![\"glendora](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/glendora-girls-high-school-swim.png\")
Photo Courtesy: Keith Birmingham\/ Pasadena Star-News<\/p><\/div>\n
High school swimming tends to be more team-oriented, while club swimming is more focused on the individual’s goals. Club focuses heavily on individual performance, whereas high school teams aim to beat the other teams in dual meets and throughout the season. College swimming is the same way; it’s about bringing everyone together, expecting everyone to put in their best effort and see the team\u2019s end result. Many high school and college teams set specific individual and team goals that are centered on bettering the team as a whole and contributing towards reaching that team goal.<\/span><\/p>\n Setting team goals on club is a little different. Club teams can be very diverse in ages, sizes, and might even use multiple pools, making it difficult to get everyone on the same page. While clubs still might make team goals – such as scoring the most points at Junior Nationals – high school swimming team goals often reflect similar desired outcomes of college teams.<\/span><\/p>\n Relays at every meet are also a central part of the high school and college swimming season. Relays are always fun to participate in and play a major role in overall team scores. If the scores between two teams in a dual meet are very close, often it will come down to the last relay. This makes for an exciting showdown and intense rivalries!<\/p>\n High school swimming offers many new perspectives and support systems through new teammates and coaches. High school coaches may tell you something about your stroke you had never thought about in addition to different competition than you might be used to. This can be beneficial in keeping an open mind as the transition to a completely new college environment approaches.<\/span><\/p>\n High school swim teams are typically part of a league with other local teams, while college teams are part of conferences with other universities that usually require traveling for competitions. These leagues and conferences are based on many factors including school population, geographical location and swimming level.<\/span><\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: Florida Swim Network Dual meets are central to both high school and college swimming, as these can show a swimmer\u2019s progression throughout the season. These meets typically take place with teams in the same league or conference with maybe one or two outside teams. On the other hand, it is uncommon for club teams to have dual meets against each other due to the varying factors of size, age, location and level. The preparation and experiences involved with dual meets during the high school swimming season better reflect the dual meet aspect of college swimming.<\/span><\/p>\n In high school swimming, it is important for team members to help strategize and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the opposing team. This is crucial in trying to beat other teams in high school or college dual meets. Learning how to compare the abilities of the opposing team with one\u2019s own team will benefit swimmers in being able to prepare for college dual meets. Club swimming differs in that meets are often based on qualifying time standards rather than looking out for the competition. Formulating a strategic dual meet line up is crucial to beating the other teams in the league or conference for high school and college competition. Once the strengths and weaknesses of both teams are weighed, the coach and team can predict whether there will be a clear win or loss or if it will be a close competition. These line ups often require a lot of thought and preparation, such has looking up the opposing team\u2019s past meet results. Based on the line up in a high school swim meet, a club swimmer might have to swim the same events week after week or possibly swim an \u201coff\u201d event to bring up the team\u2019s weakness. Getting swimmers comfortable with competing in the same events or \u201coff\u201d events benefit them for college swimming, as these same strategies are used. Club swimming differs because competitions are usually not weekly; instead, they are typically more spread out. Photo Courtesy: The high school swimming season is similar to the college swimming season with the end-of-season championship meets. Typically, high school will have a league meet with all the teams they raced during dual meets, while college swimming has their conference championships. At these meets, swimmers can qualify for a higher-level meet and continue their season. While high school swimming ends with a state meet consisting of the best swimmers from that state, college swimming ends with the national championships where the best swimmers across the country in the same division compete.<\/p>\n Club swimming is crucial for swimmers to perform at their highest potential during both the club and high school seasons, and participating in high school swimming involves aspects similar to those found in college swimming. High school swimming is also fun and all club swimmers should participate during high school season if they have the opportunity!<\/span><\/p>\n All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Courtney Mykkanen, Swimming World College Intern. As club swimmers may have noticed, high school swimming can be very different compared to year-round club swimming. While both have their advantages,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6846,"featured_media":185091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,17,8,1],"tags":[51606,36297,37530,54392,42797],"class_list":["post-334266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","category-commentary","category-high-school","category-uncategorized","tag-club-swimming","tag-college-swimming","tag-courtney-mykkanen","tag-dual-meets","tag-high-school-swimming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"florida-high-school-4A-states-2016\"](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/florida-high-school-4A-states-2016-1-700x500.jpg\")
November 2016<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Wisconsin_2016\"](\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Wisconsin_2016-700x500.jpg\")
Amber Arnold, Wisconsin State Journal<\/p><\/div>\n