HS Team Time Commitment - particularly baseball - Sleep Health

[Anonymous]

Practices and games take 6 days a week. This was my experience as a basketball player in the 80s, but the duration per day *seems* much more. Now kids also have team dinners. Our basketball team has kids pretty much from after school until 8-9pm. How much sleep are your HS athletes getting? Between the school, sports and homework there isn’t much time especially if they take AP/Honors. I’ve been told that most of the variety kids drop their Honors/AP courses. I guess this is why sports academy schools are cropping up? Our pediatrician is very concerned about sleep.

How are your athletes balancing all of this?

[Anonymous]

Weekends are key for getting ahead on school work, especially before a very busy week. My son plays varsity basketball and the schedule is brutal for away game days (home after 10pm). He takes 4 IB classes and mostly has gotten his work done but once he was out a week with the flu, it all fell apart. He's back on track now using the winter break to get caught up on school work and sleep. Yes, it is tough.

[Anonymous]

I have two high school daughters. One does three varsity sports and the other does only one varsity sport but daily off season training for that sport too.

They are both good students taking honors/AP classes (getting almost all A's...one had gotten one B/B+ each semester. The absolute key for them is taking advantage of any and all opportunities to do school work.

They both will take advantage of the bus ride to school, the 20 minutes or so between when they arrive at school and it starts, any free minutes at the end of a class, the study hall class, and sometimes even lunch to work on school work. They also both review and complete everything they can over the weekend. Because of the even/odd day schedule, they only have a class a possible three times before a weekend, and with many holidays/etc they usually only have two classes a week of any subject, which means that at least half of the assignments cross over the weekend.

[Anonymous]

The doctor has a huge issue with the HS athlete sleep schedules. I did what PP said about finding times to work wherever possible and was top 10% of class with max AP classes. I’m glad to see more pro athletes talking about sleep health but it doesn’t seem possible if teens play a HS sport.

I got read the riot act about HS student athletes not getting home until after 9pm, and how many of them still have homework to do afterwards.

No one has weighed in on their student athletes’ sleep schedule, which is really what I’m interested in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two high school daughters. One does three varsity sports and the other does only one varsity sport but daily off season training for that sport too.

They are both good students taking honors/AP classes (getting almost all A's...one had gotten one B/B+ each semester. The absolute key for them is taking advantage of any and all opportunities to do school work.

They both will take advantage of the bus ride to school, the 20 minutes or so between when they arrive at school and it starts, any free minutes at the end of a class, the study hall class, and sometimes even lunch to work on school work. They also both review and complete everything they can over the weekend. Because of the even/odd day schedule, they only have a class a possible three times before a weekend, and with many holidays/etc they usually only have two classes a week of any subject, which means that at least half of the assignments cross over the weekend.

OK — but what was their sleep schedule on school days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weekends are key for getting ahead on school work, especially before a very busy week. My son plays varsity basketball and the schedule is brutal for away game days (home after 10pm). He takes 4 IB classes and mostly has gotten his work done but once he was out a week with the flu, it all fell apart. He's back on track now using the winter break to get caught up on school work and sleep. Yes, it is tough.

So what time does he go to bed after basketball and homework, and when does he get up for school?

[Anonymous]

It’s really hard. Mine takes AP classes but she’s on of the few of her team doing so. She works during lunch and during her slow classes. Practice is usually right after school so she’ll get home around dinner unless there’s a game. I think she actually sleeps more during sports season as she’s totally exhausted by 10 or so. But her social life is really suffering — she spends weekends getting caught up on work, studying for things like AP or SAT or sleeping. I would never chose to do it but this is what she chose for herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two high school daughters. One does three varsity sports and the other does only one varsity sport but daily off season training for that sport too.

They are both good students taking honors/AP classes (getting almost all A's...one had gotten one B/B+ each semester. The absolute key for them is taking advantage of any and all opportunities to do school work.

They both will take advantage of the bus ride to school, the 20 minutes or so between when they arrive at school and it starts, any free minutes at the end of a class, the study hall class, and sometimes even lunch to work on school work. They also both review and complete everything they can over the weekend. Because of the even/odd day schedule, they only have a class a possible three times before a weekend, and with many holidays/etc they usually only have two classes a week of any subject, which means that at least half of the assignments cross over the weekend.

OK — but what was their sleep schedule on school days?

Asleep by 10:30ish every night

[Anonymous]

DS played HS soccer in the fall. It was a 6 day a week commitment. He’s a freshman and it made for a very stressful start to HS. He ended up missing most team dinners because his sleep and grades were suffering. While I think it is important to play on the school team, it comes at a cost. Some kids make taking honors/AP classes look effortless, but my son has a disability that requires him to put in several hours a day for As and Bs so you just have to know your child.

[Anonymous]

Mine quit his sport over it. Not worth it at all.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the inputs so far. Would still love to hear more examples.

[Anonymous]

Depends in your student. For one of ours, school came easy, and played 2 varsity sports plus a club team (only games, no practices during the HS season), straight As, tons of APs, was asleep by 10 or 11 most nights, and when no early games on weekends, slept until early afternoon.

For another, similar grades and coursework, but it took more time. For them it was about time management (which, fortunately they excelled). 20 minutes of downtime, doing homework. On the bus to wherever, doing homework.

Both kids have active social lives (weekends, holidays, etc), and are doing what they want.

3rd child does not do any sports, but has another time consuming activity (theater, and rehearsals run late, esp during tech week).

They all figure it out. Doing activities that they want, taking the courses that they want to get them into a college that they want, etc.

[Anonymous]

Mine also plays baseball and takes the most advanced classes. It’s tough. There’s no way around the 24 hours in a day. They need to be able to work quickly without distractions, utilize study hall or free periods, and sometimes stay in from social activities. I’m not sure it is the choice I’d make in his shoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weekends are key for getting ahead on school work, especially before a very busy week. My son plays varsity basketball and the schedule is brutal for away game days (home after 10pm). He takes 4 IB classes and mostly has gotten his work done but once he was out a week with the flu, it all fell apart. He's back on track now using the winter break to get caught up on school work and sleep. Yes, it is tough.

So what time does he go to bed after basketball and homework, and when does he get up for school?

He goes to bed at 11:30pm most week nights and gets up at 7am. Usually one night a week he's asleep by 10:30. On the weekends, he sleeps 11-13 hours a night.

[Anonymous]

My child plays 2 varsity sports. The team sport was terribly grueling. Game days easily were a 5 hour commitment twice a week. On practice days, the time commitment was about 3-3.5 hours when you factor in travel. Grades and sleep suffered. Junior year with all the AP classes was terrible.

My take on it is that I think the only kids who manage this time commitment well are kids who are natural writers and can spit out papers quickly if they are taking a tough course load.