Swimming programs vary. Hopefully he is a lifelong swimmer and can enjoy swimming in a Master's program after college. It is a great form of fitness and an easy way to meet people. Just keep swimming.

Way too early to be thinking about this. My DS was a college D3 swimmer. He ended up with 2 acceptances to NESCAC schools and a SLAC. His swimming times improved greatly in college.

College can be such a rich and rewarding and almost overwhelming experience without all the added work of competitive swimming. What I notice about successful child swimmers is they learn to adapt well socially and academically and I bet your child will probably thrive in college regardless. Everyone’s time playing a sport comes to an end eventually. Most swimmers stop well before age 18.

Anonymous wrote:Op again. Not interested in scholarships. But DS wants to keep swimming.

I ran D1 track in college. D1 sports are a real job, and can be a real grind. If my kids want to continue with sports in college - unless they are real superstars (which is unlikely) - I would recommend D3 to them. FWIW. That said, I am not familiar with how good you have to be to do D3 swimming.

Thanks all, good to know about the college club options too!

Anonymous wrote:Op again. Not interested in scholarships. But DS wants to keep swimming.

Some colleges have swim clubs in addition to the official team, some even compete. USC has a very active swim club, for example.

If the only reason he's swimming is for college prospects, you will be disappointed.

Look at swimcloud under recruiting and see the lists by year of males who committed to colleges. Scroll through the pages to see where the commitments start to drop off and where the colleges start to become small regional schools you've never heard of. Then click on the profiles of the swimmers on the next page where no one is recruited. It is sobering; moreso when you sort by state. Very, very strong swimmers do not get recruited. Some get recruiting attention from schools that are an inadequate academic match for the student.

There may be a point where the colleges you might be able to swim for and the colleges that are a good academic match cross, but for many swimmers, those lines never cross.

Op again. Not interested in scholarships. But DS wants to keep swimming.

You really don’t know until they hit puberty

Very few kids get scholarships. Don’t put that pressure on them and let them swim for fun and exercise. Save for college v

Op here. Yes, very talented 10 and under, mostly AA to AAA times. Trying really hard to keep up in 11/12 but so far BB/A in this age group. Possibly will get AA in a distance event. But going to be a late bloomer.

I wouldn’t assume that until he settles into his more mature body, unless family history indicates that he’ll be small.

For boys there is often a huge improvement when they hit puberty/growth spurt. The 11-12 age group is very very tough for the physically later bloomers. Was he very fast as a 10 &under? Often those kids are very talented but lag a little at 11-12 if they haven’t hit a growth spurt yet. Then sometimes they hit it and catch back up.

Look at technique at this age, not times. Testosterone is real! My 15 year old male swimmer is totally different than he was at 12. He went through a period of dropping 10-15 seconds in various events at meets right as he came into puberty (really late), then covid hit. His first meet back, he swam something and dropped 35 seconds. His coach's jaw almost hit the ground.

Think about this when your child a freshman.

Not looking for scholarship…but child thinks he wants to swim in college

Do kids sometimes get good all of a sudden? Right now my child has not really grown and is struggling to keep up.
With the taller kids.

Just trying to help set realistic expectations.