Swimmers Doing Multiple Sports

[Anonymous]

DD is into swimming, but also enjoys other sports. She's 10 now, so we can balance the 3 swim practices a week with other sports. But her club expects 4 practices from 11-12 year olds and 5-6 per week from 13 and up. At some point, it's going to be impossible to juggle that. At what point did your swimmer give up other sports and just go to swimming (or give up swimming for other sports)?

[Anonymous]

In HS. HS swim is winter. You can do a fall or spring but you can't do 2 winter sports. Depends on the sport. It's a lot to juggle with school and life. Some kids do it, some can't

[Anonymous]

We just stay in the lowest level group to do other activities. Coaches are supportive.

[Anonymous]

We swim 2 days a week which is usually the lowest group and then do other stuff.

[Anonymous]

I have a high level swimmer and she does a spring sport through school plus club swim. It’s a lot, she would not be able to do a school sport each season plus club swim because it would burn her out. She’s committed to swimming though, so it was not an option for her to go to a lower level in order to play other sports.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I wasn't aware there were options for older kids to just do 2 days a week. Not sure if our club has that or not. I assume that if you're just doing 2 days, you're just doing it for fun and not really competition.

[Anonymous]

I did 2 sport through college. Winter and Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a high level swimmer and she does a spring sport through school plus club swim. It’s a lot, she would not be able to do a school sport each season plus club swim because it would burn her out. She’s committed to swimming though, so it was not an option for her to go to a lower level in order to play other sports.

This is exactly what my son did in HS. Club swim before school year round and a spring sport. He also did HS swim (winter sport) but since he was swimming club only had to go to one practice a week after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did 2 sport through college. Winter and Spring.

Two year round sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high level swimmer and she does a spring sport through school plus club swim. It’s a lot, she would not be able to do a school sport each season plus club swim because it would burn her out. She’s committed to swimming though, so it was not an option for her to go to a lower level in order to play other sports.

This is exactly what my son did in HS. Club swim before school year round and a spring sport. He also did HS swim (winter sport) but since he was swimming club only had to go to one practice a week after school.

I’m the PP, it is good to know this is doable through HS! My swimmer is currently in MS and she would like to be able to keep the spring school sport and her HS will also allow her to swim for them and only go to their practice 1x a week.

[Anonymous]

I would say HS is kind of the tipping point - not only because of sports per se, but school/academics/studying and social activities/hanging out with friends begins to take a lot of time that it previously wasn't taking, if that makes sense.

If you want to keep swimming year round, really the bulk of that is Winter, but as PPs have said, if you want to do another Winter Sport, you might have to make a decision then.

FWIW, my daughter tried a Fall Sport + Swim (AM) 3 days a week, then Spring Sport + Swim (AM) 3 days a week Freshman Year and she was absolutely exhausted by the time Friday rolled around. She was basically going 5am - 6pm and then still faced schoolwork. It was a lot. She then picked Swim and does that 4 days a week. Her club would have her going up to 6 days a week but she was up front with them - it's simply too much and she has to focus on school first. They were OK with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I wasn't aware there were options for older kids to just do 2 days a week. Not sure if our club has that or not. I assume that if you're just doing 2 days, you're just doing it for fun and not really competition.

My kids swim 2 days/week. They attend all meet and compete. They want to drop time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I wasn't aware there were options for older kids to just do 2 days a week. Not sure if our club has that or not. I assume that if you're just doing 2 days, you're just doing it for fun and not really competition.

Most clubs have 2-3 day programs for older kids who do multiple sports. These are kid who want to stay in shape for summer and HS swim and still compete, but aren't looking to be top swimmers.

[Anonymous]

If you want to stay multi sport, then 2-3 days a week of swim is reasonable. I had a young kid with a demanding soccer schedule also trying to swim. That didn't work. I found one club sport to be plenty. She picked swim. I think you can easily work around the club sport with rec teams, but trying to do two club sports just didn't work for us. Both are too demanding and it is very hard to miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a high level swimmer and she does a spring sport through school plus club swim. It’s a lot, she would not be able to do a school sport each season plus club swim because it would burn her out. She’s committed to swimming though, so it was not an option for her to go to a lower level in order to play other sports.

This is exactly what my son did in HS. Club swim before school year round and a spring sport. He also did HS swim (winter sport) but since he was swimming club only had to go to one practice a week after school.

This is what my son is doing as a freshman and it’s a lot. He’s supposed to swim 6 days a week but has been going to more like 4 during the HS sport season, which thankfully is relatively short. His swim coach has been understanding but it’s stressing him out and he’s exhausted. Not sure he can pull it off next year.

For us, it’s been more of an issue of level of swim than age. There are options both my kids can do that are less intense but they both have wanted to be in the top group they qualify for. My soon to be eight grader is likely going to have to choose soon between giving up his fav sport and/or dropping back to a rec team and moving up to the top swim group. Not sure what he’ll choose.