Questions to ask coaches and athletes

What does taper feel like?

Cutting training right before a meet leaves people restless, oddly heavy and convinced they have lost fitness, which is the part outsiders never hear about. Ask whether they trust it or fight it.

From: Questions to Ask Swimmers

Who did you grow up rooting for, and how did that happen?

Origin stories point at family, geography, or one relative who took them to games. Someone loyal to a team nowhere near where they grew up almost always has a story attached, and it is usually about a person rather than a team.

From: Questions to Ask About Baseball

What does a Tuesday practice look like, and how much of it is live contact?

Contact volume is where philosophy meets liability. Listen for a number and a reason behind it. Someone who cannot say roughly how many minutes are live, or who treats the question as softness, will become a problem the first time a parent asks it.

From: Questions to Ask a Football Coach in an Interview

How do you get out of a bunker?

A technical question that invites teaching, which most golfers enjoy. It also reveals whether they practice the shot or avoid it.

From: Questions to Ask About Golf

Where do I sit on your depth chart right now, and who is ahead of me?

Coaches speak warmly to everyone they are recruiting, and this is the question that converts warmth into a number. A specific answer naming the players above you is honest; we see you as part of the future usually means several years on the bench.

From: Questions to Ask on a College Visit for Sports

What does a freshman have to do here to get on the floor?

The answer separates programs that play young players from programs that redshirt and develop them, and both are legitimate. Listen for whether the answer is about defense, about weight room numbers, or about learning the offense, since that is what your first year will actually be about.

From: Questions to Ask College Coaches: Basketball