I am currently 16 years old 6'0, 193lbs. My coach was talking to me about a possible football scholarship, and he says I have a chance to get one for long snapping. He says all I have to do is gain about 25-35lbs before my seniot year in High School, and I have a chance to get a football scholarship. On the other hand, I have swimming. I am currently about 2 seconds away from making state championships, and I would probably lose about 30lbs before november in order to get there. I also have a chance to get a swimming scholarship too. I know that I should probably pick one or the other because I know it isn't exactly healthy to go from 225lbs to 160lbs in a couple of months. So was hoping that maybe some people on this board have some experience with this topic and could give me some advice.
I've always thought that if a person in any sport is good enough to get a Div 1 schloraship he/she was probably one of the best athletes in that sport in their high school ever and probably one of the best in their state at the time.
JC - I like your second quote, who is that credited to?
JC, Being rail thin doesn't necessarily make one become a better, faster swimmer. As a matter of fact most college swimmers could get easily confused for being football players. Go with what you enjoy doing the most. Ask your swim coach what he thinks about your talent. I think that most of them have a keen sense of potential, and would be quite honest in their opinion about your abilities.
Rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard or US National Air Guard is an excellent consideration too.
Has anyone noticed the extreme shifts in weight he's considering? Those numbers... 160 or 225... they're complete opposites and wind up developing two entirely different people all together! I'm writing to point out that this is very unhealthy.
If you do the yo-yo nutrition thing you will definitely wear your body out (it's a lot like pulling on a rubber band one too many times). Eventually your body won't respond anymore, it will be too worn out to snap back to shape, and your muscles may degenerate as a result. In which case, kiss any hopes of playing football or swimming successfully good-bye.
Make the choice between the two sports. Once you do that stick with one body type because your muscles aren't supposed to be worn like cheap shirts - you can't just have a big bod one month and a few months later go for the ultra slim look. Since this is the end of your high school career it would be wise to focus on one sport if your going for a scholarship. That way you could practice it year-round and get more improvement in a shorter amount of time.
Personally, I do about four different sports (and I'm 24), but I always maintain the same body-type because I know I can succeed and surpass others while sustaining a consistent healthy level of nutrition and activity.
I used to gain weight between cross country & swimming. It was really hard to get my body weight up some for swimmin g in highschool. I'm sure that trying to gain only 10 to 15 pounds did some weird things to m e, lossing & gaining more would be very hard on yuor haert. You are probably in the upper weight/height range for some one your age in high school already. chances are you might put on some weight once you get into college with out doing anything. what you woudl have to do to gain that much weight woudfl not be good & in some cases illegal.
