College coaches evaluate swimming and diving recruits by analyzing event performance and specific stroke or relay techniques. Tagging clips with the right skill helps coaches quickly identify what they are viewing to evaluate your strengths as an athlete. Below, we outline the different events and skills college coaches will be looking for. 

Events and Skills in Swimming and Diving Playlists:

When building your playlist, use the following skill tags to organize your clips:

• Freestyle: Analyze body position and rotation.
• Backstroke: Monitor head position and steady kick tempo.
• Breaststroke: Focus on the timing of the pull and kick.
• Butterfly: Review the rhythm of the undulation and arm recovery.
• Individual Medley: Evaluate the transitions between different strokes.
• Diving: Break down the approach, takeoff, execution, and entry.
• Training: Clips from practice sessions or drills.
• Other: Miscellaneous footage such as deck reactions or warm-ups.

If you think something is missing or need assistance, submit a form: 🔗 Form Link → 

⭐ Tip:  For the most detailed analysis, use multiple tags for clips involving transitions. For example, tag a clip with both "Butterfly" and "Starts & Turns" to capture the finish of the first leg of a race, and the transition into the next stroke.

Strokes & Disciplines

To maintain technical consistency, we recommend grouping your clips into these primary categories:

1. Stroke-Specific Analysis
   • Individual Strokes: Create dedicated sections for Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Butterfly. This allows for a side-by-side comparison of body position and pull patterns.
   • Individual Medley (IM): Use this phase to review the technical transitions between different strokes in a single race.
2. High Impact Meneuvers
   • Starts & Turns: Isolate these clips to analyze reaction times off the blocks and the efficiency of underwater dolphin kicks and breakouts.
   • Relay: Use this to focus specifically on exchange timing and safe but fast take-offs.
   • Diving: Separate diving footage to review approach, flight path, and entry verticality.
3. Training & Development
   • Training: Capture technical drills, sculling, and resistance work.
   • Other: Use this for dryland training, stretching, or post-race interviews. Make sure to add a caption to provide as much context as possible when tagging this skill. 

After learning what coaches are looking for as a swimming and diving athlete, it’s time to start creating your playlist. Check out our article, “Building and Publishing Playlists,” to get started! 

⭐ Tip: In addition to publishing videos on your athlete profile, it is also important to list your times and events on the “Athletic” section of your athlete profile.