<p>What’s it like? How are the coaches? Being on the team? Facilities? Schedule? Is the team competitive within the league? How does it integrate with student life, studies, etc.? All you can tell re swimming at Bowdoin and academics and student life there in general, please!</p>
<p>Attydad,</p>
<p>You are in luck that I am a current Bowdoin student on the men’s swimming team. While I encourage you to contact our swim coach (Brad Burnham, email him regardless of your swimming ability as long as you are interested), I will try to answer your questions as best I can.</p>
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<li><p>Facilities: Our team swims at Greason Pool in Farley Field House on campus and it is considered one of the top 3-4 pools in our conference (NESCAC), with similar pools at Wesleyan, Middlebury, and possibly Williams. Our facilities are nice enough to be one of the pools in rotation to hold the NESCAC championships (the 2011 championship was hosted at Bowdoin). The pool also hosts high school championships in the state of Maine. The pool is a 12 lane 25-yd pool with a diving well section, consisting of both 1m and 3m boards. Overall, the pool is quite nice and rivals some of the best facilities in D3, although D1 schools will obviously have better sports facilities.</p></li>
<li><p>The schedule integrates quite well with the academic workload. As swim season is only from November 1st to the NESCAC championship/D3 Nationals (2/28 or 3/21), the bulk of the season is between these dates. In the fall, many swimmers play club water polo or swim in the afternoons to stay/be in shape. While the coach cannot actively coach these workouts, he writes them up if anyone is interested. The spring is often when swimmers practice a few times a week or work on technique, but these sessions are individual and totally optional. During the swim season, swimmers attend afternoon practice daily (4:30pm-6:30pm), attend one 90 minute morning practice a week, and either practice or compete on Saturdays. There is a recommended weights/dryland circuit (3 days a week), but no one will force you to go. Winter break is mostly spent on campus (~28 days of break= 9-10 at home, 8-9 at Bowdoin, 6-7 days on a training trip (Florida last year!), and then we return to campus). Personally, I think the schedule was less intense than my high school swimming and it is very easy to attend every practice. If there are conflicts, Brad stresses communication ahead of time and within reason, allows swimmers to miss practice occasionally.</p></li>
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<p>The coaches are great and while Brad is the only full-time coach, we also have one assistant coach and a team manager. Practices are usually divided based upon your events (sprinters, middle distance, and distance). Brad stresses technique in the water and is very drill-oriented. He stresses thinking in the pool rather than forced conditioning. This was a very big change for me from high school and I think some people have difficulties adjusting to truly thinking in the pool, but you will get faster if you adopt his teachings.</p>
<p>Finally, Bowdoin Men placed 5th in the NESCAC championship this year (out of 12 schools), which was our highest ever finish. Bowdoin is generally competitive in the conference, but Williams, Amherst, and Tufts are normally the top 3 schools because they have a national presence at the D3 level and recruit very well. Bowdoin usually competes with the middle 5 schools (Colby, Bates, Hamilton, Connecticut College, Middlebury). </p>
<p>If you wish to continue improving at swimming, while also finding a relatively low-stress swimming environment and making great friends, Bowdoin may be a great fit.
Hope this helps!</p>