College swimming help

swim4school
Tue, 03 Mar 2015 00:03:35 +0000

So a few thoughts for you:

1. For Ivy league (Harvard, Columbia, etc) to score in the Top 16 at Conference, you would need a 5:05 or so in the 500 and a 1:51 200 free to be valuable to them. Secondly, most 500 freestylers are typically milers in college, so you would need to get a mile or two times (even in LCM) this summer for the coaches to review.

2. Peruse collegeswimming.com website to review where your times might fit on certain teams prior to emailing coaches about interest.

3. When emailing coaches, I’d make sure they fully understand that you have not fully swam a club schedule ever, and probably have very limited experience in doubles (which are critical to turn out to be a good distance swimmer). If your times are even half way competitive to a school, they might at least talk to you since you’ve had limited training and have some potential upside if you are willing to work very hard in college.

4. Since you have limited experience in yardage training, I would say that your senior year will be quite critical for your recruiting opportunities. Train very hard this summer, do some doubles, get good yardage on board, and see how the senior season goes.

5. You might not be highly recruitable for the November recruiting period as a senior, but with good trajectory in your shave/taper meet in late Oct/Nov; you could be interesting to a coach for the April of senior year signing period.

6. Have you had any weight training? If not, then that would be a point to include in your emails to college coaches as well.

7. There is quite literally a place for everyone to swim in college. D1,D2, D3, NAIA, etc. However, pinpointing where you fit is the true key. Then balancing out the academic component is very important. Very few kids actually end up in the professional ranks of swimming. Therefore, you’ll want to choose a good academic school balanced with your swimming so that you can get a job when you graduate.

8. Note that there is little money in college swimming. Really. I promise. When you think about college affordability, think about financial aid policies of schools, merit aid potential, etc. Don’t think swimming will pay for school. As a female, there are less than 20 athletes in D1 programs that have full rides. If someone who is a “good” swimmer tells you they have a full ride, they most likely have a combined package with merit aid.