Kinda wondering how much other kids do and if they can do too much. Probably not thinking physically but when does it start to have a negative impact on other areas of their lives, from other peoples experiences. Our son currently dives 4 times a week, three 2 hour sessions and one 5 hour session. He is now moving up to the next level so will be doing an extra session one evening and a longer session on one of his existing evenings. So he’s currently doing about 11 hours a week but will be doing about 14 hours a week until July, it will then change again. To add to that it looks like he’s been chosen for an SFA football program me when he starts high school in August, that’s 5 school periods of football a week. So how much is too much?

Is he still enjoying it? Is he doing it for himself or pushy parents? Are his grades suffering?

Diving and football, eh?
Hmmm…

Only you and your son can really answer that.

Coming from an elite junior background I’d say that’s a lot of training from an 11 year old, regardless if its an impact or non impact sport.

However as long as he’s doing it with a smile and willingly, not getting injured, and not letting his grades suffer then great.

He absolutely loves his diving, no pushing required from us. The only pushing we have to do is making sure he gets enough sleep, he’s a bit of a night owl and eats well. He’s good at eating healthily but not at breakfast and lunch.

A mates son is 11 this year, been selected for the county swimming squad and does the occasional junior triathlon or cross country race. He seems indestructible.

He needs to enjoy what he does. Make sure he eats and sleeps well, make sure he keeps on top of school work*. Make sure he understands that doing all of the above will mean that getting up to mischief with mates and girls in the next few years won’t happen much.

*make sure he understands that one injury could destroy his sporting ambitions.

OP I was pretty sporty at school, did something most evenings and matches Saturday and Sunday. At Uni I did two training sessions and two/three matches a week. If I am honest sport totally defined me until my mid 20’s when work / family took over, I am pretty happy about that. My kids swam competitively and my middle daughter was on a schedule similar to your son as a nationally ranked swimmer, Olympic sports like swimming and diving are like that these days – full on from an early age. In the end she got bored of it at 13 but if your son is still loving it then keep it up. It does tend to take over their lives (and yours but personally I loved taking her to training and driving her up and down the country for events) and they have to make sacrifices like sleepovers and parties, half term skiing had to go for 2 years. School work is hard to juggle.

OP good at healthy eating except breakfast and lunch, ie 2 out of 3 meals 😉

He’s not a morning person, he’ll typically just have a banana for breakfast and often doesn’t finish his lunch but he’s getting better and we’re not too worried. His last report was excellent and he is kept aware of how important that is.

My boys 6 & 8 do around 16 hours of sport each week. They love doing it, so I’m happy with it.

My lad (9) is very keen on sport. His school does f all so it is up to us to sort it out.
His after school schedule is currently –
Monday – 1 hour football followed by 1 hr swimming.
Tuesday – no sport! But goes to Cubs
Wednesday – 2 hr athletics
Thursday – 90 min swimming
Friday – 1 hr swimming
Saturday 1 hr swimming followed by 2 hr football
Sunday – 2k cross country followed by 90 min Cricket.

This is just training, any matches or races need to be fitted in somewhere!

Getting homework done can be an issue and he is nine years old so he still wants to have friends round, play on the xbox and all the other things nine year olds do.

He loves it all and if we suggest cutting it down a bit he doesn’t want to. It keeps my wife very busy running him from one sporting location to the next.

He absolutely loves his diving, no pushing required from us.

That did make me laugh.

hard balance. Our 12 yr old does an hour of football training in ‘school of football’ from 3-4 every week day, 90 mins training with his own team mon, wed and fri evenings, then an 11 a sides game sunday morning. We recently had to stop him doing life saving club on a Tuesday evening as he was just too knackered. He totally lives for his football, it takes it’s toll on family life though…

His wee bro is 8 and trains on a tue evening and every 3rd Fri evening, with a game every sat morning, which is more manageable.

Thankfully my wife loves football and I don’t, so I get some bike time 🙂

If you have a sporty child I don’t see a problem.
My 12 yr old nephew plays tennis competitively. Swims with school. Has now been picked for private ice skating tuition (this means getting up at 6 am) and loves it all.

I make sure he has a well balanced diet, with a fairly large portion, snacks (I look after him at the weekends) and he has a definite bedtime and sleeps well.
He mtbs with us in the summer (although he says he doesn’t want to do this anymore) and is starting skiing lessons in a few weeks time and can’t wait.
In between all this, he is outside on his scooter at the local skateboard park and seems to just enjoy messing around outside.

When I was that age I was swimming a few nights a week, rugby training once a week with a match on Sundays and occasionally Saturdays to and riding bikes. I developed Osgood-Schlatter Disease, which still causes me trouble now I’m in my 30s. I should have rested up a bit and I might not have the problems I do with my knees now but at the time sports were my life and I didn’t want to stop. Just watch out for signs of injury and problems and treat them as advised by a decent physio.

I make sure he has a well balanced diet, with a fairly large portion

Ah yes, I forgot to mention this bit.
My lad eats like a horse, genuinely more than my wife or me, yet doesn’t have an once of fat on him. Costs us a fortune!