Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Probably covered already, but in this specific case, absolutely, being on a Varsity team is important. Times are not important for the admissions application...

They ARE, of course, if the child is hoping to swim on the college team and is a legitimate recruit in that regard. The AFA coach would know to look for times in club meets and won't really care if you swam for the HS, many HS's don't have teams after all.

2 totally separate things basically.

Lol. This is a thread where accurate information will get you attacked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS kid goes to both practices during the HS swim season since he likes both teams. He isn't looking to swim in college and isn't uber competitive, just enjoys it.

HS practice 4:00p-5p
Gets back to school 5:30ish
Home for 90m or so
Club practice 8p-9p

This is 2x/week - the 2 other days he does HS dryland + club swim

HS meets are Friday evenings. Club meets are Saturdays and/or Sundays.

I’m confused by a 1 hr club practice. I’ve never seen that before except for very young kids. Which club is that?

PAC

They run 2-hr practices for older/more skilled kids.

And to be fair, once its evident your kid is not a future Olympian or at least collegiate, its kind of silly to send them to 8-12h a week of swim practice. I mean...for what?

This is the same for any sport. My kid is only in MS so we aren’t thinking of college swim yet, but they practice 8 hours a week because they love it, their teammates are their best friends, it’s a good physical outlet, and it’s way better than sitting at home texting and scrolling a phone. The value of sports for many kids does not solely boil down to are they going to be able to do this at the next level.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS kid goes to both practices during the HS swim season since he likes both teams. He isn't looking to swim in college and isn't uber competitive, just enjoys it.

HS practice 4:00p-5p
Gets back to school 5:30ish
Home for 90m or so
Club practice 8p-9p

This is 2x/week - the 2 other days he does HS dryland + club swim

HS meets are Friday evenings. Club meets are Saturdays and/or Sundays.

I’m confused by a 1 hr club practice. I’ve never seen that before except for very young kids. Which club is that?

PAC

They run 2-hr practices for older/more skilled kids.

And to be fair, once its evident your kid is not a future Olympian or at least collegiate, its kind of silly to send them to 8-12h a week of swim practice. I mean...for what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Probably covered already, but in this specific case, absolutely, being on a Varsity team is important. Times are not important for the admissions application...

They ARE, of course, if the child is hoping to swim on the college team and is a legitimate recruit in that regard. The AFA coach would know to look for times in club meets and won't really care if you swam for the HS, many HS's don't have teams after all.

2 totally separate things basically.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

It is not a thing for college. Since (at least in the DMV) HS meets are not USAswimming sanctioned most colleges are not going to look at it. Regional and State championship only. And there is no need to swim HS if your times are there. Some swimmers do, because it is fun and they can be "stars" on their HS teams. In the DMV, HS is one step up from summer league.

That's relevant if you are trying to be recruited. OP is more focused on the application.

Lol read the OP, her kid is not even in middle school yet. Please go back to the college forum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

Swimming is all about times, not a “varsity experience”. High school swim lasts 2 months and the rest of the year the kids that aspire to swim in college are competing with their clubs. Colleges all know that club swim is far more competitive, they are not recruiting swimmers based off of their high school resume.

This isn't about recruiting. It's about putting "varsity" on an application where 80% and up of admitted applicants played a varsity sport.

If you want to swim in college, you are recruited by your club times.

You don't need varsity for college applications, when you can say you swam competitively year round.

This is absolutely incorrect for service academies.

🙄 I doubt whether a kid swam HS varsity or competed year round for a club is making the difference in getting into a service academy.

When 80% of admitted applicants did a varsity sport, yep, you're drastically lowering your chances by doing club only. They don't care about times. They want the letter.

They don't care about the letter. You could swim club and make zone cuts and they will understand the work put into it more than a letter. They want you active. You could be an Eagle Scout and that will carry more weight than a letter.

True for athletic recruiting and true for a regular university. Not true for admissions in this particular case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
A lot of the best swimmers do not swim HS because they are more likely to be recruited through Club and not HS.

How do they gain the varsity experience colleges want, then? I have a teen who wants to go to the Air Force Academy. Shouldn't he focus on high school?

It is not a thing for college. Since (at least in the DMV) HS meets are not USAswimming sanctioned most colleges are not going to look at it. Regional and State championship only. And there is no need to swim HS if your times are there. Some swimmers do, because it is fun and they can be "stars" on their HS teams. In the DMV, HS is one step up from summer league.

That's relevant if you are trying to be recruited. OP is more focused on the application.

My takeaway from this, is it varies by high school and club, even within state and region. Not to provide a non-answer but best ask your specific coach bc the answer can be very different school to school.

Also, every kid has a different goal for themselves. The club involvement does seem important for kids who want to be recruited for a college swim team. However, some kids find fulfillment ending their swimming career in HS or with a summer team, where involvement in a club may not be necessary (or have found a club they like even though they don't want to swim in college). FWIW, there was a varsity swimmer on kid's DMV HS team who was playing a different sport in college but still managed to set HS records in two swim strokes. And, my other kid attends a HS where all the records are held by an Olympic trials qualifier. All experiences are different. So, if you want good info, pls talk to someone IRL who is relevant to your kid's situation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS kid goes to both practices during the HS swim season since he likes both teams. He isn't looking to swim in college and isn't uber competitive, just enjoys it.

HS practice 4:00p-5p
Gets back to school 5:30ish
Home for 90m or so
Club practice 8p-9p

This is 2x/week - the 2 other days he does HS dryland + club swim

HS meets are Friday evenings. Club meets are Saturdays and/or Sundays.

I’m confused by a 1 hr club practice. I’ve never seen that before except for very young kids. Which club is that?

PAC

We live outside of the DMV. Girls varsity season is in the fall while the boys season is in the winter. In our area, girls attend high school practice and not club practice. School practice at my daughter's scho is 2 hours after school and is tougher than club practice. Girls in neighboring schools may have longer practices but they also do not attend club swimming.

One interesting thing about our area is that school swim is not exclusively dominated by club swimmers. While the majority of the top swimmers are also on a club team there are are a few who did club when younger and can use that technique base plus the fitness base of varsity practices to do well regionally. One tall boy last year was able to make a state cutoff in 50 free that way. There is a girl in a nearby school who almost has a state cut time for 50 free. The state qualifying times here are between class 5 and class 6 Virginia cut times for comparison.