My daughter, currently a senior going on some D3 recruiting trips, dropped serious time in all events last year (junior year). We’re talking along the lines of 3-5 seconds on several 100s, 10 seconds on some 200s, and 2+ seconds on her 50. Is this something she should mention to swim coaches during the recruiting process? I wasn’t sure because it would point out that her times until a year ago were not all that competitive. On the other hand, my daughter came fairly late to competitive swimming and honestly, I think has not come close to peaking yet. Last year was the first year she began to train at a truly competitive level (and even then was sidelined for quite some time with pneumonia right in the middle of swim season).
She’s hoping to apply somewhere ED, so won’t have senior year times to present to coaches to confirm her downward trend. Are these significant drops in time something to mention, or should she just allow the times to speak for themselves?
Definitely highlight the downward trend. Coaches don’t care how slow you were as a sophomore, only how fast you were as a junior and, most importantly, what your potential is to go faster. My daughter put together a chart showing progression of times in every event from freshman through junior year, and it made a big impression. Good luck!
I agree that she should mention it. If I were a coach, I would think it was a plus that she had dropped so much time and has the potential to drop more. Coaches could discover this using the USA Swimming database (there is a “progression” search tool) but they probably don’t have time to do that for every recruit, so pointing out her progress is a good idea. Hope things are going well for her on the OV’s!
I agree with the others but I would stress the fact that up to last year she really has not trained full time/competitively and going forward with that type of training more time drops are likely especially if her times are competitive within the swim teams she is looking at
Thanks for the replies. I’ve been conflicted about whether she should point it out. Part of me worries that the coaches will be concerned about her dedication level to the sport if she says something about not training at the level other swimmers have trained at until last year (she was on a competitive team before then, but didn’t train as intensely, did no dry land training, etc). She’s picked up training even more over last summer and this fall, and says she feels great in the water. I can’t wait to see her times this year. Unfortunately, the ED coaches will not see them.
The good thing is that her times clearly land her in the “recruitable” area for these coaches right now. I will encourage her to mention the time drops, at least in her best events, to the coaches and explain that the intensity level of her training picked up then.
FWIW, my son who is a senior, mentioned his big improvement over this past year in his emails to coaches, and the coaches definitely made note of it. A not insignificant number of college swimmers, girls in particular, struggle to drop their high school times, and the fact that she’s still improving is good. Don’t worry the coaches will read something negative into it. They know what they’re doing.
I don’t see any downside. Although it’s easy for me to be decisive when it is not about my own swimmer-- I second guess myself often in this recruiting process.
You are not looking at it from the coach’s perspective, Momtothreegirls. They WANT swimmers that have not ramped up their training to a top level yet. It just gives the coach more to work with. The coaches are much more worried about girls that swam hard for 8-9 years, are burned out and want to quit or have no where to go but down. Your daughter’s lack of heavy training is her selling point!
Also, I think everyone who has commented on this thread has a senior swimmer, how is it going for them? We are just waiting here. Waiting to hear something back from coaches and waiting for my son to go on his last visit. I wish I were better at waiting.
I agree with others that the uptick in the training should be highlighted. My daughter has trained for many years, though has never done dryland and is very skinny. I think this was a big selling point for her.
Thanks - you all convinced me. I didn’t want her to seem not dedicated, but the flip side is that her potential is huge. Off to an overnight tomorrow - she’s excited.
@Needscaffeine, I would not wait, instead have your swimmer call the coach to express how much he or she wants to swim at their school and what are the next steps? If he has been on a visit and not heard from the coach, it may be the coach is busy with the swimmers who called and he is confident will accept an offer.
Thanks,@hastomen123, I think he is going to call one of them. He will most likely wait until next week because this weekend is the last round of OV’s for that school and the coach is probably busy now with arriving recruits. The other coach told my son to get in touch when my son was done with all his OV’s. Based on the other swimmers my son recognized at that OV–they were a fast crew-- I think my son is low on that coach’s list and would only get a slot if the other recruits commit elsewhere. So far I haven’t seen any verbal commits to either school but they are not top D1 programs.
Thanks all again. The coach at my daughter’s overnight visit this past weekend agreed that he was always excited for swimmers who came to his program with less training - he enjoyed training them and helping them reach their full potential. (As an aside, there was one girl there who apparently doesn’t club swim - and only swims during her high school season - yet has some pretty impressive times thus far. I can only imagine how excited coaches must be at the prospect of her joining their teams!).
That may depend on the type of program. A coach of a B1G (Big 10) school that’s known for its distance program told our club coach that they don’t even consider kids who have only swum high school. Apparently the University team has seen too many HS-only swimmers unable to complete the practice sets, and dropping the team by mid-fall of their freshman year. Yikes!