Effective time management is very important for young swimmers.

The time management skills learnt through your involvement in swimming will assist your child and you as a parent for the rest of your life.

With the regimented training schedules that swimmers experience in their training programs, a swimmer’s ability to manage their time is crucial to fitting everything into each day.

Swimming training is conducted primarily before and after school, so children need to allocate time to travel to and from training around their normal daily routine.

Swimming successfully is as much about managing your time as it is about training hard.  Fitting in training, school, homework, rest and recovery and having some time to yourself is a difficult juggling act even for the most committed and dedicated athlete.

A Balancing Act

The training requirements for swimming mean that swimmers develop time management skills from a young age.  Balancing school, homework, swimming, sleep and time with friends or other activities can be demanding. Most swimmers develop their own management plan to fit everything into each day.

The established time management skills are very useful when swimmers are completing high school and university and assist them to coordinate study and swimming.

These skills are often transferred into other areas of life. A majority of former swimmers maintain their time management skills and utilise them in their work and social lives.

Equally important as managing your time for activities is allocating time to do nothing.  Many swimmers will find ‘doing nothing’ difficult because they are always on the go.  Rest, recovery and relaxation are equally as important to a swimmer’s development as training and school.

Those times when your body is growing, adapting and developing are fundamental to swimming success. Allocate some time every week for rest and recovery.

Effective management of your time is a key to being a successful swimmer.