Balancing High School Season: It Might Not Be Perfect, But It’s Manageable
For year-round swimmers, high school season can be one of the most fun parts of the year. It can also make your schedule a little crazy.
You still have your club practices, your club coach and the goals you have been working toward all year. Now add high school practices, dual meets, invitationals and another group of teammates into the mix. There might be days when you swim club before school, go to class all day and then have a high school meet that night. Or maybe your high school team has a big meet during a week when your club coach is not exactly planning on backing off.
Trying to balance both can get complicated, especially when you care about both. Don’t Feel Like You Have to Do Everything
Swimmers are pretty good at convincing themselves that missing one practice is going to ruin everything. When you are part of two teams, that mindset can turn into trying to be everywhere at once.
But doing more is not always the same thing as doing better.
Your body does not care whether the 5,000 yards you swam came from your high school coach or your club coach. It all adds up. So do the late nights getting home from meets, the early alarms for morning practice and the homework you still have to finish afterward.
This is where talking to your coaches matters. Let your club coach know when you have high school meets. Make sure your high school coach understands what your club schedule looks like. You should not have to quietly guess which practice you are supposed to attend or worry that choosing one means you are disappointing the other coach.
And if you are tired, say something. There is a difference between being tired because you are training hard and being completely run down because you have been trying to do two full schedules at once.
Remember That the Two Seasons Can Feel Different
If you are a serious club swimmer, a lot of your year probably revolves around times. You know your best times, the cuts you are chasing and what you want to go at your next championship meet.
High school swimming can give you a break from some of that.
Of course, you still want to swim fast, but sometimes the most important thing is getting your hand on the wall before the swimmer next to you because your team needs the points. You might swim an event that would never be your first choice at a club meet because that is where your high school team needs you. And there is something about a high school relay that can make a race in the middle of the week feel like the biggest race of your life.
That is part of what makes it fun.
Your club team might be where you spend most of the year, but that does not mean you have to treat high school swimming like it is just something extra on your schedule.
Be Part of Both
Sometimes swimmers feel like they have to decide which team is their “real” team. You don’t. You can have big goals with your club team and still care about winning a high school dual meet. You can be excited about your club championship season and still be the loudest person behind the lane when one of your high school teammates is trying to hold onto fifth place.
The people on your high school team are also the people you see walking through the halls every day. They might be friends you would have never met through club swimming. Your classmates might come watch you race without understanding why everyone is screaming about someone breaking a minute in the 100 free. Those are experiences you do not necessarily get during the rest of the year.
Balancing club and high school swimming will not always be perfect. There will probably be weeks when your schedule feels packed and days when you wish you could be in two places at once.
Talk to your coaches. Pay attention to how you are feeling. Give yourself permission to miss something when you need to.
And when you are at the high school meet, actually be at the high school meet. Cheer behind the lanes. Get excited about the relays. Race for the points. You can chase your individual goals and still enjoy being part of something different for a few months.
That is one of the best parts of getting to swim for both.
Summer Finke is a regular contributor to Swimming World. A two-time qualifier for the United States Olympic Trials, she competed collegiately for North Carolina State University and was a multi-time NCAA Championships qualifier.