Balancing Swimming and Academics

Instead of waiting for the fire to be out of control, spot the trouble patches early and reach out to your coach or teachers and let them know that you need some help.

With another school year here – seriously, where did this year go? – comes another bout of the juggling that happens between a swimmer’s training and competition schedule and their schoolwork.

For those attending college this fall, the expectation is that for every hour of classwork that is done you will be studying an additional two hours outside of the classroom on your own. With a full time class schedule of 15 hours, plus the expected 30 hours of studying, this comes in at a hefty 45 hours.

(Expectation doesn’t necessarily correlate with what is happening however. Research has shown studying output has dropped dramatically in recent decades to an average of 15 hours of studying per week. Thanks, Google!)