Scholarship + Noob Q's

Hey everybody, I'm Alex and this is my first post. That being said I have a few questions regarding getting colleage schorlaships and some other newbie questions as well. I'm a sophomore in highschool and I just finished up my first season (12 weeks) of swimming at my school. Swimming in the ocean has always been a passion of mine (I SCUBA dive as well), but I never thought I would fall in love with swimming in a pool. I would like to take swimming a little more seriously because I want a colleage scholarship, but I don't know where to start or what a colleage scholarship requires. I remember asking the my swim captin if he has any offers to any swim colleages and he said he only went to one. He is a great swimmer with a best time of 21.7 second 50m freestyle. I don't know if I have to surpass his time, but I'm sure it would help in getting a colleage scholarship. If any of you who have received full or partial rides to a colleage of choice would like to share how you did it I would very much appreciate that. Time for NOOB Questions!!! My coach says my 2 best events are breststroke and freestyle. Last I checked (at leagues last friday) I got a time of 1:20 on my 100m *** stroke:eek: (I know its slow for my age, but this is my first year of swimming) And my 50m freestyle is 27.88. I believe that my 100m freestyle is 1min 4 sec (I have crappy flip turns) Since I'm on offseason, my biggest question is- How often should I swim to make gains? Some people tell my as often as possible, but then again I feel that you aren't giving your body time to recover after the workout. I'm not really sure if that can be said for swimming, but it can be said for kung fu. At most I feel that I will commit 3 days a week at 24 hour fitness and see a great swim coach (at the Y) for 1 hour once a month. ( I don't know if that is enough time with the coach, but thats what my dad said). There are 2 programs I would like to start soon and I fear that one might interfere with my swimming. The first is a gymnastic strength training regimine that builds on maximal strength with a 3x3 or 3x5 set/rep scheme. I will be going Fundamental Bodyweight exercises (core, legs, pressing and pulling) for 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). I am planning to operate on 8-12 week cycles of constant load and increase my load only after I have finished a cycle. My question about this is: Am I building the right kind of strength needed for swimming? My strength training uses no heavy weights, but covers the whole body each training day. Do you guys agree that this will help me become a better swimmer or do you believe something else about strength training and swimming? My second program is a flexibility program. I just got Tom Kurz's "Secrets of Stretching" DVD. I want to achieve a hanging (legs elevated, like on chairs) side+ front splits. I can already do a decent front splits from both sides on the ground and I am working on my side split. My question about this is: Will this flexibility hurt my swimming? Tom is all about reaching high levels of strength in a stretched position so I believe that the perceived overflexibility can be controlled because I would have reached high levels of strength in my legs for that increased rang of motion. If you think otherwise please tell. I probably have more questions, but I have to watch the Grammy's. With kind regards, -kombat