Overview

The Impact Rating vs Improvement slide in your Best Fit Report charts your college matches on a scatter plot where:

• The X-axis is the average recruit Impact Rating (more info) for each college.
• The Y-axis is the JR/SR swimmer improvement per college.
• The center point on the X-axis is your Impact Rating.
• The center point on the Y-axis is the average improvement of a D1 swimmer through college.

This setup gives you a visual tool to quickly analyze your college matches. Let’s dig into how you can utilize this chart for your own analysis.

X-Axis: Recruiting Standards

The X-axis shows the recruiting standards for each college. Specifically, this shows the average Impact Ratings of recruits historically. The center point is your Impact Rating. The colleges to the left historically recruit swimmers with a lower Impact Rating (i.e. you are already faster than their avg recruit). Schools to the right historically recruit swimmers with a higher Impact Rating (i.e. you aren’t yet as fast as their avg recruit).

How to use this: Colleges closer to the center of the X-axis are the ones that historically recruit swimmers similar to you athletically. The further to the right a college is, the more of a stretch you are as a recruit. The further left, the more impactful you are as a recruit.

Y-Axis: Improvement/Progression

The Y-axis shows the average college improvement/progression for swimmers at each college. The center point is the average improvement of a D1 swimmer through their JR/SR year of college (1.5% for women, 2.5% for men). Colleges above the center point have above average improvement. Colleges below have below average improvement.

How to use this: The higher a college is on the chart, the bigger time drops a college has historically achieved from its recruits through college.

Upper Left Quadrant

Colleges in this quadrant have above average improvement AND you are already faster than the average recruit.

Upper Right Quadrant

Colleges in this quadrant have above average improvement AND your times put you as a stretch recruit. The further right a college is in this quadrant, the more of a stretch it is.

Lower Right Quadrant

Colleges in this quadrant have below average improvement AND your times put you as a stretch recruit.

Lower Left Quadrant

Colleges in this quadrant have below average improvement AND you are already faster than the average recruit.

The “Similar Recruits Get Faster” Zone

The top-middle area of the graph are colleges that recruit similar to you athletically and those recruits get a lot faster through college.

The “Most Likely for Offers and Scholarships” Zone

The left area of the graph contain colleges where you would make the biggest impact. This makes you more likely to get a roster spot offer and, if available, a scholarship. Scholarship offers often increase as your impact potential increases.

Other Factors to Consider

This chart only has two variables out of many you need to consider when trying to find your “best-fits”. Academics, retention, culture, location, college size, team size, coaching staff, training philosophy, and more can be just as or more important to you than the variables on this chart.