The average day of a college athlete looks a lot different than that of a regular student. You will have responsibilities from sunup to sundown.
Keep in mind it varies slightly between every sport and school.This article is intended to destroy any myths and get down to the truth.
The Morning:
Wake up at 6:15 am. Get dressed, brush your teeth, then head to get breakfast. After eating head to the weight room five minutes early for a 7:00 am lift/conditioning.
Training ends, but now it’s time for a quick shower. Get dressed, and grab a quick bite to eat before your 9:00 am class. You are in classes for a few hours until it is time for some lunch.
This gives you a nice little break to refuel and gather yourself. You feel as if your day should be over, but it’s just getting started.
Afternoon:
After this, it’s time to head back to the locker room to get ready for practice. Make sure you are fully dressed, taped, and mentally ready. Practice goes from around 3:00 – 5:00 pm and the intensity is off the charts.
From the moment the head coach shows up until the second he leaves you are being observed. Film might be after or before practice depending on the day and the circ*mstances.
After practice or film you get a few extra reps in and head back to the locker room to undress. You take a shower and joke around with your teammates for a little bit. By this point your stomach is ready for a big meal so you head to the dining hall for a nice feast.
Evening:
You enjoy the food and social aspect, but have to be at study hall by 7:30 pm. At study hall you get your hours in for the week or meet with a tutor. You are there until about 10:00 pm and are really starting to get tired by this point.
From study hall you grab another quick bite of food and head back to your dorm to relax. Here’s where you have free time to play video games or hangout with friends/significant others.
You do this for a little, but soon head to bed as you have to get up early again tomorrow. You accomplished a lot in one day and will do it all again tomorrow and the day after that.
The average day of a college athlete is demanding, yet rewarding. It will look slightly different for everyone, but will entail most of what was described above. Make sure to ask questions about the daily schedule when going through the recruiting process.
Are YOU ready for this type of commitment?
Daily Schedule Differences Between D1, D2, D3, NAIA, JUCO
There are not a lot of differences between the daily schedules of different levels of competition within the collegiate world. Whether you are at a high major D1 university, academic D3 institution, or your local JUCO school you are going to be busy from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed.
The main differences between these levels appear in the overall schedule. This includes summer terms, offseason restrictions, and travel. (check out some these differences).
For example, D3 schools will have less practice time allowed in the offseason compared to other divisions. Most D1 schools will require athletes to come in the summer and offseason workouts will be more involved.
The average day of a college athlete is pretty similar between different divisions, but the main schedule differences come in the offseason.
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Differences of Daily Schedule Based on Sport
There will be contrasting schedules between different sports at the collegiate level as not every team can lift, practice, and use the facilities at the same time.
For example, most colleges are going to have 1-2 fields that need to be used by soccer, football, lacrosse, field hockey, etc all in the same day.
The college is also going to have men’s and women’s teams for each sport. Therefore, the only way for every team to be able to practice is by giving them different times.
This leads to each sport creating a different schedule for the day and thus making the day of the college athlete different from another athlete at the same school.
Different Times of Training
In most cases, you will find that sports which generate the most revenueare giving top priority to what time they want to practice (usually football and basketball). This usually results in those athletes having better times, but their days will still be just as busy.
An example is that a soccer player might have to wake up at 6:00 am to go to practice. The football player also has to wake up at 6:00 am but they are lifting at that time. Then later in the day when football has the field at 3:00 pm the soccer players will be lifting.
In terms of lifting, practice time, classes, study hall, sleep, etc., every college athlete will have similar hours. The difference is that they will just be at different times throughout the day.
Average Amount of Time per Day for your sport:
Lifting: 45 min-2 hours – During the season lifting will be much shorter and usually 2-3 days a week. In the offseason it will be 3-4 days a week for 1-2 hours.
Practice: 2-3 hours – During the season practices will be shorter to save legs, but in the offseason coaches will push players to their limits with intense 2-3 hour practices.
Class: varies – The amount of class per day really depends on how you schedule and the requirements you have to meet for graduation. You might have days with no classes, while other days you have four.
Study Hall/Tutors: 0-3 hours – This number can vary greatly between schools and different sports. For most freshman, coaches usually require them to get 6-8 hours of study hall a week. This is a huge time consumer that most people overlook.
Average Amount of Time per Day for Extracurriculars:
Eating: varies – This is up to the individual but to be a healthy athlete you should be getting breakfast, lunch, dinner, and several snacks throughout the day. You might be at breakfast for only 5 minutes, but you might chill with your teammates in the dining hall for 2 hours eating dinner.
Sleep: 6-9 hours – This depends on the individual but for the average day (not including when you are traveling) you will have the ability to get up to 9 hours of sleep.
Social Time: varies – If you don’t procrastinate on school work and stay out of trouble you will have plenty of time on the weekends to go out and have fun. When you are in season this time does significantly decrease.
D3 athletes will usually have a little more time compared to D1, but the time differences are not as great as you would think. During the week itself, every athlete is going to be very busy and probably won’t be going out on Tuesday for drinks like most of your classmates.
College athletes have to make some sacrifices. Choose wisely!
Conclusion: Average Day of College Athlete
Athletes have busy days during the week no matter what sport you play, what division you are in, or how good your team is. If you plan on playing a sport in college take the time to understand what your normal day will look like and be prepared to work.
Although the days are hectic and sometimes very tiring, almost all athletes will say they wouldn’t trade it for the world. Through these experiences you mature and grow bonds with teammates that will last a life time.
A single day might feel like an eternity, but the four years of college will pass by in a blink. Enjoy the grind and be thankful for each day.
Feel free to leave any comments or questions about the average day of a college athlete.
Tagged Recruiting Process
