4am Morning Practice?!?! Bell

[Anonymous]

That is insane and almost certainly detrimental to the child’s development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not your target audience, but that doesn’t sound healthy to me. I’m not judging. I’m just offering my perspective. I’m sure your daughter would adjust to the timing. But the research on shift work suggests it’s very stressful for your body. She’d be waking up in the middle of the night! That messes with your sleep and stress hormones.

Im a pp and this is a very good point. From someone whos dh has worked night shift for many years...

I am the parent of a high level swimmer and I agree. I would not allow this. Pre-covid, our club had 2-3 school mornings in this practice group before 5a, but fortunately, our Covid schedule is 1-2 school mornings at 530 (in addition to every afternoon). I still don't love it for sleep health, but my 9th grader goes one weekday morning and one weekend. Any more just wouldn't work for my child to stay healthy and they are pretty good about going to bed early. Sleep research shows HSers generally are not wired to go to be early and are constantly trying to catch up. Some kids can handle it, but I don't know anyone that does 5 days at that time. I like the idea of trying it and being willing to say it just doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4am is insane. That takes dedication! On the parent’s and child’s ends. I honestly wouldn’t be willing to drive my child to practice that early.

This. Altho perhaps kids carpool so you’re not driving every day. I did have a coworker who did this for his daughter. She is supposedly now in training to qualify for the Olympics.

[Anonymous]

https://swimswam.com/early-morning-training-and-sleep-deprivation-facts-and-solutions/

[Anonymous]

Our swim practice is at 5am. We get up at 4:15, leave the house at 4:30 three days a week. I am a morning person and it works fine for me. We started with 2 DC but it didn’t work out for 1 and they switch back to PM.

[Anonymous]

I’d be like “kid, you can do it, but you have to get yourself up and to the pool on your own. Mama needs her beauty sleep.” Then the ball’s in her court.

[Anonymous]

Neighbors kid did this for years and years and was a awesome competitive swimmer. She chose her college due to swim team. By the end of Freshman year, she had enough and quit. Same for a young man who works for me. I really don’t see the point of such time commitments unless you’re like an Olympic level swimmer.

[Anonymous]

There are some swim club sites with afternoon practices.

We have considered switching when practices get too early.

It depends on the kid though. Some kids would rather do mornings than evenings. I have one kid who is like this. Swims at 6:30am (up at 6:05) two mornings a week and when practice was cancelled due to snow he said "I am kind of sad practice is cancelled. I kind of like morning swim practice and getting up early." My other child, not so much.

[Anonymous]

The PARENTS "handle it" by saying, "it's not happening". No to swim team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do high school kids handle 4am morning swim??? My daughter wants to swim 5+ times a week next school year. She currently swims 3x, after school and it is a big time commitment 25 min there, 35 back with traffic, 1.5 hour practice, once a week she adds 30m dry land. 10 m getting dry and walking to my car, 20m when she used to be able to shower there. So basically 3 hours every day she swims. The team she wants to join swims a lot closer to us, every day for 1.5 hours at 4am She can’t swim every day after school because I have other kids that have sports. We simply cannot drive everybody if she practices more. So morning swim would be a great thing for our schedule. But she can barely get up before school starts, how do kids wake up that early? Is there a method? Or are there just certain kids that can handle that and others can’t?

I grew up with this type of swimming schedule and am so fortunate that my parents supported it. There is a whole subculture of early morning athletes and those bonds are tight. I'd recommend just setting everything out to make walking out the door as easy as possible. We would wake up, use the rest room, brush teeth and leave. It took about 5 minutes. Carpooling also makes it easier and more bearable. You just get used to it.

[Anonymous]

I swam mornings as a kid but I’m not sure if I will let my kids. This accident destroyed a family in my old neighborhood, and it could have been any of us speeding to practice as tired and inexperienced drivers:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/water-can-be-just-as-thick-as-blood/2018/06/27/69f3e60a-7a43-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html

[Anonymous]

This is one of the reasons we didn't encourage swimming when DC were choosing which sports to focus on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some swim club sites with afternoon practices.

We have considered switching when practices get too early.

It depends on the kid though. Some kids would rather do mornings than evenings. I have one kid who is like this. Swims at 6:30am (up at 6:05) two mornings a week and when practice was cancelled due to snow he said "I am kind of sad practice is cancelled. I kind of like morning swim practice and getting up early." My other child, not so much.

Totally agree it depends on the kid, but I also think there is a very big difference between in the water at 4 and 630. And the part that still baffles me with the OP's schedule is every day at 4! On the other hand, with the schedules that have both mornings and afternoons/evenings, there are some really tough turn-around practice times as well. We have, for example, home at 8p, back in the water at 6a. One of my kids swims 5d/wk, the other 6, and I guess there are only so many hours a day...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I swam mornings as a kid but I’m not sure if I will let my kids. This accident destroyed a family in my old neighborhood, and it could have been any of us speeding to practice as tired and inexperienced drivers:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/water-can-be-just-as-thick-as-blood/2018/06/27/69f3e60a-7a43-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html

We know families who still drive their licensed swimmers for exactly this reason.

[Anonymous]

I was an NCAA college-scholarship swimmer. Even in college, I never had 5 mornings a week that early. In HS it was MWF mornings at 5:30 am and Saturday at 7 am. College it was MWF swim at 5:30 am, Tues Th weight training at 6 am and Saturdays was swim at 8 am.

I was also sleep deprived, sick quite a bit, and eventually depressed. As a parent, I will not let my children do morning workouts during the school week. The culture of swimming needs to change.