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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not what you asked, but please reconsider. Teens that age need 8-10 hours of sleep a night. Unless your child can routinely fall asleep before 8:00 at night, they aren’t going to be able to get that and will go through some of the most critical years of their life sleep deprived.

I did this for swimming as a teenager and it was a horrible mistake. The chronic sleep deprivation affected my mental health and academic performance in ways that still hurt me now as an adult, even though at the time I appeared to be doing great.[/quote]

NP. Kids need sleep. But if your kid is serious about swimming, they will go to bed before 8 every night.  If your kid can’t commit to doing that, then they aren’t going to do well in swimming anyway, so you may as well stay in the afternoons. [/quote]

I’m the previous poster who regrets morning practices. There was no way I could have gotten to bed by 8 after getting back from evening practice and then doing homework. Most serious swimmers who do morning practice are doing doubles (2x a day workouts) and if they’re taking a typical DCUM load of difficult HS classes, there is little time for sleep.

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That's your experience. I can counter with my own anecdote by saying that I feel the morning practices were worth it. I hated every. single. time. that alarm went off. I couldn't go to bed at 8 pm because of my courseload, including AP courses.  I did go to bed really early on many Fri and Sat nights because practice on weekends started at 7 or 8 am. Dedication to my goals and a supportive coach/training group got me through.

It really depends on what kind of person you are. From a young age my parents would have described me as a hard worker, disciplined, determined. I applied this to my schoolwork and my sport. I was able to tough it out through the lack of sleep, the feeling of being "broken down" during heavy training, the juggling of various demands. My parents thought it was too much, but I insisted. I worked hard to make sure my grades stayed high so they wouldn't have a reason to tell me to stop. Not everyone can handle this. My sibling is not wired this way and quit club swim once morning practices became a requirement.

OP, if your child is the one pushing for morning practice and is someone you would describe as disciplined, goal-directed, and academically strong, I think you should let them try it. I would have been devastated if my parents had told me no before even trying. It did involve some lost sleep and time for them, but they look back on those years now as some of their favorites because they were supporting their child in chasing their dreams. And the fact that it paid for my college was a nice surprise they did not anticipate.[/quote]

I’m glad it worked out well for you, but I take issue with “it depends on what kind of person you are” and the implication this is all about character and work ethic. Kids with perfectionist standards for themselves in and out of the pool are the ones most at risk for overdoing it. I could say almost everything you did about being driven, a hard worker, keeping great grades etc. At the time everyone thought I was handling the 10 AP classes and 20 hours a week of swimming really well. But it came at great cost to my health and I never achieved the times needed to be recruited for D1- though plenty of teammates who rarely attended doubles but had much more innate talent did.

There are some kids this can work well for, but the tradeoffs are real and need to be considered very carefully. [/quote]

Dp.  I agree with you.  Injuries and burnout are hard to predict, but more common than anyone wants to admit.  I gave up major opportunities because I just couldn’t take it anymore. The emotional aftermath was ugly.

4:30 AM practice is just not right for most kids and I’m going to stand by that.  In my opinion, swimming twice a day is completely unnecessary at the high school level and does more harm than good.  It’s just a grind for the vast majority of kids who are mediocre but work very hard and will never swim D1 college.  Not worth it.  Better off hitting the gym and lifting a few times a week, and sleeping! Your coach will disagree, and that’s fine, they aren’t responsible for your child’s happiness and health.[/quote]

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