Swimming and college recruiting

[Anonymous]

I’m familiar with how college recruiting and soccer works- is it the same for swimming? Lots of variables I know; mainly just curious. Thank you and please, no trolls!

[Anonymous]

Not the same at all. Swim times make recruiting straightforward. Faster times = better swimmer.. There are no game films, showcases etc. It is very transparent.

[Anonymous]

Here's an overview:

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-swimming

Also check your swimmer's stats on recruiting sites like swim cloud for a sense of where he or she stands locally and nationally (pretty much everyone is on there automatically, whether you are looking to be recruited or not).

[Anonymous]

Do you have a teen who swims or are you just interested in how it compares to soccer?

[Anonymous]

It's much easier to identify target schools. Rule of thumb. If your times can score points at a schoo'ls conference championship meet, you'll be a good recruit. There are exceptions to this rule (i.e. swimmers dropping times fast that a coach may want to gamble on, particularly young men becuase they are still growing, and schools that are slow or fast for their conference), but its a good place to start. The ways in which is is similar is that there are stroke/event specialists. So in one recruiting class they may take two backstrokers and then the next class they want 0. The more versitile you are in terms of the number of events you can contribute in, the more attractive you will be to coaches. Being a good freestyler at many differnt distances is helpful because they need a lot of freestlyers for relays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's an overview:

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-swimming

Also check your swimmer's stats on recruiting sites like swim cloud for a sense of where he or she stands locally and nationally (pretty much everyone is on there automatically, whether you are looking to be recruited or not).

NP and slightly off topic, but swimcloud seems to exclude a lot of meets. Is that because meet directors don't use that site, or because they don't include meets that aren't "open" or something? I have a HS freshman, so not really paying full attention to this stuff yet, but I figure I should probably figure it out at some point.

[Anonymous]

OP here thank you all very much- we’ve got a (probably) college prospect but as been mentioned, height is the variable factor. These posts help tho, thanks- soccer recruiting = very frustrating

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's an overview:

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-swimming

Also check your swimmer's stats on recruiting sites like swim cloud for a sense of where he or she stands locally and nationally (pretty much everyone is on there automatically, whether you are looking to be recruited or not).

NP and slightly off topic, but swimcloud seems to exclude a lot of meets. Is that because meet directors don't use that site, or because they don't include meets that aren't "open" or something? I have a HS freshman, so not really paying full attention to this stuff yet, but I figure I should probably figure it out at some point.

You can add your swimmer's times to their swimcloud account or ask the meet director to send in the meet results.

[Anonymous]

If you have a specific school in mind, you can check their swimmer’s times. This way you know if your child is in the ballpark.

[Anonymous]

Pp^^ Forgot to ask. Are you looking at D1 or D3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp^^ Forgot to ask. Are you looking at D1 or D3?

It’s common to no know this until the season you need to commit. Some kids can find good spots at either. I recommended a membership in collegeswimmingguide.com. We’ll worth the $200 fee as Michelle provides a lot of great info to members and she’s very knowledgeable.

[Anonymous]

OP keep in mind that kids can be recruited for swimming in either fall or spring. I went on a few recruiting trips to D1 schools in the fall but didn’t commit anywhere at the time. It was a good thing because my times got better over the course of my senior year and I ended up being recruited by a better D1 program that wasn’t considering me in the fall. I went on the recruiting trip to the better program in the spring and committed to that school shortly thereafter. So if your kid is on an upward trajectory maybe advise them not to commit somewhere until after the late winter/early spring championship meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP keep in mind that kids can be recruited for swimming in either fall or spring. I went on a few recruiting trips to D1 schools in the fall but didn’t commit anywhere at the time. It was a good thing because my times got better over the course of my senior year and I ended up being recruited by a better D1 program that wasn’t considering me in the fall. I went on the recruiting trip to the better program in the spring and committed to that school shortly thereafter. So if your kid is on an upward trajectory maybe advise them not to commit somewhere until after the late winter/early spring championship meets.

Sadly- this would be very risky today. Most kids verbally commit to D1 programs spring or summer of Junior year. By fall of senior year, many roster slots are full, letters are signed for scholarships in the fall. Now sometimes kids change plans and there may be spots where you want to swim. . . But if you are thinking D1, spring I’d Senior year would be very late.

[Anonymous]

PP here, with some additional details. The second Wednesday in November is the day seniors can sign contracts for scholarships. This article tells you that by that day over 1000 swimmers have already made a verbal commitment to swim in college. This link is also helpful to identify swim programs https://scholarshipstats.com/swimming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's an overview:

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-swimming

Also check your swimmer's stats on recruiting sites like swim cloud for a sense of where he or she stands locally and nationally (pretty much everyone is on there automatically, whether you are looking to be recruited or not).

NP and slightly off topic, but swimcloud seems to exclude a lot of meets. Is that because meet directors don't use that site, or because they don't include meets that aren't "open" or something? I have a HS freshman, so not really paying full attention to this stuff yet, but I figure I should probably figure it out at some point.

You can add your swimmer's times to their swimcloud account or ask the meet director to send in the meet results.

Also, if your child swims for multiple teams, you will want to ask Swimcloud to merge the files.