Brand new swimmers (have never swum in a gala) - may only swim at Club Series, until they get 3 WPLE qt's (2 x 50m & 1 x 100m).
Once they have achieved these 3 qt's, they are then officially classed as League swimmers and after up-grading their registration, may participate at all galas, League and Club-hosted - remember the new ruling is only league swimmers may now participate at club-hosted galas. They then have the option, depending on their coaches' feeling about their capabilities, of only participating at league galas, where the coach enters them on custom times for those events where they have not yet qualified (these must be realist times that the swimmer has achieved at training on a fairly consistent basis i.e. they are genuinely capable of achieving a WPLE time at the gala).
OR, alternatively, if the coach feels they are not quite ready, they may swim the events that they have qualified in at league and club-hosted galas, and those events where they have not yet achieved WPLE qt's, they continue to swim at club series, until such time that they achieve the WPLE qt's in these events as well.
The reasoning behind this, is that some swimmers only just manage to get the required 3 qt's - these usually tend to be 50 free, 50 breast and 100 free, but are not quite ready to swim their non-qualifying events at league galas. Therefore we give the coach these options, so that swimmers are not pushed full-time into the league galas before they are completely ready.
Club series swimmers - if a swimmer has never competed at a gala before, they are fully entitled to swim at a club series gala, no matter how fast their training times are!! It simply means that they will probably only have to participate at 1 or 2 club series galas before they achieve the WPLE qt's and can then move up to league and club-hosted galas.
Older swimmers who have played water-polo or swum for their schools and are more than capable of swimming WPLE qt's, but have just never swum competitively with a club before - coaches are welcome to approach the Swim Board for special concession to enter them on custom times. The reason for this is that we would like to ensure that no "chancers" slip through, making the gala drawn out and not enjoyable for everyone, including the swimmers concerned!
Hope this clarifies everything. We have talked long and hard about these rules, as we should always have the interest of the swimmers at heart. Very often their own parents and/or coaches, do not understand the ramifications of pushing children into situations that they may not be ready for. Also it is not enjoyable for other swimmers and spectators, when they have to wait for non-qualifying swimmers to finish a race long after the other swimmers.