Why High School Swimming is Awesome
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You get the opportunity to work with and experience other coachesâ expertise and opinions
A lot of swimmers are hesitant to leave their club programs and coaches for high school swimming. There is often this assumption that club coaches are more knowledgeable and experienced than high school coaches and that club coaches can push swimmers to the next level while high school coaches cannot. Swimmers often place too much focus on how the coach trains and forget about other qualities that make a great coach such as leadership, compassion, ability to create a team environment, and effective goal setting. When swimmers only place value on training they often decide to stick with club swimming year-round. High school swimming is a phenomenal opportunity to learn from the skills and expertise of other coaches outside of your club coach. It never hurts to get a second opinion or a second set of eyes, and high school swimming gives you the perfect opportunity to do that!
*Be sure to communicate with both your club and your high school coach so that you three are all on the same page*
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Itâs a great break from the same-old club routine and people
We all love our club teams and the friends and teammates on those teams. However, that doesnât mean that the same schedule and the same people donât get monotonous. High school swimming is a 14-week break where swimmers are still training hard but in a different environment. Your training schedule changes, your practices are different, you get to train with a different group, and you get to race different teams and swimmers you may not normally compete with. It is an overall refreshing 14 weeks because it is a total change of pace. Plus, maybe by the end of the high school season, you will be fired up and ready to get back to the training and friends who await you at your club team!
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Itâs an exciting and challenging environment for ALL levels of swimmers
High school swimming attracts swimmers of all levels from defending state champs to those who have never swam competitively before. It is a great introduction to swimming for those who are interested in the sport but may get run over on a large club team. Even as a top high-school age swimmer, high school swimming has a lot to offer as an exciting, high-energy, competitive environment.
One of the best parts of seeing so many levels of swimmers in high school is that coaches, parents, and spectators get to witness drastic levels of improvement across the board. There are plenty of swimmers who are merely starting their swimming career as a freshman in high school and by the end of their first season many of them have achieved drastic improvements they never thought possible! The improvement and the time drops these swimmers experience is the most rewarding part of the sport and it keeps them wanting more. As a spectator, witnessing those drastic improvements and the immense amount of joy that follows is enough to make you fall completely in love with the sport and everything it offers.
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High school is the first time swimmers are truly representing and a part of a team, and itâs a lot of fun!
Club swimmers obviously are a part of a team during the club season, but during high school season âteamâ means so much more than the name on your cap. There is still a team component to club swimming, but the emphasis is placed on individual performance more than team performance. As a high school swimmer you are part of a smaller, unified group that represents a larger communityâŠyour high school. During the high school season there is team bonding and camaraderie that you donât always get through club swimming, and that team togetherness is what makes high school swimming such a wonderful and fun experience.
The high school swimming environment is relaxed, competitive, and a whole lot of fun. It is an incredibly valuable experience that will leave you with so many unforgettable memories. Simply put, high school swimming is awesome.
Contributor Elle Meinholz fell in love with swimming at an early age. Born and raised a Wisconsin girl, she pursued her lifelong dream of swimming as a Wisconsin Badger from 2009-2013. She graduated from Wisconsin with degrees in English and Communications. A year out of college and out of swimming, she is now a full-time Admission Counselor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, WI. She continues to fulfill her passion for swimming through high school coaching, writing, living vicariously through her younger sister, and getting in a couple thousand yards when time allows. (Twitter: @ElleMeinholz)
Wisconsin high school state at the old natatorium >
it’s cool I write my essay for sure
Oh. đI have a bright beautiful daughter going into high school who never got to do much in the way of extra curricular activities ( sports) Desperately trying to find something for her to take in high school where she can be a part of something but this too seems like an exclusive club for already experienced kids only where my 14 year old is just âtoo oldâ to be starting out? We are a marching band family and thrust her into that ( flute) since 7 th grade but she really just did not care for it. She lit up at idea of swimming but held back saying but I donât know how, I told her that well thatâs… Read more »
Jennifer White – it’s all about managing expectations. If your daughter goes to a school where everyone’s already a club swimmer, then they’ll almost definitely have a JV team for her to participate on. But, she’ll want to take lessons this summer and learn the 4 basic strokes and flip-turns. High school swimming isn’t ‘swim class,’ but good programs will offer opportunities for novice competitive swimmers.
Example: I swam at a large suburban high school in Texas, which was Texas state champions my 8th grade and sophomore years of high school, where there were JV swimmers who were year-round club swimmers. We still had girls going 35-37 in their 50 yard frees as freshmen who were able to be members… Read more »
My team traveled out of state to compete against the best teams in the Midwest, and I can confirm that the atmosphere is completely different from club. The meet was running a couple hours late, so it was easily 11:00 pm at this point, we were all exhausted and hungry, but were just points away from first place and after placing second at this meet for many years in a row, we all desperately wanted to win. The last event (the varsity 400 free relay) was absolute insanity. Since relays get the most points, this event could win us the meet. The entire team was screaming at the top of our lungs while we watched the last swimmer slowly but… Read more »
In Indiana event though HS State if heats and finals it really is like time finals. Because here they swim prelims on Friday evening and finals on Saturday afternoon. Instead of prelims in the morning and finals in the evening. So it does not prepare you for the college format any more than the states that run time finals. It just brings more excitement. Also I have had kids come to me after HS Swimming and swim in the state senior USA meet two weeks later and swim 4 sec to 8 sec slower for a 100 yard race. How do you swim that slow in just two weeks? After 3rd week of Dec any distance work stops plus many… Read more »
I live in KY and swimming isn’t a very popular sort, but I think that both HS and Club swimming benefit swimmers, but like most Club swimmers if I had to choose I would choose club, because HS doesn’t train anywhere close to the level Club does, HS I swim 1500 tops, but with club i swim an average of 5000-6000. HS is a lot of fun and is a lot more relaxed environment, which is good for some people, but personally i like the Club atmosphere is a lot more competitive. And about the HS being more of a team atmosphere, with club my team is pretty much a family, I have never had a team that is any… Read more »
One thing that hasn’t really been touched on in these comments is the issue of finances. Swimming is an expensive sport, not only because of dues and memberships from swimmers and their families, but also due to the cost of actually maintaining a pool. I grew up in a relatively low-income urban county in New Jersey, and did actually swim on a club team for about five years, until I decided it just wasn’t my thing anymore. I went back to competitive swimming on my high school team, and it was a completely different experience.
As far as I know, our county only has the one club team that I swam on, but many of the high schools have teams.… Read more »
Here in Loudoun County, VA, we have 2 pools for the entire county. *2*. So all 14 high schools AND a handful of club teams have to compete for lane time. Each high school get *3* yes *3* hours/week to train. So the only swimmers who make it to States are the club swimmers. NO ONE ELSE MAKES IT! In addition, the lane times allocated to the high schools are late at night. 9:30-10:30 for 2 of the nights. Due to this, a lot of club swimmers opt out of HS swim…to top it off, unlike in neighboring Fairfax county where the club swimmers only have to attend 1 practice a week, the HS swimmers are required to attend all… Read more »