Today I'm going to post about someone other than myself. My post today is about my 16 year old son, who is a junior in high school. He's always been involved in competitive sports, and we've always kept a very rigorous schedule with those sports. I'm just wondering if there is a line and how you go about coming back from it with the pressures of getting into college right around the corner.
Here's the lowdown: He had played competitive ice hockey for 8 years before entering high school. Upon entering high school, he decided to try water polo. He knew if he stuck with hockey, he'd have to go to boarding school on the East coast and he didn't want to do that. So he started a sport he'd never played in his life going up against boys who'd played for years. He made the Freshman team and enjoyed the lower key schedule. By the end of the season, he was being pulled up for some JV games. At this point, he felt like he'd made the best decision ever. He loved having teammates nearby and loved being home for dinner. Along with water polo in the fall came the requirement to swim in spring. Again he'd never swam competitively but he was willing to try. He wasn't the fastest but found he had stamina, so he swam the 500m. He was also warned that to advance, he needed to join the local club water polo team. Being new to club he was on the B team, so the schedule was still fine.
The following year, he made Varsity! He wasn't a starter, but played in every game including the CIF finals. On varsity thought the schedule got pretty tough. He was also on the A team for club, which included 3x/week practices from 6:30-9:00 after having swam from 3-5. Plus they did weight training 3 mornings a week before school. He barely made it through. We allowed him to skip a club practice if he had a lot of homework and somehow he did it.
Now it's his junior year and we're back in the time of year that is overwhelming. Add to that, we had him go out for the ODP (Olympic Development Program) team and he made it! It's such a great accomplishment but one that adds all day practices a couple of weekends a month. His club team is now practicing 3x/week from 6-9 with no excuses for homework. His schedule right now looks like this:
Mon: AM weights 6:20-7:20
PM swim 3:00-5:00
Tues: PM swim 3:00-4:00
Club crossfit workout 6:00-7:00
Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Wed: PM swim 3:00-4:00
Club crossfit workout 6:00-7:00
Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Thurs: PM swim 3:00-4:00
Club crossfit 6:00-7:00
Club pool training 7:00-9:00
Fri: PM swim 3:00-5:00
Plus tournaments for club, swim meets for swim and ODP weekend training. Although right now it's pre-season for swim. When the season begins he may not get some of the breaks he's getting right now from training. My question is this, is this normal? In my opinion there are some really great things he's gained from working this hard, but I've also seen a lot of kids burn out. So I'd love to hear what you think and if it's too much, where do you cut back?
