DC has one 4:30 am practice a week. We get up at 4 and leave by 4:15 then home by 6:30 for a couple more hrs of sleep.

I think Fish practices that early, but maybe it's another team...

My kdis are swimmers and we are up at 4:00-4:15 every day except Sunday with practice starting at 5-5:30 (they are in 2 different groups so they aren't up every day, but I am to drive one each day). You sort of get used to it. But the only way we do it is by napping. There's pretty much someone asleep at all hours of the day in hour house and someone awake at most hours of the day. It's a little crazy, but my kids love the sport and it's been great for them physically, mentally, socially, etc. especially during COVID when they aren't in school.

The entire family could not be inconvenienced for the activity of one family member. Not to that extent. It wouldn't work for us. It would feel like an act of spoiling that child.

I know several local club teams swim before 5:00 am several mornings each week. I also know some teams are still practicing outdoors right now, at 5:00 a.m.

My daughter did this for a couple of years during high school. Never thought she would be able to do it, but the desire was there so she made it work.

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.

This is very helpful.

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.

+1
My kiddo is a swimmer and we have her do PM even though it is less competitive since I cannot fathom how waking up that early is ok for a growing kid’s body.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This could have happened for any number of reasons. This isn't really about swim.

How many other youth sports require practice that early? Parents are only human and they get sick of driving kids at the crack of dawn, so they buy their teen a car and off they go. It’s not normal for a recently licensed driver to be driving before the sun comes up, and quite likely after not getting enough sleep due to homework. I DO think this is about swimming.

Ice hockey can have similar schedules. Any sport that requires a specific facility that is in very limited supply. All of the pools have their own programing/open swim as well as school swim teams and club teams to accommodate

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This could have happened for any number of reasons. This isn't really about swim.

How many other youth sports require practice that early? Parents are only human and they get sick of driving kids at the crack of dawn, so they buy their teen a car and off they go. It’s not normal for a recently licensed driver to be driving before the sun comes up, and quite likely after not getting enough sleep due to homework. I DO think this is about swimming.

Are you local, OP? What team. I've never heard of a 4am start. 5am and later, yes.

That would be a hard no for us. And one reason why I didn't encourage swim beyond learning to be proficient for safety reasons.

4am is nuts! It’s not a 4am wake up for 5am swim?

I swam in HS 20 years ago and I had to wake at 5am, in the pool at 5:30, out of the pool at 6:45am, in class at 7:10am. Our pool was in the same building as the pool. I went to bed at 8pm. I had to use my lunch and every moment after school before afternoon practice for homework. I had to plan ahead and do schoolwork on the weekends

Anonymous wrote: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.

The issue is getting in enough pool time for the many groups they have. So, they expect the older competative ones to do the early mornings as that fits in with school and then they can do more time after school.

Anonymous wrote: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.

And even with that bedtime he wasn’t getting the recommended 8-9 hours of sleep for a teen. Insanity

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This could have happened for any number of reasons. This isn't really about swim.