<p>Hello, I posted previously in the Parents forum where I got a lot of great input on whether my S, who is a very respectable butterflier, can go D1 and still have a life? Now I'm wondering more specifically: do coaches let you do "dangerous" things in your free time such as snowboard? Does the answer to that change if the school is D2 or D3 ? Scholarship or no? Right now he says he wants to swim more than anything and if the coach says No then he'll listen to the coach. But I'm very curious about the degree of control the coach has over your life, and want to make sure S has thought this through...</p>
<p>Based on his stats and national rank we think S is a likely prospect for a low to mid range D1 school, where he would be competitive yet probably not breaking any records. We also have no illusions about the amount of scholarship money. </p>
<p>Any athletes or parents care to share their experience?</p>
<p>Every family is different in what they encourage their kids to do. Our son choose to stop snow boarding and wake boarding as a freshman in high school because he wanted to make the varsity baseball team. He worked really hard to put himself in the position to get a D1 scholarship. As a college student-athlete with a scholarship the school is basically paying the student to play their sport. If snowboarding is more important to your son than his sport than maybe he’s not cut out to be a D1 athlete.</p>
<p>That said maybe other divisions would allow the student-athlete more free time to do other sports. I think it really depends on the school and the coaches. Great questions for your son to ask the coaches as he considers schools.</p>
<p>^^ kudos to your son on his foresight and dedication. I agree with you entirely, but what about kids getting injured playing pickup basketball or soccer or ultimate frisbee or some other reasonable form of cross training exercise? The thing about a lot of these athletic kids is that they tend to go so hard even when playing around that they could get injured just as easily doing what I imagine to be approved activities as they can doing X-games stuff. I hope a bunch of people post because it will be interesting to see what kinds of limitations their athletes had put on them in college.</p>
<p>You might want to read the 'fess up thread, as it has a very thorough discussion by those in the know of what it means to play D1 sports, including the sacrifices.</p>
<p>I will add, tho, that my swimmer son was seriously discouraged from skiing or snowboarding in HS, let alone college. It was “understood” he wouldn’t do anything so stupid during his college D3 season.</p>
<p>He played fall and spring intramural sports this past year. He rolled his ankle playing ultimate in HS, so decided himself that it wasn’t a great idea.</p>
<p>My daugher is a D1 track & field scholarship athlete, and as far as I know the only restriction placed on her team (by the head coach, for all events) is no sororities or fraternities. They simply do not have enough time outside of practice and training to fulfill the demands of Greek life. She and her teammates, and even their coach, do all sorts of other physical activities and pick-up games together; I think they know where to draw the line to avoid compromising their ability to compete. D was a three-sport athlete in high school and she took a lot more grief then from her coaches, especially when volleyball playoffs ran into basketball season. Basketball coach wanted her at practice and volleyball coach lived in fear of a rolled ankle.</p>
<p>The amont of control a coach has over a program varies dramatically as much as it does by the sport they play. Also, I think juniors and seniors have a lot more latitude than freshmen and sophomores as you would expect. My son has friends that play at the highest level of D1 (ACC & SEC) college baseball…I spoke to one of those parents last night at a high school state playoff game. Their son (rising sophomore) would never think about doing something that would jeopardize his position on the team. If he gets hurt, he has to overcome everything he has worked for and get back into the good graces of the senior captains and coaches. It has been described as a very tightly run ship. My son also plays D1 baseball (Ivy), but the coach is not nearly as controlling in what they do outside of baseball. I know some players on his team play intramurals to stay in shape and have fun in the off season. Truthfully, I think that is a more than fair question to ask the coach directly.</p>
<p>The answer to this will of course vary by sport, coach, and team and probably also by that particular coach’s past experience. D’s coach is being a bit more careful about approving sorority involvement than he had been, because there were some major issues recently that negatively affected quite a few girls on the team. The coach doesn’t issue a blanket prohibition about joining a fraternity or sorority, but the team rule is you must run it by the coach first if you want to rush. If he thinks your grades are too low or your athletic performance has been sub-par, then he will strongly advise against it. The same applies to everything else, like studies, nutrition, etc. As long as there’s not a big problem showing up, the coach treats the athletes as the young adults they are and lets them do as they see fit. But if he notices you coming to practice exhausted, or if he sees you’re getting a beer belly, you can expect he’ll want to have talk.</p>
<p>FWIW, the time and energy commitment for D1 sports is big; I don’t know how much of either is left after 2-a-day practices and classwork.</p>
<p>DD1 finished her FY as as a D1 athlete at a mid-major. During season, she often didn’t make it to the dining hall dinner hours because she hurt too much to walk that far after a full day (luckily, a mini-deli/market was located in her dorm). The team members who are returning to the dorms next year are even moving down to the ground floor to eliminate as many steps and stairs as possible!</p>
<p>She IS tubing, wakeboarding and jet skiing when she has time this summer. Her coach has issued no restictions other than that work outs continue (at a lower level) for the summer - the girls have to report their dryland and pool work at the end of each week. </p>
<p>She honestly relishes quiet down time more than she ever did in HS.</p>
<p>My son plays D1 golf at a top 50 ranked school. He was a starter his freshman year (just finished his first year) and he was received a very large scholarship which just got upped to a full ride for next year. He as was the rest of the team was giving direction from the coach to not do anything that they could get hurt doing. That includes, skiing, snowboarding, intra mural sports and even pick up games where you could jam a finger or sprain an ankle. The bottom line is they have a lot of $$ invested in the players and I do not think it is unreasonable at all to ask them to refrain from doing things that could side line them from what they are being paid to do. Coach is a great guy, fair and very disciplined when it comes to the team. I also know some of the guys have done stupid stuff and hurt themselves, thankfully though the ones who hurt themselves were not the ones playing. I also as a parent do not have a problem with the coaches requesting this of them, makes sense to me.</p>
<p>My daughter doesn’t know how to do any other sport. And for most she’s to small to do anyway so sport conflicts never came up. Now risky behavior and pushing things beyond the limit that’s another story. And her coaches are somewhat aware of how hard she pushes to win.</p>
<p>I think risky behavior is a key ingrediant of high performers…but I do have a vested interest in that opinion</p>