LemonAid App Streamlines College Recruiting For Swimmers and Coaches

Even though it doesn’t seem like it sometimes, swim coaches do have lives outside the pool. Yes, they often run practices at 5 am every weekday. And yes, they do spend the day streamlining workouts, organizing meet rosters, and managing the team. And, of course, they run afternoon practice until late evening around 8:00 or 9:00 pm. But hey, at least they have weekends off (aside from a quick three-hour practice on Saturday morning). At that point, they’re absolutely free to have their own lives.

Unless, you know, there’s a swim meet.

In short, coaching can be a demanding job. However, considering the amount of time coaches spend with their athletes, it’s an influential job as well, especially at the club level. After all, swimmers join club teams at young ages, often learning from the same pool of coaches for years. In fact, it’s not unheard of for an athlete to join a team at the age of five and look up to the same head coach until they’re eighteen (even if they don’t directly swim for that coach until they’re in high school). And even if these club coaches haven’t trained these athletes since they were five, then they’ve likely coached them in some capacity for years.

In other words, club coaches know what their swimmers are capable of. They know their strengths and weaknesses, and not just athletically. They know their swimmer’s psychology. They know what will inspire them, and they know what the kinds of adversity will stress them. They know their swimmer’s academic interests: what kinds of classes they like, what kinds of hobbies they have, what kinds of films and books and music they care about. If there’s anyone who’s in a good position to recommend a college, it’s a swimmer’s club coach.

And yet, when it comes to college recruiting, advice can often be the same thing the students are already doing: “get good grades,” “swim fast,” and “email the coaches.” It’s not that the club coach doesn’t want to be involved; most simply have to manufacture the time out of a variable and hectic work schedule to go above and beyond for their athletes’ futures. Even the smallest club team can have upwards of a hundred athletes, their families, and staff that will need assistance throughout a season and career. How can and do coaches find the time to, at the very least, be able to recommend schools that might fit their athletes?

The LemonAid app exists to create that time, not by fashioning it out of nowhere, but by forging easier lines of communication between the club coach, the swimmer, and the prospective college coach. For the club coach, it’s a simple matter of selecting one of their athlete’s names in the LemonAid app, then dragging and dropping that name into any prospective university the club coach deems appropriate (for both the student and for the school). The LemonAid app will suggest schools as well, and the club coach need only use the simple swipe-right-to-agree/swipe-left-to-dismiss function to vet the app’s suggestions based on his or her expertise.

The club coaches are not choosing for the athlete, merely recommending based on their expertise and experience with each respective athlete. Most club coaches have been coaching it for a long time (and swimming for a long time before that). They know how an athlete’s technique has evolved over time. They know the swimmer’s intangibles. And they can quickly provide accurate and helpful recommendations for their athletes without losing focus on the new crop of athletes they’re forging for the next generation.

The sad fact of college recruiting is that swimmers are often just numbers in a column—best times and a GPA sent through an email. Ultimately, until the athlete gets that chance to make a first impression, many colleges don’t even see an athlete; they see a 1:38.47 in the 200 free. They don’t see a swimmer; they see a 1:49.22 in the 200 IM. And when they don’t see that 1:38.47 in the 200 free but instead see a 1:49.92? Well, there’s a good chance don’t see the swimmer at all.

But the club coach knows the context of that number. They know how one swimmer’s best times are just one piece of the puzzle that is this athlete. There is also technique, personality, and conditioning. Every athlete is a puzzle crafted out of a different personality and a different set of skills. Some have athletic qualities that make them seem more immediately desirable to a college team. Some have leadership qualities that would make them no less desirable, but less obviously intriguing. In short, getting to know an athlete completely is a process of years, and the person who already knows them should be able to recommend the place for the next step.

There needs to be a tool to streamline those dueling responsibilities of the club coach, saying goodbye and good luck to the old crop of athletes while greeting and training the new generation of swimmers. LemonAid is that tool. It exists so that no swimmers are just a number on a page, and every athlete has a chance to succeed.

Download LemonAid now for FREE

LemonAid:  Co-Created By Nate Boyle and Eric Knight, LemonAid was born out of Eric’s personal experience with NCAA athletic recruiting…or lack thereof. He was never recruited. Visibility for a high school athlete is hard to come by, yet it’s critical to being noticed and recruited. LemonAid gives every athlete visibility, and shows them every college with their sport. Choosing a college is a huge decision…shouldn’t it be an informed one?

For more information about LemonAid, go here.

College Swimming news is courtesy of LemonAid.