4am Morning Practice?!?! Bell
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Anonymous
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?
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Anonymous
| The practice starts at 4am? |
Anonymous
Welcome to high school swim |
Anonymous
Yes! We would need to be up by 3:30am |
Anonymous
| Early bed. |
Anonymous
| This is the downside of swim. |
Anonymous
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2 years ago i started waking at 4am to get to the gym by 4:45am. It was miserable waking that early.
It became a habit a few months later and now i still wake at that time even though i stopped the gym with covid. Agree with pp to go to bed early. Have everything packed. She'll get used to it! |
Anonymous
| They just do. Sleep schedule changes obviously are required. |
Anonymous
| 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. |
Anonymous
Im a pp and this is a very good point. From someone whos dh has worked night shift for many years... |
Anonymous
| I have a HS senior. She typically did 2 x 4:45 am practices plus every afternoon and 5:30 am Saturday. I think 4:00 is rough and I think you should talk to kids currently in the program. But your DD would not have PM practice so she could potentially go to bed at 8:30 pm then nap after morning practice B4 school. I would not let her nap after school because that will push her bedtime back probably. You could try it, but be willing to scrap it. I also think having Wednesdays to sleep in would make a difference if it’s possible to make one PM practice (it would be fine to “double” one day then take Wednesday off). |
Anonymous
| 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. |
Anonymous
| My DS is in college now, but through HS he would leave for club practice around 4:15 a.m. (what a blessing when he was able to drive himself). He was always in bed by 8:30 p.m. |
Anonymous
| This is when you just stop; it's insanity to do this to a high school kid unless there's a likelihood of a college scholarship. |
Anonymous
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My teen has sleep issues, including sleep apnea. He NEEDS to sleep as much as he can, and he gets his best quality sleep in the morning.
Swimming as a competitive sport would be out of the question for us. |