SwimSwam Pulse: 62% Don’t Think NCAA Redshirts Help Long Course Performance

By James Sutherland on SwimSwam

SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side.

Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers if they think taking a year off from college swimming is beneficial to success in long course:

Question: Do you subscribe to the idea that taking an NCAA redshirt season leads to greater success in the summer?

RESULTS

• No – 62.3%
• Yes – 37.7%

We sometimes see college swimmers opt to redshirt a season, or defer their enrollment, heading into the Olympic year to put their full focus on performing in the long course pool.

It’s a lot more common for swimmers who have already established themselves on the international stage to take a year off from the NCAA, with recent examples being Torri Huske and Claire Curzan.

On the men’s side, David Johnston and Jack Aikins are two notable swimmers taking Olympic redshirts this season, both on the precipice of doing damage internationally for the United States.

Huske and Curzan are both multi-time World medalists, while Johnston is coming off making his first major U.S. international team last summer at the 2023 World Championships, and Aikins was on the outside looking at Trials, placing 3rd in the 200 back.

Huske in particular has been having a phenomenal year, hitting lifetime bests and nearing American Records at in-season meets, but whether or not she’d be dropping those type of swims if she was still in the NCAA is up for debate.

History tells us that the established swimmers who take a year off continue to do well in the long course season, and those right on the cusp of breaking through who redshirt don’t find much benefit.

More than 62% of SwimSwam readers align with that takeaway, believing that taking a redshirt season from the NCAA doesn’t lead to greater success in the summer.

It might benefit a swimmer from a nation like Canada, which holds its Olympic Trials meets much earlier than the U.S. or Australia (this year in May, previously one week after Men’s NCAAs), but Americans and Aussies have three months after the NCAA season to dial in before Trials. The U.S. used to hold Trials earlier, but since 2000, they’ve generally been about one month before the Olympics.

Full-time training all year with one or two meets on your mind could also become taxing, putting so much emphasis on performing that when the time comes the nerves get the best of you. Staying in the NCAA keeps you in the team atmosphere, the flow of competition, and then when it’s time to focus on long course, there’s still plenty of runway to do that.

On the flip side, 37.7% of readers think redshirts are beneficial. In addition to the specific long course training and tailor-made schedule athletes get when they take the year off, they usually also don’t continue their academic studies, meaning they can live like a professional and get other benefits such as increased rest and recovery.

Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: What would you rather add to the Olympics?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

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The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.

SwimSwam: SwimSwam Pulse: 62% Don’t Think NCAA Redshirts Help Long Course Performance