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# of hours/week for preteen sports?

Smurfy1Smurfy1
in Parenting

My 11-year-old DD is interested in joining a local swim team. I briefly looked at their website, and it says that during the school year, the kids practice 6 days a week, approximately 12 hours per week. In the summer, they practice approximately 20 hours a week. I'm not sure how often the swim meets are.

Is this excessive for a sport for a child this age, or is it the norm? I have no idea because I wasn't involved in sports at all when I was a kid. This may be perfectly fine for all I know. It just sounds like a lot. I don't want school work and family time to suffer. 

TIA!

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Re: # of hours/week for preteen sports?

  • honkytonk_kidhonkytonk_kid member

    Hi! I'm a complete lurker here, but I swam as a kid so I thought I'd answer =)

    Swimming is a fairly practice-heavy sport for kids, as opposed to soccer for example that might have 1-2 practices a week. That still seems like a lot of practice time- does it depend on their age/skill level? When I started swimming it was 2-3 nights a week, 12-20 hours/week didn't come until high school. It might also depend on the team and how competitive it is. Is there a summer-only league near you that she could try for the rest of the summer to see if she likes it? They tend to be more laid back than a year-round team.

    I looooved swim team as a kid- a good clean sport Stick out tongue

    ::lurker butting out::

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  • Smurfy1Smurfy1
    Thanks for the reply, honkytonk! I'm not sure about the summer-only league. I will have to look into that.
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