Introduction to American Government and Politics

Cade Robinson

Dr. Jenkins

Intro to American Government

April 7, 2022

The Balance of Time with Student Athletes

Student athletes according to PSB spend on average 50 hours a week doing sports related activities. When that is broken down into sections on average they spend 21 hours a week on required activities (practice), and 29 hours a week on other activities (film, traveling, rehab, ext.). According to the New York Post the average college student spends about 26.2 hours a week on studying and class. This means that the average student athlete spends 76.2 hours a week on school and athletics. The recommended amount of sleep you should get is 56 hours a week (8 hours a day) which, combined with the 76.2 hours of sports and class, makes you spend 132.2 hours a week doing one of those activities. There are 168 hours a week which means the average  student athlete gets 35.8 hours of free time a week. This may seem like a lot of free time when broken down but student athletes average free time doesn’t even equate to a weekend. This is where student athletes' time problem starts.

Student athletes' time problems can affect them in many different ways. It can affect their grades, sport, social life, and physical/ mental well being. This lack of free time student athletes have led to tough decisions that they have to make where they have to choose one of those affected areas over another. The lack of time student athletes face can lead to bad grades/ not as good of grades, because they have to make choices. I know from personal experience that I will occasionally skip a class, or put off an assignment to get more sleep due to how tired I was. I knew that if I didn’t catch up on my sleep it would negatively affect my grades more than if I just missed a class, or turned in an assignment late. Student athletes are told that they are students before athletes, but that just doesn’t hold true. Most athletes can’t skip practice for class, but they can skip class for practice. This leads to student athletes rushing through assignments, getting lower grades than what they could have due to the missing class and not having very much extra time in their week to be able to make up for what they missed. Student athletes' time constraints also affect them on the field. They can stay up until 3a.m. writing a paper and then have a 6a.m. practice that they underperform at due to being so tired and mentaly drained. The time constraint can also lead to them skipping rehab or not watching as much film as they should have due to having more important things to do which can lead to underperformance on the field. Student athletes have about 36 hours of free time a week to be able to socialize with friends and have a good social life. This may seem like a lot of time, but most of the time you have rules in place, like no drinking, or the times don’t match up with your friends and activities you want to do. Our social lives are influenced by being an athlete where you can’t go to an event you’ve been looking forward to, or you have to stay on campus during spring break while your friends go to the beach. Your social life in season can be majorly restricted due to all the things you have to do, which can lead to you losing friends or drifting apart from your friends. This leads straight into the mental and physical toll the lack of time brings onto student athletes. Your mental health can go downhill due to the stress of everything you have to do, the big game, injury, and lack of chill time with friends. A lot of athletes experience a slump in the middle or end of their seasons due to this, where they overall just aren’t very happy. Their physical health also comes into play due to them maybe not having time to go see the trainers when they are available due to class conflicts. Many athletes also get minor injuries they don’t get treated due to them not wanting to use the little free time they have going to treatment. 

The teachers of student athletes see and deal with their time problems a lot. Many teachers get constant emails from them asking for extensions on papers and telling the teacher they won’t be at class. This has to be frustrating for teachers due to the fact that 99% of student athletes use their degree that they get from college more than the college athletics part of their college. Teachers also probably get frustrated with how student athletes email them at crazy times of the night, and can’t sometimes meet during office hours. The amount of times teachers hear “I can’t come, I have practice” probably drives them crazy. If only student athletes could have 26 hours in a day. Coaches also deal with the time constraint of players. Coaches have to plan lifts, practices, and film around student athletes' class schedules the best they can. A lot of the time that means 6am. or 8pm. practices which have to suck for coaches and their families. Most coaches would love to be able to have a 12p.mn. practice instead of one of those times so they could work normal hours. Coaches also hear “ I might be late to ___ because I have class” a lot which has to be frustrating because you want your whole team to practice the whole time. The time constraint student athletes face directly impacts coaches and teachers' lives too.

There is no solution for this problem, only things that can make it a little better. You can’t add more hours to the day, ask teachers to require less from student athletes, or ask coaches to require less from them. This is just a problem that student athletes will have to deal with. There are ways to make it easier for student athletes and help them with their time. One way is to help them learn how to properly schedule out their day, so they don’t waste 30 minutes in between classes. Another way is to maybe give student athletes first pick at classes, so they can get a schedule that works best with their time and doesn’t conflict as much with sports. Teachers could also try to be flexible with due dates as long as the student athlete looks like they are trying and are communicating well with a good reason. Also coaches could make lift and film times at more than just one time, so you can when you have the time to and not rush from class. If you combined all these solutions it would make many of the student athletes' time challenges a lot easier to deal with, although it wouldn’t completely solve them.

Citations 

Swns. “Here's How Many Hours the Average Student Spends Hustling.” New York Post, New York Post, 22 Aug. 2019, https://nypost.com/2019/08/21/heres-how-many-hours-the-average-student-spends-hustling/.