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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Most D1 scholarship athletes did not start year round swimming until late elementary and intense daily practice until high school.  Pay attention to PP that said this is a long game.  It’s better to be an average swimmer when you are younger and peak in high school/ college.  There is a lot of burn out for the young superstars.[/quote]

I support this idea and while my kids swim year round, they also do other sports to stay balanced. [b]But I wonder if this is still true. [/b]Ten to fifteen years ago, the norm was for kids to do multiple sports, so most d1 swimmers also did multiple sports. Today the norm is to concentrate in one earlier, so I think it’s just as likely that the d1 athletes from this cohort will have done the same. I have a friend who is a former professional soccer player who didn’t play exclusively until age 11/12. He works for an mls team’s academy and he said kids like him are rarer than hen’s teeth these days. He only sees the kids who have played since they were toddlers.   [/quote]

Anecdotally, I think this depends a lot on the club culture and coach. Our club has a flexible practice schedule and a coach who believes what's most important in the younger age groups is that kids want to keep swimming year to year. My kids played other sports and swam all the way through middle school. When they got to HS, kids who were invited to the highest group (where national level meets and college swimming are goals) are then asked to fully commit. There is no way to carry a second sport (other than maybe a rec team with your weekend game, no practice) with the swim schedule of 6d/6+ practices.

I have a junior committed to a Power 5, and other sports experience definitely came up on recruiting calls.  [/quote]

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