Who decided to place her in that section of the club originally though? And are there any other swimmers in the same position in that section?—heading into senior year of HS with results showing significant improvement being stated as key to getting recruiting interest from the few remaining schools on the list.
It looks like the Alto club swimmers in that group are targeting the Summer Junior Nationals (or Futures?) meet for their peak, using the NorCal Sectionals and the FL meet as prep. For example, 7 out of the 9 female Alto swimmers at the Sectionals meet placed in the finals (top 27), with the majority having multiple top 9 finishes (A finals). Almost all were fast enough to be able to swim multiple heats of their events at Sectionals.
If placement in this more competitive group within the club was insisted on because they have a more “prestigious” meet schedule, it probably wasn’t optimal for your daughter in order for her to achieve her best results this summer.
As multiple posters stated, the more competitive meets aren’t needed, and in fact are likely detrimental to getting good results in terms of time-drops for recruiting purposes. On the other hand, it’s probably eye-opening to see the depth of talent at the more competitive meets, even going down to the 14 and 15 year-olds.
This is generally great advice for any recruit. It is critical to stand out in any tournament, showcase, camp, meet, etc… and have as many rep opportunities in front of the target coaches. Reaching for a higher level initially is fine so that your recruit can get a measure of his/her skills and physicality, but it is key to find the level where your recruit will stand out.
I seem to recall that there is a thread with general advice on recruiting, timing, do’s, don’ts because we seem to repeat a lot of things in separate threads.
This advice does not apply to swimming. That is just not how that sport works and the majority of recruits will not swim in front of the coach. It doesn’t even matter if you come first or last as long as the time is what the coach is targeting. In the case of OP, the suggestion of a lesser meet was to have more opportunities to try for that time. Swimming finals often allows a swimmer to work out any kinks from the morning.
CC often looks at great details. We approached it more simply, signed up for a competitive swim club which trains in a perfect summer base for our family, and followed the instruction of the coach regarding which sections and which competitions to join. That support is also critical for foreign swimmers who don’t know how the US Swimming system works, and how meets are coordinated. Whilst she didn’t swim great, she did contribute points to her team winning the sectionals, though the team had many college swimmers which obviously tilted the tables. Overall, she still views it as a very insightful learning experience, as well as an opportunity to swim with college swimmers from schools she’s pursuing.
The cards are pretty much dealt by now, with one last Aug meet, before coaches will all have made up their mind about support. When all those facts are on the table is when she’ll have to make a real decision.
Excellent advice @tumagmom ! I think most of us know this but we may need reminders at times. Just in my small circle of woman athletes, I know a few that got caught up in the recruiting excitement, especially the parents in a few cases, and they found that playing a sport in college was not as enjoyable or rewarding, or they didn’t want to miss out on the other aspects of college, and they transferred as the school was not a good fit with the sport taken out of the equation.
D24 is very attentive to her preferences. Once she knew that her acceptance to McGill was secured, and she had visited the school and liked both the academics, the city, and the coach, she essentially dropped a school from her swim list. That dynamic is very much in her mind as she’s hoping to receive coach support in a narrowing list of institutions.
Does your daughter/you have a realistic assessment of her chances of making the team and swimming at McGill? From your earlier posts, their recruiting priority standards are at about D1 level.
Look at their roster, they have historically carried only 20-24 swimmers. And looking at their conference championship meet (RSEQ) results from February, they had about 6 swimmers in the 100m freestyle (open and relay teams) who posted faster times than your D24 did in the Sectional meet. And that’s not the fastest relative event for several of those swimmers.
Admissions may be a lock, but it would seem that making the swim team is far from it.
There have been a lot of posts, but this one laid out that club swimming or not swimming at all would be considered a “failure”. Maybe things have changed?
D24 certainly doesn’t consider herself a failure, yet if she isn’t able to find a college team to swim for, she will certainly consider that a failure because it is a sport she loves and which forms an important part of who she is, as an athlete, a team member and team captain. Club swimming indeed works for many, but it is not what she wants, and we respect that passion and commitment.
There have been many contradictory/confusing/vague comments made by OP throughout this thread but I think, at last check, D24 was OK with attending McGill without swimming on the team.
D24’s number 1 objective is to attend a world class university in her field of interest. It’s important that SHE likes the school vibe and fit, whether it’s the social aspects of the school or the attractiveness of the town/city to HER when she decides to spend 4 years there. The school tour was instrumental in ranking her preferences.
She loves swimming, and being part of a competitive varsity team, without which it would be impossible to consistently train at 530am and after school. Indeed, she would consider it a failure in her recruiting journey if she is unable to continue to pursue that passion by securing a swimming spot through recruiting, or walking on. If swimming is a hook to gain admission to a school she likes a lot that’s great, but it is not her intention to swim at a school SHE doesn’t like. We believe her analysis is fair, and support it.
Maybe you can consider choosing other language to express this. Failure is a strong word and a big burden to carry. Kids listen!
If she truly feels that way than maybe you should revisit the list after all. There are many schools that you have left unexplored that I am pretty sure she would love.
I, for one, am always telling my kids that this journey does not define them. I hope you are doing the same for your D. I would never suggest to them or anyone that not finding a team would equate any kind of failure.
I’m pretty sure of this too. And in a field like environmental science, “prestige” related to overall university/college research publication output isn’t really a factor in undergraduate education quality or job outcomes—those are going to be much more tied to the internship and research opportunities the students pursues (and which are available to students at many, many places).
Another consideration is that the varsity athlete/NARP divide is very real at a lot of the NESCAC schools and other LACs (and club sports members are reportedly lumped in with the NARPs).
If a potential recruit has their heart set on varsity sports but isn’t recruited and a walk-on position is closed out, they might find it very difficult to be reminded of their self-defined “failure” every day for four years. It’d be impossible at a smaller school to avoid the groups of varsity athletes wearing their team hoodies and so forth, whereas at a larger school it would be much less in-your-face and a different dynamic.
this is just a difference in semantics. in our family, we see failure as something we pursue and would like to reach, but fail to achieve. it doesn’t transform people themselves into failures. adversity is a great school for life, where we learn to fail, learn to improve, and achieve new goals.
most of us have failed to gain acceptance at a few colleges, many job positions, projects that didn’t pan out… it doesn’t make the person a failure, and life goes on.
on the bright side of things, pre-read have been passed/confirmed at 6 different programs, so she’s definitely moving to the final stretch of this journey, but still very much chasing coach support.
some have advised that the first offer is the most critical one, as it will engage other coaches to make a decision on her file. fingers crossed!!
Sure, but words matter. Failure is a pretty loaded word to use in the context of a process-oriented endeavor pursued with a growth mindset. I wouldn’t use that word or the associated framework with a competitive athlete. I certainly wouldn’t apply it to recruiting or college applications.
Giannis says there’s no failure in sports; it’s worth a watch. I’d say the same applies to the recruiting process, unless obvious procedural mistakes are made. Sometimes it doesn’t work out the way we want.
@NiVo So, I’m super confused. On one hand, it she doesn’t swim varsity at college, then it (she?) is a failure. On the other hand, McGill sounds like the leading candidate. Where she won’t be able to swim varsity.
I would also be super careful with defining this as a “failure”. It may be semantics, but that is a strong word. There is goal-setting and sometimes goals aren’t met. Of course, it is important to understand why, but “failure” just has such strong negative connotations.
Swimming is such an individual sport - and very much dependent on the motivation of the swimmer. It is so easy to burn out. And frankly, easy to plateau without seeing a linear time improvement. Make sure she isn’t so focused on the results that she forgets about her love of swimming.
I wish you and her luck through this process. But keep it positive and focus on finding a “fit” … whether it is the most prestigious school or not.
That’s great she received some good news!
When my D got pre read feedback last year, she heard it directly from coaches along with offers/timelines (different sport). What have the coaches communicated about the process? What are the next steps?
I completely understand the whole ‘broken leg test’ but there would have been no way my kid would have applied to a LAC if she were rejected by the coach (and if she thought she were as good as the other players). The pain of not being on the team would be really magnified on a campus of 2000 students.
