I still don't really understand why this is important. Presumably kids aren't playing sports every day of the week, so they'll have plenty of time to spend with their parents on the other days. I used to play Tennis from something like 5pm to 7pm a couple of days a week when I was a kid and that didn't seem to cause any problems.
For high school football players it's basically practice Monday-Thursday then game on Friday. For basketball players it's basically any day during the week that they don't have a game. I was in marching band and we practiced after school every day.
Sorry, but that's insane. That's fine for high-level near-professional sports, but for some basic school sports, training every day is ridiculous and sacrificing the health and education of the students for it is just plain stupid.
Why does this happen? Why does everything have to move for this? And if they really absolutely want to do this during daylight hours, why not have the sports before school, and have just the fanatical athletes show up really early while the other students can get a normal night's sleep?
I'm gonna be real with you: it was fun. I was never the best athlete or trombone player when I did marching band but myself and many other kids who honestly didn't have a future playing sports at a collegiate level had genuine fun playing and practicing.
And after school is literally the most convenient time to practice for everyone involved including coaches, parents, and students due to the peculiarities of American living. When I was in school around half of American school children played some kind of organized sport and most probably got the same night's sleep as the other half that didn't. At the collegiate level they do what you suggest and often have two practices a day in the morning and evening for the biggest sports.
Speaking from Europe: after school is literally the most convenient time to practice for everyone involved too. And while sports are in non school clubs, some of them are indeed quite involved. Some are 3 times a week, others 1 time a week, but competitive ones are 4-5 times a week or more. By more I mean including weekend and sometimes morning practice. I know kids that have these amounts of sport now with dancing, soccer etc. I did swimming and we had 3 times a week morning practice back then.
I kinda feel like this is one of those situations where Americans think their system is exceptionally inferior ... in ways that are not actually that much dissimilar to what other countries do.
Well that's just it I don't believe it's inferior. And most Americans will gey their kids into some kind of sport if they can afford it. As the saying goes: a good kid is a tired kid.
I'm all for everybody doing sports, and I can see massive advantages in integrating it with school life. My teenager refuses to do any sports or other extracurricular activities other than gaming and D&D, so he only gets the regular couple of hours of PE at school. I'd love it if I could get him to do more than that.
But training every day sounds a bit much. As far as I know, even youth football clubs around here only train 2 or 3 evenings a week. Maybe more if you've got a shot at going professional? I've heard of fanatical swimmers swimming every morning before school, but those are exceptions. I did martial arts, and that was just once a week.
Sorry, but that's insane. That's fine for high-level
near-professional sports
To be clear: high school sports seasons typically last for only 3 or 4 months. So that schedule doesn't seem excessive to me.
We're not talking about 52 weeks x 5 days x 4 years.
Not sure if you were already aware. Or if this impacts your thinking.
Now, some parents book their kids' lives so full of sports (multiple sports, multiple leagues, etc) that it DOES become insane in my view. I'm sure that we at least agree on that.
So everything is crammed into 3 or 4 intensive months, and nothing the rest of the year? That seems less insane but more imbalanced. Over here I think it's all year round, except for a stop in winter for outdoor sports (sometimes filled in by an indoor variant), and during summer vacation.
You claim the US is "insane" for having kids play sports year round, and then when informed of reality, you claim that having kids play sports for only part of the year seems "imbalanced" unlike the superior system in your country where they play, uh, "all year round."
There's definitely a communication breakdown here.
To be clear: American sports are extremely a la carte. Kids can play as many or as little as they like. Different sports happen during different seasons. For example in our area schools boy's tennis is in the spring and girls' tennis is in the fall. This is because the courts are outdoor, there aren't enough courts for both to play at once, and too cold in the winter. Summer is generally too hot and kids are on vacation. Winter sports are indoor sports like volleyball, swimming, basketball, etc. If kids are really serious about a sport they can play nearly year round if they like because there are leagues that operate apart from schools.
No, I used "insane" for training every day of the week, instead of just once or twice per week. "Imbalanced" is doing highly intensive every day training for a few months and then nothing the rest of the year.
I'm not calling the system in my country "superior", I'm just pointing out that it's generally once or twice a week all year round. And I think that's a more balanced approach.
But of course the systems are completely different because in the US it's attached to schools, whereas here it's all independent.
Ah, I see. I figured there was a communication break somewhere.
every day of the week
I don't know of any school sport that is "every day of the week." Even football is usually 4 days of practice + 1 game per week, 3-4 months a year.
If that is your idea of "insane," fine, we can differ.
highly intensive
The vast majority of school sports are pretty casual, quite honestly. For example I used to help the local high school tennis coach. I'm not sure those kids broke a sweat on most days.
Football tends to be the most intense. But even then not every day is intense. Usually in the beginning of the week you might focus on strength and cardio. Thursday is more of a strategy day. Kind of a rest day physically because tomorrow, you play. Then Friday is your game.
There are surely exceptions to the rule. When I was in high school there was a nearby team that trained basically year round from what I heard. When their long time coach retired he did it on the last day of the season. He said he chose that timing because their off-season weight training routine started the next day so he was handing things off to the new coach then and there. That sounds pretty excessive to me, but also, if you went to that school and chose to be a part of that sport you knew what you were getting into. So if that's what somebody else wants I'm not going to say they were wrong as long as they enjoy it.
For context please note that even in that "fanatical" school we are talking about perhaps 40-50 kids from a class of maybe 500. This is not the norm for children even in that school. I would point to our childhood obesity epidemic as evidence that, in general, we are not exactly inundating our children with intensive exercise regimens.
Because in the US there is very little public transport infrastructure and most neighborhoods are not walkable. Buses have already left the school by 5pm. The only way for the kid to get home is their parent to pick them up.
