By Andrew Jovanovic, Swimming World College Intern
“Should I swim in high school?” It’s the question almost every age-grouper asks themselves as they graduate grade school.
Parents, coaches, and teammates involved in answering this question have different and often conflicting interests, which sometimes drown out the desires and needs of the transitioning age-grouper. The qualities that permeate the culture of competitive swimming begin and grow from participating in high school swimming.
A typical high school program consists of practices twice each day, immediately before and after classes. After practice, there is only time for dinner, schoolwork, and coveted sleep. The season’s schedule is rigorous, but when you get the hang of it, it sets up your focus for the rest of your academic and athletic career. Planning and organizing priorities becomes second-nature to swimmers in a high school program.
Here are 3 spectacular reasons to swim in high school…
1. Open to growth.
Joining an unfamiliar high school program from your home club team could be incredibly difficult. There are many unknowns, everything is new, and sometimes the training is much harder. There are definitely more stresses that come from coaches, teammates, teachers, and other extra-curricular activities. These are all things worth overcoming.
Learning to manage stress and reacting in a healthy way to unknowns in life is an invaluable skill. New sets and styles of training can be daunting, but what coaches look for is the ability to adapt both physically and mentally; or at least the willingness to do so.
Being a high-level athlete requires one to be open to growth. Why not take the time when you are younger to hardwire one of life’s most important skills?
2. An unparalleled desire to represent.
A sense of high school loyalty and tradition is instilled in our All-American psyche. Representing your high school team during dual meets and championship meets is an unparalleled feeling that swimmers do not get to experience often.
In Illinois, the state meet series takes place at two venues. Each of the racing pits consist of six or eight lanes surrounded by three sides of spectator seating enclosing the field of action.
When the anchor of the last relay of the high school championship meet steps up, with the roaring of the crowd drumming out the sound of his own heartbeat, he knows that he is not swimming just for himself. He is swimming for his high school- something bigger than himself. This desire to represent at the high school level is sometimes even stronger than that the rush which comes from college swimming.
3. Be held accountable and hold others accountable.
Holding yourself and your teammates accountable is a value held dear by all programs. Accountability is found in the classroom too — by staying organized and on top of work with a limited window of free time to work with. Knowing how to deal with athletic and academic stresses translates directly into life outside of swimming.
Age groupers can gain a wealth of experience from high school programs when they approach it in the right way.
By committing to a new program, a now-high school swimmer begins to stock up on incredibly important values necessary to compete, not only at the collegiate level, but also in the professional realm.
It is hard for someone that has been involved in Ohio swimming for most of their life to understand that there are places where high school swimming is not paramount. Fortunately for us Buckeyes, our HS season is from November to February, so that there is plenty of time to train and compete in all the USA Swimming championship meets as well as the Ohio High School State Championship meet, arguably among the most competitive meets in the United States. Then too, it is often the case that the high school coach is also the USA club coach, at least as assistant. We do share are swimmers quite often and almost all USA clubs actively encourage their swimmers to compete in High School. I know of no instances where that is not the case. Most USA Clubs are feeders for one or more High Schools.
Lol. If only Mahopac had a swim team! A seemingly impossible thing to accomplish.
Having a HS Swimmer graduating next week, I have conflicting opinions. The HS program must have a coach who is also willing to adapt.
My swimmer manged to snag a great D1 swimming scholarship to a great University, but that scholarship came off of hard work in the USA swimming program. HS swimming was actually a detriment. There were only 3 ‘year round’ swimmers in the HS program through out the 4 years of HS. They had to share lane space with swimmers who could barely swim 100 free. Getting a relay with qualifying times into the competitive HS District championships (let alone to The State Meet) simply never happened. Other HS Coaches & teams in the surrounding Districts would allow USA swimmers to practice with their USA teams, and those swimmers performed well.
In the long run my kid got a college swimming scholarship. But it certainly did not come from anything within the HS program. Parents and swimmers need think long and hard about whether their HS program will help or hurt.