Life’s A Balancing Act For Student Athletes

Life’s a balancing act and right now school’s your job. That said, it may seem like your team sport is also a full-time commitment, and it kind of is. Finding time to do both often requires careful scheduling. How can you keep your grades on course, while still sticking to a training schedule, making it to practice and playing games?

Set Your Priorities

You’ve got a major Spanish final coming up. You’re not exactly confident about it. But you also have soccer practice. Chances are that you need some extra study time right now – making that Spanish final a priority.

This doesn’t mean that you ditch your sport. Instead, talk to your coach and explain what’s going on. Ask if you can miss one practice or leave early in order to hit the library. Coaches often are very understanding about this and know that right now you are a student-athlete and need to succeed in order to become an athletic-student. Besides, if you get a good grade your teacher is more likely to let you leave class a bit early for a game and will have acknowledge your dedication to both sports and academics.

Stick to a Schedule

Before the season starts, set up a school work schedule. Figure out how much time you need for each subject. Add these blocks of time around your practices and games. Put your schedule on your phone or write it on a calendar so you can look at every day.

Avoid Late Nights

The schedule’s set. Great! But, it seems to include a lot of late-night study sessions. You aren’t as likely to learn what you need to know (at least, not to your fullest potential) if your studying time happens when you’re overly tired. If you can squeeze in some after-school study time before going to your 7 pm game, do it. Waiting until you get home at 10 may mean that you have to stay up until midnight just to finish your homework.

Make the Most of Weekends

Unless you have a full weekend tournament, Saturday and Sunday give you plenty of time to hit the books. Yes, you want time to relax and spend with your friends. But, you also need to study. Make school work a priority and put it at the beginning of your weekend days. Then, you can get together with friends later on in the evening! If you try to have scheduled weekends you will soon realize that waking up at 9am, instead of noon like most of your friends gives you three hours of very productive time!

Study in School

You could spend your 15 minutes of homeroom, the 45 minutes of study hall or your free period texting friends. Or, you could take advantage of this in-school time to do tomorrow’s homework or study for a test.

Put Together a Team Study Group

Sometimes studying is easier with a buddy. If you have teammates in your classes, set up a study group and make plans to meet before or after practices. Not only can you help each other with your school work, but you’re also getting the chance to be social.

Combining school and sports takes time management skills and dedication. You only have 24 hours in a day, and almost half that time is spent sleeping! Create a manageable schedule that you can realistically follow, making it perfectly possible to get your homework done and be your best on the field too! It may be hard at first but it is definitely possible.