Anonymous wrote:My 7yo son plays Academy soccer, which is about a ten-hour per week commitment. It is tough on him on the days he has practice. He is basically on the clock from the time he wakes up to the time he falls into bed at 9PM. It is a lot for such a little guy, and while he wanted to play up a year and try this out, I wonder if we will go back to rec next year.

I thought travel soccer started at 8? Seems sort of silly to have a kid playing up before he's even old enough to start. Once you get on that soccer treadmill it only gets worse (and I say this as a parent whose kids have played travel since U-9 and are now in high school). I'd resist the urge to push kids to play up so early. At young ages, soccer should be about fun, and kids should be given plenty of opportunities to try other sports and activities. Too much intensity too early is the road to burn out.

As a kid I swam - practice 2 hrs before school 3 days per week and every day after for another 2 hours. And the driving between home / pool / school. Can be done but you need to be very efficient and really love the sport/activity. My social life was the other kids on swim team and it worked well.

Anonymous wrote:Gymnastic's poster here. My DD quit at 25 hours a week during school and 40 hours per week in summer. The next level was 35 hours per week and the gym insisted she be home schooled.

Holy cow! We are at 9 hours right now and struggling to find balance bc my child has so many interests. I wish gymnastics had some in between level.

Anonymous wrote:My 7yo son plays Academy soccer, which is about a ten-hour per week commitment. It is tough on him on the days he has practice. He is basically on the clock from the time he wakes up to the time he falls into bed at 9PM. It is a lot for such a little guy, and while he wanted to play up a year and try this out, I wonder if we will go back to rec next year.

I think the issue isn't about a kid attending extensive practices during the school year. It is about an older kid who attends house practices along with a hefty load of coursework. Presumably your son has minimal homework in first grade.

I don't know if my kids could do it, but I can't/won't.

I played competitive baseball through Low A in the pros. Basically, at some point, baseball became more important than education. That was the day I turned down a partial scholarship and signed a contract.

But, even growing up, I was spending 30-40 hours per week practicing. I did not have time for school work (but no one cared because I was a star baseball player). Fortunately, also, I was smart enough to learn the material with minimal effort.

FWIW, my baseball career ended with a blown out elbow in 1995. (It can happen to catchers too).

My 7yo son plays Academy soccer, which is about a ten-hour per week commitment. It is tough on him on the days he has practice. He is basically on the clock from the time he wakes up to the time he falls into bed at 9PM. It is a lot for such a little guy, and while he wanted to play up a year and try this out, I wonder if we will go back to rec next year.

That seems extremely difficult. So the kid starts homework around 9:30? With AP classes, that's probably a few hours of homework. When does the student get to sleep? I don't think I'd encourage my kids to do that to themselves.

Gymnastic's poster here. My DD quit at 25 hours a week during school and 40 hours per week in summer. The next level was 35 hours per week and the gym insisted she be home schooled.

Depends how high level you are in your sport. There are excellence schools here now that allow the child to learn and train in their sport during the school day. I am helping my 7yr old daughter juggle a 9 hour commitment per week to her sport and it makes for long days. She doesn't have a lot of homework now so that helps. I imagine it will be much more difficult as the hw increases.

Crap typing on phone, sorry.
Balance in life is a much better goal than trying to do it all.

Hmm my DD did ten years of gymnastics and yes they do become super efficient at HW but life itself just passes them by. I always let my DD make the decision but I also begged for her to consider the alternatives. Two weeks after quitting she said she wished she had done it sooner. Suddenly there was so much else to explore and engage in; she felt she had missed out on a lot. Wishes now she had done ten years of programming. I will say there were benefits from the sports. She is mentally tougher than almost everyone. She's very humble and only competitive with herself. But there was no reason for the sport. It doesn't help for college unless the kid is semi pro material. It definitely adds a great deal of stress and takes time away from what could be a great life. Balance is life is a much better goal than tiring to do it all.

For some kids yes and for others no. What was last year like?

Sure it is. Female gymnastics aiming for the Olympics do it all the time. They are often excused from school for fluff periods (gym, lunch, study hall) so they can go to the gym, or they homeschool.

is juggling a weekday year round sports easy along with academics?

lets say student returns back from school at 5:30pm and then has sports from 6 to 9:30pm. (including commute)
You can replace sports with orchestra or dance etc.
If activity is missed more than thrice, then they will remove from the team.
the student is in high school doing AP papers. there is a lot of homework and a lot of tests.

is it possible to have this kind of schedule and still succeed in academics?
please discuss.