10 Tips To Balance Swimming, School and Social Life

By Suzie Ryan, Swimming World Intern

Swimming is a tough sport. Our time is filled with early morning practices, late night practices, strength and conditioning sessions, competitions on weekends and travel to away meets. On top of that, we have all our academic requirements: Classes, assignments, exams and extra credit.

This can make it hard to be a student-athlete and find the balance between swimming, school and a social life to hang out with friends and family.

Here are 10 tips on balancing your swimming, school and social life to help you stay on track:

1. Keep a Planner

Having a planner will help keep yourself organized and let you know when you have assignments due, exams to study for and meets to attend. Put everything in your planner: Class times, practice times, study times. As soon as you receive an assignment, exam date or competition date, put it into your planner. You can even block out time to hang out with friends.

At the beginning of each week, check your calendar and you can stay on top of training, competitions, school work and social time with your friends.

2. Utilize Your Resources and Support System

Take advantage of tutoring services, study groups and extra credit to help you stay on top of all your school work and assessment. You can also talk to your parents and see if they can help you out around the house with household duties to reduce your schedule and allow yourself more time to study, train or meet up with friends.

This approach will leave you less stressed and able to commit fully to practice and upcoming meets without having to stress about missing sessions to fulfil your academic requirements.

3. Don’t Procrastinate

Don’t procrastinate and put off assignments, homework or studying for an exam. As soon as you get any schoolwork, start working on it. This will help you stay on top of your education and stop you from stressing out at the last minute. The goal is to not fall behind. You will also have more time to enjoy hanging out with friends.

4. Make Time To Relax

Training and studying all the time can lead to burn out. Make sure you set aside some time to relax and enjoy yourself. Options could be hanging out with friends, reading a book, watching your favorite movie or TV show or taking a nap (we all know swimmers love napping).

5. Get Motivated

Get excited about school and studying. We understand that not everyone likes every subject at school or even college, but being interested in your subject will help get work done easier. Find a movie, TV show, YouTube video or book that interests you about the subject and content you are studying. This will help you stay interested in your work and help you excel in assessments.

6. Use Your Weekends Wisely

Instead of spending your whole weekend hanging out with friends, use them to get ahead. Set aside some time to study and get ahead on homework and assignments, then go hang with your friends for the rest of the weekend. This mindset will help you feel less stressed in the week ahead and enjoy time at practice and hanging with friends while being on top of all your schoolwork.

7. Learn to Say ‘No’

It’s ok to say ‘NO.’ We don’t have to say ‘YES’ to everything.

Sometimes we might have to say no to our friends or family because we need to study and finish off schoolwork. By saying no, you will allow yourself more time to complete all your tasks in your schedule without overwhelming and stressing yourself out.

8. Use Your Travel Time

Use your ride to and from training or competitions to study, read textbooks or review your notes.

9. Stay Focused

Worry about what you are doing at that specific moment in time. Focus on the task you are tackling, whether that is swimming, studying, sitting in class or hanging out with friends. Worrying about practice or spending time with friends while you are studying can reduce your productivity and leave you feeling stressed out or like you are missing out.

10. Reward Yourself

You may have stuck to your schedule for the whole week, completed an assignment before your deadline or did a personal best at the meet on the weekend. Be sure to reward yourself for sticking to your schedule and training. Go out and have some fun with your friends and family. Grab a meal at your favorite restaurant. Watch a movie or take yourself on a shopping trip. You deserve it.

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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