At the beginning of the school year when my daughter was offered opportunities to sign up for extracurricular, the natural thing for her to do was to join the school’s swimming team. It made sense since she was already in competitive swimming. Pulling an extra practice for the school was really no effort. And it paid off since she was made an anchor to boost the school’s extramural standings when they competed with other schools.

Then practices at school became more frequent in the lead up of swim meets causing her to miss a few standing practices with her regular competitive club. The extra time for the school team was also cutting into her homework time. She was balancing work and having a social life with friends. And of course, alone time at home to unplug and rest almost went to zero. My time with a teenager was already dwindling and it got reduced to only the times I spent in the car driving her to all these places. And finally, she developed tendonitis which took her out for 6 months.

During the months of very expensive physiotherapy, my daughter and I had a great number of talks about commitments and priorities. While it’s valiant to represent the school and being a champion of school spirit, it can’t come at the cost of sacrificing attendance and performance at her swim club. Coaching at my daughter’s competitive swim team organization is structured, managed and supervised by professional coaches. It’s not the same with a high school team who are often staffed by teachers.

 

Sometimes, less is more. Don’t try to do too much…or you could risk doing nothing at all.

 

Extracurricular activities at school are offered to kids who may not otherwise participate in non-school clubs. As varied as there are clubs for different interests, the levels of aptitude and proficiency are also varied. Imagine someone who’s had private piano instructions since she was three years old compared to a teenager who is just getting exposed to the keyboard as an interest-only endeavor. The same is true for my daughter’s swim. She sails effortlessly across the lanes as other kids smash the water and run into lane ropes.

But even effortless comes at a cost as she’s finding out. Joining a second team took extra time which could have been used elsewhere. She had to cut practices at her regular club. And there was less time to physically recover. It’s not to say that the shoulder injury (tendonitis) was caused at the school meets, but extra swimming practice certainly didn’t help if she was already sore from the previous day’s swim at her club. As much as she tries to do it all, her body still needs (more) time to rest and heal.

I looked at her as she laid on her physio-treatment table and said, “Sometimes, less is more. Don’t try to do too much…or you could risk doing nothing at all.” She nodded and closed her eyes as she enjoyed the beeps of the electrotherapy machine. She’s getting her rest. As she contemplates her commitment, both teams have lost a prized swimmer—and she the opportunity to move forward by doing too much.