Reply to Competitive (Club) Swimming -- At what point is it fine for a child to leave a longtime sport?

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Reply to "Competitive (Club) Swimming -- At what point is it fine for a child to leave a longtime sport?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was a competitive club swimmer for 10 years, from age 8 until age 18.

I started out well for my age group at 8, in that I could already swim the strokes, and finished out my swim career as an average swimmer.

I wish that I had told my parents in middle school that I did not want to continue club swimming.  The sport really took a lot of my time and my family's time, and though I am grateful for the lifelong focus on health and exercise that it gave me, it also took a lot out of me.

In high school I worked very hard simply to maintain my excellent grades while attending 18 hours of swim practice a week.

I recognized that I was giving up on other things that I had wanted to undertake, like the musicals or summer cultural programs, and it was very frustrating that for all my practice and effort I was never going to get more than two sectionals cuts.

I look fondly back on my summer swim days and my early club years, but looking back I know that I should have  continued only summer swimming and moved on to other extracurriculars by 8th grade.[/quote]

I think that most parents would think long and hard before enrolling an average student in an AP Chemistry course, and would probably decide against it.  But it appears from your comment that we give not a lot of thought to enrolling an average swimmer in the equivalent of an AP Swim course.  It does not always make sense to push a normal child to do honors work.[/quote]

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