Swimming in college is a full-time job. When making the decision of whether or not you want to pursue your swimming career, you need to make sure you are 100% committed to what you are about to get yourself into. Being a student-athlete is extremely difficult at times. It can be hard balancing school and athletics as well as being away from home. But if you are motivated and have a passion for the sport you will figure out how to do it. When making the choice on whether or not you want to swim in college, it’s important to be aware of somethings. These are things I wish I would have known some of these things when making the decision to swim at a collegiate level.
- You Won’t be able to come home often.
Being collegiate swimmer you are constantly busy. If you don’t have practice on the weekends, then you are traveling for a swim meet. If you aren’t traveling, then you probably have a home meet. If you don’t have a meet or practice, then you are probably doing volunteering. If you aren’t volunteering you are probably trying to get homework done, or catch up on some sleep. Between all of that you won’t get a true free weekend until off-season hits in the spring.
- Holiday Breaks are cut short.
For Thanksgiving, you get just a few days if even. You get to eat some turkey, and before you know it, your back in the pool. Most normal college students get a few weeks off for winter break, but not collegiate swimmers. Winter training is a crucial part of the season. It’s a time where a lot of teams go on training trips, so they are able to train somewhere warm. Although it seems great to travel somewhere warm, at times its hard not to be with your family. Especially during the holidays.
- Grades and Attendance.
Most collegiate coaches are very strict on grades. It’s extremely important to stay on top of your studies and if you can, get ahead. If you aren’t prepared to maintain good grades, maybe rethink swimming. You are now on a team, and that means a team GPA. And if you thought that you could get away with skipping classes? You’re wrong. A lot of professors now take attendance.
- The Amount of training.
You are no longer looking at high school or club swimming. You are looking at college swimming. Jumping from high school or club to college swimming is somewhat terrifying. Your body isn’t used to the type of training, so for some people it can take awhile to adjust. You will have doubles, weight training, dry-land, and more swimming for 20 hours plus a week. It can be brutal especially never experiencing that much before. But it does get easier, and you do get used to it.
Most importantly….
- Do it because you want to.
Swimming in college isn’t a joke. You are considering being a student-athlete. It’s important that you choose to swim at this level because you want to. You have to be 100% dedicated. Don’t just do it because your parents want you to, or just for the scholarship money. Do it because you love swimming. Do it because you are passionate about the sport.
If you are passionate about the sport, and you are doing it for yourself, you will be successful in college swimming.
Swimming at a collegiate level has been some of the best times of my life. Swimming in at this level is a learning experience. I have developed skills that will be useful in my future. I have also had the opportunity to travel around the United States and meet several people. You learn a lot about yourself as well as who you want to be. I am very lucky to be part of a team. I have met some of my best friends through this sport. Eventually, you get to the point when you don’t just swim for yourself, you swim for your team.
I would also add that no one prepares you to go from being a big fish in a small pool to a smal fish in a big pool. Most people who swim at a top tier Div 1 school were likely high school all stars, junior champs and/or may likely have made a junior team or select camp. This all adds to your ego and helps you when you are younger. People know who you are and know you swim and you’re used to winning and being in top. But nothing prepared me to walk into a program not only NOT the fastest in my class, but a far cry from being a Div 1 all American. I was completely… Read more »
We did it and don’t regret it. Built lifelong Work Ethic, Integrity, Frienships, and Great Times!
Another good thing to know before swimming varsity in college is the option of collegiate club swimming too. Club nationals was two weeks ago but I didn’t see any news about it anywhere for high schoolers.
Make sure you research the coaches and team well. Talk to some swimmers that graduated from the program if possible and find out how the team treats everyone. Many coaches have a “recruiting personality” that is like 180 degrees from their coaching personality. Many college coaches are down right abusive to the athletes. Make sure you know what you are getting in to. Do not rely on the athletes that are currently in the program. Talk to people that are done with the program to find out what things are really like. The people you will swim with are under strict orders and penalty to make sure that potential recruits are not scared off.
Make sure they do not donate any money to the program though. If they do, they are considered boosters and talking to them may be an NCAA violation.
Great article. I was definitely not prepared or knew what to expect when I went. If your club “doesn’t believe in early morning workouts” or goes easy on you during dryland to prevent injuries. Get ready to adjust to mornings every day and more intense dryland training. You can’t just skip a workout for a “break.” You better have a darn good excuse for missing workout.
Good job to clubs who see this coming and prepare swimmers for it early. The high school workload makes it tough on these swimmers and clubs to prepare them though. When a kid has 4 AP classes and has to participate in other extracurriculars to get into their dream school, how do they have… Read more »
Develop good eating habits! Your parents aren’t there to make you a healthy dinner every night. Hard training isn’t an excuse to always eat pizza, french fries and ice cream from the cafeteria.
Show up in shape! Signing your NLI does not excuse you until the Fall.
All good advice – except that in my case (and I suspect this is true for many others) – club training (at least in the summer, when we did doubles five days a week plus one session on Saturday unless we had a meet) was just as tough as college training.
Same here. I trained more than 20 hours per week in high school, so college was actually a little less. I did do more intense weight workouts in college, and the atmosphere and competitiveness of the college environment was more draining on me than club was. Also, club was much more general aerobic high yardage training, while college was more specialized. I would also advise new college swimmers to be open to new training. Coming from a moderately high yardage program, at first I freaked out when our morning workouts in college were only 4,000 yards instead of the 6-7,000 I was used to. I didn’t think I would be able to put together a good 400 IM with that… Read more »