How to Balance?

[Jennifer Sullivan]

My daughter is in 8th grade, and has always been active in a variety of sports, but by far track & field (jumps) are her strength. This year we are having a hard time balancing school & sports for the first time. She has been doing cross-country in the fall and swim team in the winter, primarily for conditioning (and hanging out with friends), and this year she is being swamped with homework.

She was supposed to start working with a private jump coach, who we have been talking to for a few months. Initially she was to start earlier, but was delayed due to recovering from an injury, then swine flu, then 2 weeks of rain. The delays have caused for incredibly bad timing, since cc & swimming overlap this month, making scheduling private lessons difficult. He told me today that he has decided he is not willing to work with her on weekends and will not work with her unless she can be available at least 2 days a week, around his schedule. So essentially, she would have to give up all other activities.

I see his point about needing to work with her with a certain degree of regularity and frequency, but initially I had the impression he was willing to be more flexible and work some weekends, at least until we got thru this month. I am just not sure what to do...

[TrackMom]

Hi Jennifer,

Sounds like a lot going on...I think that you really have to find the right fit or perhaps push back the regular consistant training until your daughter's time is more accomodating to his.If your priority right now is the swimming and XC that's fine for now but most likely the coach won't be there for sporadic (in his eyes) training patterns.

Track''s outdoor season is a ways away so may be you can focus your efforts to the outdoor season in a month or two? She isn' t even in highschool yet and her having fun and learning to balance is very important. If his needs don't fit yours find a coach that does. Only you and she know if quitting all other actiivtes is necessary at this point.My guess is probaly not. Private lessons willl be there her fun quotient maybe not . What does she want?

TrackMom

[Jennifer Sullivan]

Thanks for the response; things have been so busy I haven't had a chance to reply. We managed to get things worked out, without having to completely give up anything, fortunately. Her swim coach said she could postpone beginning practice with the swim team until Nov. since they had other people starting late, too, due to soccer and cross-country, and she decided since she is NOT a distance runner anyway, and the team did not need her at all, that she would put cross-country on the "back burner" and give up 1 or 2 days of CC practice a week to work with her private coach.

So that freed her up to work with him 3 days a week for 3 weeks, which made him happy. Now she is swimming 3-4 days a week and works with her private track coach once a week, then does some work on her own on the weekends. Things are still a lot busier than we'd like, she doesn't really have any down time because of the ridiculous amount of homework she has this year (that had never been a problem before), but we are managing. Hopefully, next year will be a little easier. She won't continue with cross-country in high school, and she should be able to get her fall conditioning in with her private coach before swim season starts next time, and most parents tell me that high school will seem easy after she gets thru this year.

We really, really like her private coach. He really know his stuff, and knows how to push her without ever criticizing or raising his voice, always very positive and encouraging, and from what I've seen, it's pretty rare to find a coach with both these qualities. He's working with her on her sprints, as well, and I can't wait for track season to see how it pays off!