to the event your swimmers are entering.