<p>I posted this on another forum but it's always nice to gain the opinion/knowledge of the parents. I do not currently swim but I used to and I loved it! Could I join a swim team in college despite my lack of recent experience. Schools: UNC-CH, Davidson, Wake Forest. I would also love to learn how to dive if they offered this. Does anyone know anything about this kind of thing at all?</p>
<p>Swimming for colleges are at a variety of levels. You need to take a look at the times on the college web sites. Go to the athletics section and click on swimming. The NCAA puts swimming into 3 categories--Divisions 1, 2 and 3. Though the very top schools in D-3 may be tougher in the sport than some of the D-1 schools, in general, doing a D-1 Sport in college is a pretty tough undertaking. The schools you have listed are all D-1 and very, very competitive in the sport (not sure about WF, don't know if they have swimming or just Female swimming). Many colleges have swimming and diving as club or fun activities and that might be a better path for you unless you are really serious.</p>
<p>If you ask a swim coach to give you their recommended summer workout and a typical week's practice during the season, you might want to give it a try. Pick a D-1 school and some D-3 schools, and see if there is a big difference. See how you feel about doing that amount of work. Being a part of a NCAA team is a big commitment and swimming, in particular, is a jealous activity in that the season starts with working out in the summer, to preseason swim in the fall, and then full season which can go as long as March. I believe the swimmers are the ones covered the longest under colleges athletic insurance policies-longer than basketball or football players. That reflects the length of time swimmers are actively participating in the sport at the college.</p>
<p>Wake Forest does not have a varity swim team.
Most swimmers at UNC CH have Junior National, National or Olympic Time Trial Times.
I know many colleges have a Club team. They compete and travel but it isn't as intense or demanding as the varsity team. This might be something that you might want to investigate. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Carolina has USA Diving sanctioned club team for diving and a USA Swim one for swimming as club sports and both for NCAA sports. Same two coaches for both club and collegiate. As far as diving, it is a high liability sport and there are only two sanctioned teams (club) in the state, Carolina and one in Charlotte. Since Davidson is nearby Charlotte they might access that diving well and coach, I don't know. I do know the coach from last year left Mecklenburg County and is the new Tulane coach.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>You would probably want to look at D-3 schools for swimming, and even then, you'd have to think about doing some training this summer. Do you have access to your best times from when you were swimming? You can easily look at meet results, best times, etc. on the colleges' sites and benchmark your times. At my daughter's D-3 school, 6000 yards is a light workout, so you should probably be able to do 5, 6, or 7000 yards without too much difficulty. Good luck! Swimming is a terrific college sport.</p>
<p>Wake Forest's pool was a big disappointment to us, although the student body appears to be outstandingly active in intramurals. Most schools have swim clubs, and some of club swim teams are quite good and require lots of practice and some travel.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great advice and info! I am going to try and find my old times and compare them with the school's swimmers. I am going into my senior year so I'm going to try and workout a lot. I looked at the UNC site and found the club team and it sounds like a lot of fun! KATWKITTENS, I couldn't find the diving team could you maybe tell me where I could get information on it? Anyways, all of your advice was awesome and I appreciate all of y'all trying to help!</p>