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.

Same here. In HS we did 3 mornings per week, 5 nights per week, and 2-3 hours each on Sat and Sun. So 10 practices per week. Thankfully in college it was a little less due to NCAA rules. 5:30 am on Tues/Thurs only and no practice on Sundays. But the weight/dryland training was much harder in college.

I cursed the alarm clock every. single. time. it went off at 5 am. I am not a morning person so I really don't know how I did it. I do remember nodding off in certain classes and my parents being concerned about how much sleep I was getting. But I was determined and my grades were very good, multiple AP courses, etc. I always packed my swim bag the night before and my parents let another parent drive me to morning practice while they did evening shift. I remember that I would literally sleep in the 10 min it took to get over to the pool.

4 am would be a hard no. It is not possible to go to bed early enough to make that work. My parents would not have allowed it and I would have quit. I didn't grow up here and the DC swimming culture seems kind of insane. One big problem here is you can't get anywhere quickly because of traffic/sprawl. OP, you need to find a carpool either for your swimmer child or the other kids. Your swimmer kid should not have to swim 5 mornings a week. Let them do 2 or 3 mornings max with the others being evening practices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason my children play golf. No crazy hours.

But comparing the sports of gold and tennis is silly. they have nothing in common.

How so?

Because the whack-a-doodle DC swim parents think it’s ok to ruin little Larlo’s life with swimming because he’s going to the olympics.

But..but, Katie Ledecky.

Just about every sport has the same subset of whack-a-doodle parents, swimming does not have the market cornered on that.

True but, DC swim parents are a special kind of crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason my children play golf. No crazy hours.

But comparing the sports of gold and tennis is silly. they have nothing in common.

How so?

Because the whack-a-doodle DC swim parents think it’s ok to ruin little Larlo’s life with swimming because he’s going to the olympics.

But..but, Katie Ledecky.

Just about every sport has the same subset of whack-a-doodle parents, swimming does not have the market cornered on that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason my children play golf. No crazy hours.

But comparing the sports of gold and tennis is silly. they have nothing in common.

How so?

Because the whack-a-doodle DC swim parents think it’s ok to ruin little Larlo’s life with swimming because he’s going to the olympics.

But..but, Katie Ledecky.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason my children play golf. No crazy hours.

But comparing the sports of gold and tennis is silly. they have nothing in common.

How so?

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason my children play golf. No crazy hours.

But comparing the sports of gold and tennis is silly. they have nothing in common.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The practice starts at 4am?

Welcome to high school swim

My 10 year old goes at 6am.

My kids have been swimming at 4:20 am for a long time (inc elementary school), however I don’t equate 6 am with 4 am.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The practice starts at 4am?

Welcome to high school swim

My 10 year old goes at 6am.

Anonymous wrote:This is the reason my children play golf. No crazy hours.

Lol! We do tennis for this reason. Excellent flexibility. Swimming was not an option.