One thing we always advise our swimmers to do when taking an official recruiting visit is to get a workout from their coach before they go.
We have them let the college coach know that they have very high expectations for their senior year and will need to get a practice in while they are on the visit. They ask the college coach if they could find pool time for them.
I have never seen a college coach have a problem with this request and they will always find available pool time.
NCAA rules state that a D-I coach can’t observe a recruit in the pool on an official visit. In other words, you can’t “try out,” but they can find you pool time even in their own facility. They just can’t be on deck while you are swimming.
In Division III it is also impermissible to do a tryout, which also means that you are NOT allowed to have prospects workout with the team.
(Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that working out with a college team was legal at the Division II level.)
For D-II and NAIA, a recruit can actually workout with the college team while on a trip. This will be subject to the coach’s approval, however.
This results in three very positive things for the recruit.
- It sends a great message to the college coach about how serious you are about your swimming and your goals for the season
- It helps you maintain your training schedule so that you can reach your goals
- Most importantly……………………….It keeps your coach happy
Have fun on your trip, be yourself, ask a lot of questions and under no circumstances should you drink alcohol.
While I wholeheartedly agree with this, I would also caution against getting too preoccupied with your workout. My club coach hated recruiting trips and made it clear that we needed to do full workouts while on trips. Sometimes, doing that just wasn’t feasible. On some of my trips, we had limited pool time or space (with 20 recruits trying to do different workouts, it became difficult) and I wasn’t able to get my full practice in. I got very agitated and worried about missing out on these workouts (I was kind of a worrier to begin with). If this happens to you, don’t fret. It’s early on in the season and missing one or two workouts will not derail your… Read more »
great advice