All,
I'm building a "business case" to start a high school swim team at my daughters' charter high school. The school is very academically oriented (which I love) and has not had sports programs. However, I've got initial support from some teachers and parts of the administration to explore this. Being a lifelong swimmer, I know how valuable sports can be, but I need some external validation of this (school was founded by two, PhD economists).
I'd love any input on the following:
Does there exist academic research (or even strong case studies) that demonstrates the value of high school swimming relative to:
academic performance
college admission
Can anyone point me to a list (or lists) of the kinds of academic + athletic award programs that exist for high school swimmers that can then be further used to bolster their admission opportunities to top tier universities?
Thanks for any help.
Former Member
There is a great deal of information to be found on the internet about the positive benefits of sports at the high school level. I couldn't find any specifically about swimming.
A nice summary article.
It might be worthwhile to reach out to the NISCA (National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Assocation) and ask for data.
USA Swimming should also have some research on this.
If you can use data for sports in general - you might be able to present the things unique to swimming:
1. Focus on endurance and cardio vascular fitness vs. sports such as golf. Tennis players are fit, but not like swimmers.
2. Common for boys and girls to train together - much different than other sports.
3. Can be very technical compared to track because of the technique required to swim each stroke well.
4. It is a sport where minorities have historically been under-represented so if this school is diverse swimming could be a positive.
5. Swimming is a stopwatch sport so achievement and improvement is easily measured for each athlete. No judging!
6. Combination of individual contribution and team (relays).
