For those who aren't familiar with two-a-days, the term is used to describe when sports teams have two practices during the day. While this type of training is popular especially over the summer, there are a few teams that continue these types of practices into the academic school year.
While I have experienced two-a-days during my high school days in both the summer and the school year, I think that they should be banned when school starts. At my high school, the school day started at 7:45 a.m. and ended at 2:45 p.m. When I had early morning swim practice, I had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. and wouldn't be done until 5:00 p.m. I'd arrive at home at 5:30, and after eating dinner, I usually couldn't start homework until after 6:00 p.m. Our coach encouraged us to go to bed at 8:00 p.m. Yet, with only two hours to do the homework that was assigned that day, and six classes that could easily require an hour a day, the feat of going to bed seemed nearly impossible. There were days where I had to stay up past midnight to finish everything that was assigned that day. Some of my teammates had to stay up until 3 a.m. to get everything done and then woke up again at 5 a.m.
Sure, there might have been a few swimmers who might have ended up swimming in college. While that's wonderful for them, high school students shouldn't be asked to train twice a day. Most of us were concerned about our academics, so we stayed up later, and got very little sleep just because we did a sport as well. Most days, I was exhausted, and I know that falling asleep in first hour was common among us. Even our swimming times got worse as the days wore on because of our exhaustion. Not only that, but we were a much smaller team, because many girls didn't like the idea of morning practices, and thus never tried out for the team.
Our coach acted like we were all preparing for a professional career as swimmers. However, coaches in high schools need to remember that the majority of the sports players won't being competition after high school. The coaches should also realize that sleep is essential and that we have plenty of homework to do as well. If coaches want to see us perform well in sports, academics, and everyday life, then two-a-days should be banned from high schools for good.
