Seriously need some advice!

i'm not sure if we have a water polo team, what is water polo anyway? I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is.

Water polo can be pretty tough depending on competition. You can be swimming with the ball between your arms and your opponent can swim right up your back and dunk you (my first experience with it in high school). When I played in the late 60's teams switched ends so you played half in the deep end and half in the shallow. You do a lot of sprinting if you're intense about it. We used it as preparation for the season and it was definately better than the cross country we did the first two years of high school. On the training benefits I do remember being out of breath a lot.

JC Fly, I guess you could think of water polo as soccer in the water ; 6 field players and a goalie on each side, and instead of running its all swimming and treading water (of course in water polo you can use your hands too). Water polo would be a great way to supplement your swim training (especially if you are a sprinter). Jeff

JC_FLY - For many serious competitive swimmers cross training is a minor component (IE not a whole season of cross country). If you want to run once maybe twice a week, that is all you need to add variety and get the max benefit of running. The majority of your time should be focused on swimming related activities (swimming, dryland, stretching, etc,.). For myself, I swam but would occassionally play volleyball (once/wk). The activity of jumping for spikes and blocks really did help with exploding off starts and turns - but devoting more time would not have provided noticable improvements - once a week was enough. But lets get to the ACID test. Tell us how long you have swam, some of your best times and events and your age. We can help you realistically assess the likelihood of a scholarship. Your ability to get a scholarship also depends on what type of school you want to attend. And I would consider dropping baseball. I played it too before swimming, but it really does not do much to help you get a swimming scholarship. Why not try for a baseball or football scholarship? Why swimming?

If you want a scholarship in my neck of the woods (it may be different in other parts of the country), sub 22 what your target should be. But at top Div I schools that # is MUCH faster. Try asking the NCAA and see if you can gleen from them how many scholarships are handed out per year at each level of collegiate swimming. They may even have numbers for you. I read the other link you posted. I would have to agree with one of the other people. The only way to get better at swimming is to swim. technique is your best friend - more so than leg strength from football or endurance from running or from crew (another popular off season activity for swimmers). You need to train your back muscles and hone your technique - that only comes from time in the water. The other side of this equation is your academics. A person who has iffy times but a solid GPA, SAT, and other metrics of a person, stands a better chance of scholarship opportunities. It may not be pure sport scholarship, but a scholarship is a scholarship. Take these two equeally seriously and you may see the fruits of your labor. HTH,

I read some recent NCAA 50 SCY results and the last place guy, #46 I recall, was right at 21 flat. That's fast!

I am turning 16 on saturday, my best times. I haven't been timed much, the last time I was on a team was when I was 13, but I swam a little from 14 to now. I am looking to get SERIOUS about it. my best 50 free time was 25 seconds, and that some time last month. why I don't try for a football scholarship. I play lineman, and lineman that are 6'2 and 175lbs don't get looked at by scouts. and it's not my passion anymore. I would love to get a baseball scholorship, and there might be a chance I might get one. but swimming is my passion, it is what I would love to do after high school(competitivly) and I would love to go to the olympics. I know I'll make districts this year for swimming, but next year I want to go to state. I've made state twice before when I lived in Virginia. I think thta if I push myself as hard as can, I can make state next year, with the right conditioning/work outs. I was on another website and I asked the same question, here were their responses. "cross country helped me the most" "I have heard that running can really help your distance ( and normal) swimming. If I were you I would run by myself a few miles every day and also try and get in the pool alot. or maybe you can run cross country for your school and try to swim alot too. I think running would really help your endurance and swimming." if you wanna see the link, here ya go. www.usa-swimming.org/.../ultimatebb.cgi i'm just trying to find out the best path to go down to get faster and improve endurance(in the water)

EVENT: 4 MEN's 50 Yard FREESTYLE NCAA Record: :19.06 ROLAND SCHOEMAN ARIZONA 2002 AMERICAN Record: :19.05 TOM JAGER SANTA CLARA 1990 US OPEN Record: :19.05 TOM JAGER SANTA CLARA 1990 QUALIFYING FOR THIS MEET: :20.01 RESULTS of FINALS RANK NAME YEAR TEAM PRELIM TIME CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL 1) BOUSQUET, FRED SO AUBURN :19.24 :19.31 2) CAVIC, MIKE FR CALIFORNIA :19.62 :19.37 3) ERVIN, ANTHONY SR CALIFORNIA :19.25 :19.38 4) GIBB, DEREK JR AUBURN :19.64 :19.51 5) WOCHOMURKA, RYAN SO AUBURN :19.72 :19.62 6) GUERALDI, RENATO JR TENNESSEE :19.53 :19.67 7) HAIDINYAK, ANDY SR AUBURN :19.69 :19.81 8) BAL, RANDALL SR STANFORD :19.52 :19.88 CONSOLATION FINAL 9) BRUNELLI, NICK JR ARIZONA STATE :19.75 :19.60 10) ROSE, MATT JR TEXAS A&M :19.73 :19.71 11) LaFLEUR, ERIC JR ARIZONA :19.77 :19.81 12) ANDERSON, LUKE JR VIRGINIA :19.76 :19.82 13) JAYME, CARLOS JR FLORIDA :19.79 :19.86 14) FERNS, LYNDON FR ARIZONA :19.78 :19.99 15) MARSHALL, MATTHEW JR WISCONSIN :19.77 :20.02 16) ZAABADICK, BOBBY SR ARIZONA STATE :19.79 :20.13 Now take a look at the 50 yd. times from the 200 yd. freestyle relay: EVENT: 1 MEN's 200 Yard FREESTYLE RELAY NCAA Record: 1:16.49 STANFORD 2002 AMERICAN Record: 1:16.49 STANFORD 2002 US OPEN Record: 1:16.49 STANFORD 2002 QUALIFYING FOR THIS MEET: 1:19.63 CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL 1) STANFORD 1) BAL, RANDALL SR :19.63 2) MARSHALL, PETER JR :18.93 3) SCHNELL, ANDREW JR :19.43 4) O'BRYAN, BOBBY JR :19.04 2) AUBURN 1) WOCHOMURKA, RYAN SO :19.71 2) GIBB, DEREK JR :19.00 3) KIDD, MATT SR :19.79 4) BOUSQUET, FRED SO :18.78 3) CALIFORNIA 1) CAVIC, MIKE FR :19.73 2) DRAGANJA, DUJE SO :19.31 3) LYON, MATT FR :19.77 4) ERVIN, ANTHONY SR :18.58 Guys doing sub-19 times! What do they feed them?

Justin, Water polo can be very physical, about 90% of the action takes place underwater. I compared it to soccer in the water, but the player action can be more like hockey or basketball (fighting/jostling for position, posting up, setting screens, picks and driving /swimming in for breaks.) all of this is normally treading water without the use of a bottom, normal polo tanks are 10ft or deeper all the way around. If you play in a pool that has a shallow end, then teams would switch sides so each gets the benefit of the shallow water (actually the goalies are the only ones who really benefit they can use the bottom but all field players can not use the bottom to gain an advantage on the ball ie jump off the bottom to intercept a pass or block a shot or jump of the bottom to gain more power on a shot). I noticed that you are in Bremerton and water polo club teams are pretty thin in the northwest compared to somewhere like Southern Cal (I'm in the Portland Oregon area and there are only a few club programs around). If you can find a club program it is definitely a good way to train if you don't want to swim year round.

JC_Fly - If you go after swimming as a year round commitment and after your academics with as much zeal as you did finding out that information, I believe you can get a scholarship. Don't forget academics!!! So many athletes fail out of school losing their scholarships b/c they fail to prepare for the other side of college life (the social life will be there - trust me on that one). Don't fall into that trap! 6 years from now you will be looking back at HS and College as fond memories and looking for a job (assuming you don't go for a Masters). Don't shoot yourself in the foot only focusing on the swimming goal. But now I am hooked. Now I hope you keep us informed of your progress, your end of season Best Times, and the scores from your PSAT's (you are a sophmore, yes?). ~CB