The odds of getting recruited and swimming in college are pretty slim. It has been estimated there are well over 40,000 high school senior girls and over 35,000 senior boys who want to swim in college every year. This is counting high school, club and international swimmers and the number of international swimmers wanting to come to the states is rising dramatically every year.
If you want to swim in college, you have to work at it. Don’t expect the coaches to come to you.
Here is the typical college coach’s evening during the recruiting season. They work all day, then get home and start making phone calls to potential recruits
About 90% of the conversations go like this:
Coach: Hi Johnny, this is Coach Paine from the University of USA. How are you?
Recruit: Fine.
Coach: How was your meet last weekend?
Recruit: Pretty good.
Coach: Are practices going well this summer?
Recruit: Uh huh.
Coach: What plans do you have after the season?
Recruit: I don’t know.
Coach: Have you thought much about our program?
Recruit: Where are you from again?
Coach: Do you have any questions for me?
Recruit: Nope.
You get the idea. After about 10 phone calls a night like this, you can imagine that the coach is pretty glassy eyed and ready for bed feeling like he hasn’t accomplished much.
When a college coach takes the time to call you, you should feel honored and should try to make that phone call very special for you and the coach. You want the coach to look forward to calling you next week.
One of the best ways to separate you from all of the other recruits who college coaches call is to use “yes sir” and “no sir” when talking with a college coach. Young people nowadays rarely show this form of respect. I guarantee the coach will remember you.
Never use the work “dude” with a college coach. If you have to ask why, you’re in trouble.
Engage the coach. Show respect and class and confidence in yourself. Always stand up when talking with a college coach. You will have more energy and the coach will hear it in your voice.
Questions for college coaches when they call:
- How long have you been coaching?
- How long have you been at your school?
- How much longer do you see yourself coaching?
- What is the highlight of your coaching career so far?
- What are your long term personal goals?
- What are your goals for this season for the team?
- What are your long term goals for the team?
- Why did you get into coaching?
- What motivates you to continue to coach?
- Where did you grow up?
- Do you have a family?
Is video important?
Unless you live in one of the hotbeds of swimming, coaches will probably not have a chance to watch you swim. Almost all of the coaches want to see what you look like when you race. You should be sending out video of your races.
Video tips:
- Have your parents take the video. Don’t ask your coach. They are too busy at meets.
- Have your parents zoom in on you for about 75% of the race so the coaches can see your strokes.
- Video should be taken from the side of the pool high in the stands.
- Use a tripod or at least make sure your mom doesn’t drink too much coffee before filming.
- Put some of your swims in slow motion.
- Highlight yourself in your lane so coaches can find you.
- Don’t send practice video. Coaches want to see what you look like when you race.
- No underwater footage. Camera angles can be deceptive.
- Delete the commentary. Coaches don’t want to listen to your parents screaming.
Good luck and get to work!
Question- can a swimmer that only swims highschool and summer league still get recruited?
Most definitely
Since coaches don’t go to most of the HS/Summer League meets, how would I go about getting exposure? I am only a freshman now, but I want to be prepared.
What is your website Rick Paine?
Rick’s site can be found at – http://accrecruits.com/
Rick helped our daughter a lot with the recruiting process. Most importantly knowing what questions to ask and how to discuss financial need with coaches. His insight into the NCAA swimming landscape was invaluable. My daughter is now happily situated with a successful div 1 mid-major with a solid engineering program. She is enjoying her experience so far. Thanks to Rick for his help!
Thanks for the nice comments CDN Swim Parent. Because we are a small recruiting company (all former college swimming coaches) that specializes in swimming we take a lot of pride in helping our kids and parents.
I may be a fast swimmer, but not tall enough… That’s what coaches want I guess. Are there any swimmers under 1.80m (5ft 11) on any D1 school?
There are many swimmers who are under 5’11” swimming at the D-I level.Yes, all coaches want tall, but most coaches are looking for much more in a recruit than just height. Submit a Free Profile on our website and we will give you some ideas
When in high school should you start submitting profiles and filling out recruiting questionaries??
It is best if you can get the coaches to chase you, but it is very hard to do on your own unless you are a national level swimmer. I suggest you start filling out questionnaires as a freshman or sophomore if your times are fast enough to attract interest. If you times are quite fast enough then it is better to wait until they are. If you send a questionnaire with times that are too slow then you are not doing yourself any favors. The problem with questionnaires is that yo can’t really show the coach your potential.
We send the swimmer’s info directly to the college coaches and are able to get the coaches to chase the swimmer.… Read more »
I would disagree with the point of getting coaches to chase you. Perhaps my program is unique, but we recruit kids who recruit us. We will let swimmers know we are interested in them, but we will not chase them if they don’t respond to us and don’t help us help them.
If we get the sense that a recruit expects to be “courted” and chased, essentially as if they are 5-star football or basketball recruits, then we move on to another swimmer. That type of mind set points to an attitude of entitlement that will make for a good fit in our program.
If we have to ask more than a second time for information we need… Read more »
Sorry, correcting a sentence above: ” That kind of mind set points to an attitude that will NOT make for a good fit in our program.”
Steve, perhaps “chase” was not the correct term. By “chasing” I mean having the coaches initiate contact with the recruit. I agree 100% that the recruits MUST respond to the coaches when they are contacted right away. When I recruited at Nebraska I loved it when a recruit initiated contact with me and told me that really wanted to come to my school. Theoretically I would not have to offer them as much money as someone I had to initiate contact with.
I hope this is clearer for the recruits. Being “chased” does not mean having a coach contact you twice asking for the same info.
Great point. Some of our best coaches are at the D-II, D-III and NAIA level.
A lot of swimmers mistakenly dismiss Division III, which IS a mistake.
Serious students with a reasonable background of swimming success and potential are very attractive to D3 coaches. While you may not make national cuts, you will certainly have a great experience of participation.
Although D3 schools do not offer athletic scholarships, there are a number of ways to help defray the cost of education. If a student is accepted, the college / university really wants to have that student commit. Consequently, financial aid packages become very flexible and attractive to the prospective student. And, the first offer of assistance is not necessarily the highest. Press the issue, if you need more.
Cameron, good questions. The process is a little more daunting for international swimmers, but the coaches are looking for the same basic info- how fast are you, what kind of student are you and how tall are you. Depending on the country a swimmer is from, a TOEFL may be required.
For the kids we work with, we provide the college coaches with actual grades and converted grades, test scores, TOEFL scores, actual times and converted times, progression, height, weight, shoe size (if applicable), wingspan (if applicable), race video and our own assessment.
Projecting the late bloomers who are about to bloom is very subjective. We do our best as former college swim coaches to provide an accurate assessment for… Read more »
The article said “the number of international swimmers wanting to come to the states is rising dramatically every year.”
Does the process differ dramically for international swimmers/students?
I imagine it’s hard enough to get noticed domestically but how does an international swimmer get on the radar, short of being a national age champion or at least in the top 5 or 10?
Also ANDE commented coaches are looking for “late bloomers who are about to bloom”. It sounds great but how is that criteria reasonably assessed? Technique?