Questions to Ask College Swim Coaches
Questions for a swimmer and family talking with a college swim coach during recruiting, on a call or an official visit. They cover event group and training group, the weekly load, morning practice against a class schedule, taper and championship lineups, how partial scholarships are put together, roster size, injuries and coaching turnover.
20 questions, each with the reason to ask it · includes a conversation guide
The questions
Open any question to see why it works.
- 1
Where do my times sit against your roster, and what would I need to score at your conference meet?
Ask for the number rather than encouragement. A coach who can tell you the sixteenth place time in your event from last year has thought about where you fit, and the gap between that and your best time is the most honest measure of how you would be used.
- 2
Which events do you see me swimming here?
College lineups are built around scoring at one championship meet, and swimmers are routinely moved: sprinters asked to swim the 200, distance swimmers moved to the mile, an individual medley added. Better to hear that plan now than to discover it in October.
- 3
Which training group would I be in, and how are the groups divided?
Groups are usually split by event or by ability, and that decides which coach you see every day and what your yardage looks like. Ask who runs the group you would be in, because that person, not the head coach, is the one coaching you.
- 4
What does a training week look like: how many practices, how many yards, and how much of it is with weights?
Volume varies enormously between programs, and a swimmer coming from a high yardage club into a low yardage program, or the reverse, feels it for a full season. Ask about the heaviest weeks, not the average, since that is when swimmers struggle.
- 5
How many morning practices are there, and how do they fit with labs and clinical hours?
Mornings are the constant conflict in college swimming. Ask which mornings are required, what time they start, and how swimmers in demanding majors handle it, then check that answer with a current swimmer in a similar major.
- 6
How do you approach taper, and which meets do you rest for?
Some programs rest only for the conference championship and swim everything else tired, which means your midseason times will look slow to people watching from home. Knowing the plan in advance keeps a slow November from feeling like a mistake.
- 7
What does dryland look like, and who runs it?
Ask whether it is a strength coach who works with swimmers regularly or a general program applied to every sport on campus. Shoulders and lower backs are where swim careers end, and a poorly designed dryland program is the most common way that starts.
- 8
How is aid structured here, and what would my family actually pay each year?
Swimming aid is usually split into partial amounts across a roster, so a scholarship offer is rarely a full one. Ask for the dollar figure by year, and ask what portion is athletic, academic and need based, because those three can move independently.
- 9
What could change my aid from one year to the next?
Ask whether it is renewed automatically, what happens if you do not improve, and who signs the renewal. This is the question families most often skip, and the one that turns into a difficult conversation at the end of a sophomore year.
- 10
How many swimmers are you bringing in, and how large is the roster?
Roster size sets your lane space, your travel chances and how much individual attention exists. A large incoming class in your event group means you are one of several attempts at solving the same problem.
- 11
Are there cuts, and does everyone on the roster stay on it?
Some programs quietly reduce their roster after the first year, particularly for walk ons. Ask what happened to last year's class specifically, since the general policy and the actual practice are not always the same thing.
- 12
How do you decide who travels to away meets and who swims at the championship meet?
Travel rosters are limited and championship entries more so. Ask whether the decision is made on times, on relay value, or on class year, because a swimmer who trains all year and does not swim in February has a long season.
- 13
How are relays put together?
Relays are where scoring and status meet, and the answer tells you a lot about how the coach handles competition inside the team. Ask whether spots are swum for at practice, decided on season bests, or set by the coach on the day.
- 14
Is there a training trip, and who pays for it?
Most programs train over the winter break, sometimes away from campus, and the cost is handled differently everywhere. Ask what a swimmer's own share has been in recent years and how much of the holiday is actually free.
- 15
Who do I see when my shoulder hurts, and how quickly?
Ask whether there is an athletic trainer assigned to swimming, where the treatment room is relative to the pool, and what the process is for seeing a physician. Shoulder trouble is common enough in this sport that a slow referral path is a real cost.
- 16
What do your swimmers major in, and which majors have been hard to combine with this schedule?
A coach who names the difficult majors is being straight with you. Ask how many current swimmers are in the major you want, because if the answer is none, there is usually a reason connected to the practice schedule.
- 17
What happens to swimmers who do not improve for a season or two?
Plenty of swimmers plateau in college, and how a program treats them is the clearest measure of what it is like to be there on a bad year. Ask whether they stay in the same group, whether the coaching changes, and whether anyone has been asked to leave.
- 18
How many swimmers have left the program or stopped swimming in the past two years?
Attrition in swimming is often quiet: people stop rather than transfer. Ask for the number and the reasons, and ask a current swimmer separately, since this is a question where the two answers most often differ.
- 19
How long have you and your assistants been here?
A coaching change alters everything about a swimmer's four years, from the training philosophy to the aid you were promised. Assistant turnover matters as much as head coach turnover, because the assistant is likely the one running your group.
- 20
What are you like at the end of a bad meet?
Ask the coach, then ask a swimmer. The answers to this question tend to differ more than any other, and how a staff behaves after a disappointing Saturday is what you will remember about the program years later.
Recruiting conversations in college swimming
Practical guidance for the conversation itself.
Before the call or the visit
Before the call or the visit
- 1Pull the last two conference championship results and find the times that scored in your events. That gives you the number every other question hangs on.
- 2Look at the roster by class year in your event group, so you know who graduates before you arrive and who does not.
- 3Convert your own bests into the course the program swims most, so you and the coach are comparing the same thing.
- 4Decide as a family what you can pay if the athletic aid is small, since partial offers are the norm in this sport.
- 5Write down the questions about money, aid renewal and attrition, and decide which parent asks them. They are easy to skip in a friendly conversation.
What to watch on the visit
What to watch on the visit
- Ask to see a hard practice rather than a taper week. How the staff coaches a group that is tired is the thing you are actually choosing.
- Count lanes and swimmers per lane. Lane crowding shapes every practice for four years and no brochure mentions it.
- Ask about pool access outside team hours, and whether the pool is shared with a physical education program or the public.
- Talk to a swimmer who is not on the recruiting host list, and to someone who is not scoring at conference.
- Notice whether swimmers talk to the coaching staff before and after practice, or only when instructed to.
Reading the answers
Reading the answers
- Specific times, specific events and a named training group mean the coach has planned for you. General enthusiasm about your work ethic means less.
- A coach who tells you where you would not score, or what you would need to drop, is giving you real information.
- Vagueness about aid renewal, roster reduction or who left last year tends to be deliberate.
- If the coach cannot say who your daily coach would be, that is worth pressing on rather than letting go.
- Ask yourself whether the school still works if a shoulder ends your swimming in the first year. That question decides more four year outcomes in this sport than any lineup discussion.