The Importance of TIME in Your Recruiting Process

My last year of high school was overwhelming. That was the year I decided to seriously pursue the opportunity to swim and study in the United States. What should have been an exciting chapter quickly turned into stress and anxiety. Between preparing for the SAT and TOEFL, communicating with coaches, managing applications, and keeping up with school and training, everything hit at once. Instead of enjoying my final year, I felt constant pressure. I ended up taking a gap year to properly prepare and refocus… and that’s not how the process should feel.

Many athletes think they still have plenty of time because they are two or three years away from graduating. The most common response I hear when I speak with swimmers is, “I still have two years before I finish high school in my country.”.  But recruiting is not something you want to rush at the last minute. Starting early doesn’t mean committing early, it simply means giving yourself space to explore, to learn, and to let coaches follow your progress. It also means more opportunities, as scholarship budgets are often stronger earlier in the process.

When you give yourself time, you give yourself clarity. The journey becomes exciting instead of overwhelming, and you make decisions from a place of confidence rather than pressure.