If you’re a gymnastics enthusiast and would love to get recruited into a certain college gymnastics program, there are certain college gymnastics requirements you’ll want to follow to maximize your chances, starting several years before college applications are due. In fact, most experts recommend that you start your efforts around your sophomore year of high school. Many college coaches travel across the country looking for the best gymnasts to recruit, and the best way to increase your odds of being seen is to do a little proactive work before that time, which will also prepare you for college level expectations.
Be Prepared to Promote Yourself
Athletic scholarships can make college life easier because you won’t have to worry as much about how you’re going to pay for it all. You can start by creating a social media account such as Instagram and making it just a gymnastics-only account so that you’re easy to find by recruiters. The sooner you get the site or profile up and running, the sooner recruiters can find you, so don’t wait until the end of your junior or senior year of high school to do this. Also, make sure the site is professionally done and looks attractive, as it won’t just reflect on your athletic ability, but also your professionalism as a high-level gymnast ready to present yourself at the collegiate level.
On this page, make sure you have photos of yourself, including photos from competitions they can look at when they notice your page. Make sure you include videos of yourself in action and biographical information, as well as videos of yourself performing various feats. This is a good first step you can take to get recruiters to notice you, but remember to make the page professional-looking and very neat. The more details you can include on the account, the more likely a recruiter will find you there.
Knowing What’s Out There
Another early step you can take when you want a gymnastics scholarship is to make a list of the schools you’re most interested in, and you should include Division 1 through 3 schools if you can. Make a list of 10 schools if possible, and take certain things into consideration when doing this, including:
- How close to home you wish to be
- The quality of their women’s gymnastics teams
- If the college has a good program in what you want your major to be
- What their lineup is like now, and whether or not you feel like you can work with them
- The types of assistance they offer; for instance, full scholarships or partial scholarships
The gymnastics programs you research need to meet your needs just as much as you’re going to meet theirs. You have a right to research what they have to offer, just as they’ll be researching you. It doesn’t matter if the football team has ever won a national championship; you want their gymnastics team to shine and be winning awards because of their excellent reputation. Of course, this might mean their requirements for getting a scholarship might be tougher, but the better programs are still the most active and reputable ones.
And just so you have a timeframe, keep in mind that in January, gymnastics season officially begins. In Division 1 gymnastics alone, there are 62 teams, 15 of which are programs for males. If you’re curious about what the recruiters are looking for, they usually look for gymnasts who can offer the same style and experience level as their regular team members. This is where it might be a good idea to log onto the schools’ websites and view the statistics for their teams so you can decide if you can offer them what they need. Remember that college-level gymnastics is different from high school in what the coach needs.
When you’re on the college website, check out their academic requirements (including average test scores) and anything else about the school that you consider important. You shouldn’t limit your research only to their gymnastics team; instead, consider the attributes of becoming a student there. Your freshman year is likely going to be difficult enough as it is, but you can make it a little easier if you’re a little more prepared for both the gymnastics program and the college itself.
How to Get Started
Looking at top schools and their programs in gymnastics is important, and the first thing you should do at this point is to send an email to up to 10 colleges, but address the emails to their head gymnastics coaches. Keep the email short and to the point, and make sure you add a link to your Instagram page and a short bio. You’ll have better chances of making your email stand out if you have someone else proofread it to make sure there are no errors in it.
While you’re waiting for responses, check for online questionnaires that the schools might offer, and go ahead and fill out and submit them. Make sure you keep in constant contact with each college program so you can know exactly where you stand with each of them at any given time. There are different types of gymnastics programs, and some—for instance, the NCAA gymnastics programs—often have stricter admissions requirements than other programs, so staying on top of everything is important.
While you’re still in high school, attending various college camps that center around gymnastics is a great idea because the more you learn about the sport, the more you’ll improve your skills. Summer camps are great because they don’t interfere with your schooling yet give you some extra practice in the great sport of gymnastics. Another thing many colleges look for is community involvement and volunteer or extracurricular activities, so it’s a good idea to participate in those whenever possible.
In other words, college teams are looking for elite gymnasts who excel in all areas of their lives, so the more well-rounded you are, the more likely you’ll appeal to them. Ivy League schools also expect a lot from their gymnasts, so you’ll need to make good grades (maintain a high GPA) and excel in any extracurricular activity you choose to do, including both gymnastics and anything else you participate in.
What to Look for in a College
When you’re researching college gymnastics programs, there are things you can ask yourself to decide which college is best for you. These include:
- What style does the coaching staff use?
- Are you the right fit with the other gymnasts on the team?
- How many seniors graduate from the school each year?
- How many scholarships will they be giving out in your senior year of high school?
- Are there scholarship limits or other limits that might stop you from getting accepted?
- Can you visit them virtually and/or participate in unofficial visits?
If your gymnastics skills are top-notch, you can narrow down your college choices to three to six schools; if you have less experience, shoot for seven to ten. By June, you’ll want to try to call all of the gymnastics club coaches that you’ve been communicating with so they’ll know you’re serious about attending their university. You should periodically send out new videos that demonstrate any new skills or routines you have. This is especially important once you become a junior in high school.
In your junior year, you’ll also need to take the ACT/SAT and plan those in-person visits to the school. At this point, you should have a minimum of two different colleges that you’re excited about and wish to pursue. Something to keep in mind is that if you are paid for an in-person visit, it is considered an official visit and not an unofficial one. Most schools limit these official visits to a total of five. Oftentimes, during these visits, the college will pay for things such as transportation, housing, and a certain number of meals.
Committing to a Certain School
You can sign a national letter of intent (NLI) starting the second week of November. The letter spells out the details of the arrangement, which include the scholarship amount and all other details. Late signings can run from April until the first day of the fall semester. A college team of gymnasts needs gymnasts who can perform at the highest level so they can win national and regional championships, not to mention to be able to perform at an international level.
More often than not, the intent letter you sign is good for one year and is renewable at the discretion of the head coach. If the coach decides not to renew the contract after one year, you have the right to appeal this decision. In addition, after the letter is signed and until you actually start the fall semester, the coach still has to be off-limits to you when you’re in competition. Officially, you still “belong” to your high school and not the college yet, so they’ll have to wait until you start school to gain access to you.
Other Things You Need to Know
A lot of high school gymnasts hope to get recruited by NCAA schools or even the smaller ones, and while the recruiting process cannot officially begin until you’re a junior in high school, that isn’t to say that your own preparations can’t start before that. If you start the process early, work to improve your GPA, continue improving your gymnastics skills, and learn everything you can about this great sport, you’ll greatly increase your odds of eventually fulfilling your dream of getting a scholarship.
When you get started in gymnastics, you’ll learn about the code of points, which helps lay out some of the rules for the sport, and even the start value, which describes how you’ll be scored in competitions. Once you get to college, you’ll learn more than just the basics, including ways to improve your skills and become more familiar with every aspect of the sport. All of this will matter regardless of where you are in the recruitment process, so you’ll have to work hard to gain a high roster spot.
Something else to keep in mind is learning the difference between a head-count sport and an equivalency sport. The former describes teams that always have a limited number of scholarship recipients on their team, while the latter refers to schools that have a set number of scholarships that has to be divided between the athletes. There are numerous other rules and requirements regarding gymnastics scholarships that you should study and research before you get started.
The main point of learning how to prepare to get recruited is to study the schools you’re interested in with a fine-tooth comb. You’ll want to know as much as possible about their coaches, their teams, and their strengths and weaknesses. Determine if there is a connection bonus or a specialized composition requirement so that you’re ready before you apply because the more you know about your prospective coach and teammates, the more likely you are to achieve your goals in the end.
Look for Any Specialized or Unique Requirements
While most schools have roughly the same requirements when recruiting their next gymnasts, some may have unique or special requirements that you have to pay close attention to. Another tip to pay attention to is to ask yourself, “If I couldn’t do gymnastics, what would I be doing?” This isn’t to say you should think negatively and automatically assume that you will never get recruited, but you also have to be realistic and prepare for a Plan B if your plans don’t develop like you hope they will.
Gymnastics is a great but very challenging sport, and if you’ve fallen in love with the sport and wish to participate as a college student, it’s a lot more likely to happen once you become familiar with the recruiting process. You can start as a high school freshman (though ideally you’ll have years of hard work under your belt by then), but don’t expect to be approached by a coach until your junior year. Still, in the meantime, you can be more prepared for what happens in each step of the process, and it all starts with some research.
Being recruited as a college gymnast is the dream of a lot of high schoolers, and being proactive helps you get one step closer to that dream. Learn all you can about your favorite colleges and start contacting the college gymnastics coaches later in high school. When all of this comes together, you might just have that recruitment offer soon.
