<p>I want to run track. I'm currently hovering around D2 and D3 times, hopefully after junior year D1 will look at me. Anyways, if anyone knows, what is the amount of time you commit to training? If someone could estimate how many hours a week, I'd greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>D is an Ivy track athlete (home for Thanksgiving) - she says 20 hours per week during season (not including time spent getting to and from track, or recovery time/ training room time).</p>
<p>My brother ran D1 track/xc (North Carolina State - top 10 team in the country) and he said the commitment is much longer, something closer to what a job would be - ~40 hours/week (doesn’t include meets where one single day may have a 15hr commitment). They do double everyday and hit the weight room, and I imagine less competitive schools run a lot less</p>
<p>I too run track pretty competitively (Junior PRs were 49.68, 4:22.x and 1:54.x) and have been contacted by numerous coaches (current’s a senior) and have been told to expect 30 hours a week at least.</p>
<p>^Your brother might want to keep that quiet - that’s a bigtime violation of NCAA rules.
From the NCAA D1 manual:</p>
<p>17.1.6 Time Limits for Athletically Related Activities. In all sports, the following time limitations</p>
<p>17.1.6.1 Daily and Weekly Hour Limitations—Playing Season. A student-athlete’s participation in
countable athletically related activities (see Bylaw 17.02.1) shall be limited to a maximum of four hours per day
and 20 hours per week.</p>
<p>That can’t be true. Even in HS, if I have a two-day meet, say the Penn Relays, that’s about 12 hours a day for four days? I guess I was talking about actually time he couldn’t do anything because he had xc/track related things. I assume that only counts coach’s practices. He included the second runs they all had to do on their own everyday, and time in the weight room that wasn’t with the coach but was really mandatory. Add on team dinners/bonding, rehabbing injuries, getting massages, etc.</p>
<p>I still don’t see how that is true though. College football teams have to have >20 hours a week… they have two-a-days at least 5 days a week at the beginning, which is at least 20 hours. And that doesn’t count all the kids going to weight room, games, etc.</p>
<p>Sure it might only be ~20 hours of real practice, but it takes a lot of time to get there and I guarantee if you just go to practice and nothing else, you’ll be cut.</p>
<p>Take the national champs in XC Wisconsin, they run upwards of 140 ‘badger miles’ a week (which is a 7 minute mile). That’s over 16 hours of running alone, and in a half hour of stretching everyday and they’re already over the time allotted. That doesn’t include the hours they spend on injury prevention workouts every week, and I assume they do more at practice than just run straight (obviously workout have rest which isn’t taken into account… or recovery between strides, etc.).</p>
<p>It’s true, alright. Just google “NCAA bylaw 17.1.6.1”.</p>
<p>That wasn’t the question. He asked about time commitment. They might only have 20 hours of practice a week, but they still have to attend meets, perform injury prevention exercises, run doubles on their own, stretch on their own, etc. You should know this if your daughter is a runner. </p>
<p>And you didn’t factor in time it takes to get to and from practice, that is also part of the “time commitment.”</p>
<p>OP, I would say at a D1 college, expect 25-40 hours a week typically. Obviously, if you run at a good school it could be much longer (i.e. when my brother had OOS they sometimes took the bus which could be 10 hours long, which isn’t factored in to practice but is def. part of the time commitment).</p>
<p>And I googled that rule, it only monitors the time the coach spends with the athletes. They can easily tell kids they have to go to the weight room and send in a GA instead.</p>
<p>Even so, you know it isn’t strictly enforced. It says you can only have 8 hours in the off season! Most colleges have running camps in the summer for a week where they’re together 24/7! I know at URichmond at least, since I was interested in running there, they have a camp for all XC runners in the offseason, and I imagine others do the same.
Even if the camp isn’t mandatory in name (so it won’t count), I have a pretty good feeling you won’t be welcome on the team if you didn’t go.</p>
<p>Its because “20 hours of practice” has such a loose application. Do people running together over the summer with the coach present really constitute practice? If so, about every D1 team violates this rule in the off season.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True. A lot of schools break the NCAA rules. I’d avoid those schools.</p>
<p>I agree with pbojkner. The official practice time is 20 hours per week, but in reality you need to figure in sessions with the trainer to tend to injuries or for injury avoidance, possibly therapeutic massage, visits to the team doctor and imaging facilities to manage problems or suspected problems, runs and core work on your own certain days, hosting recruits, helping with duties related to hosting a meet, and team social activities (which while not mandatory, are important). For example, this term alone D attended a team bonding trip, freshman orientation (as a soph), visited a teammate in the hospital, hosted a recruit, and attended a bridal shower for a 5th year senior. Some of the girls also went to a performance by the coach’s daughter, since the daughter was a fan who attended their home meets. You also need to factor in travel time (you’ll usually leave Thurs. night or Friday AM for Sat. meets, though for the bigger meets the athletes leave several days ahead to adapt to local time, local temperature, and altitude.) You might need to make up classes too.</p>
<p>This all adds up. It’s definitely doable, but is not doable for every student. It takes tremendous discipline and work ethic and probably the ability to not sweat the small stuff. Some kids will regularly break down physically and get stress fractures, bronchitis, mono. Some students will let their school work slip too much, while others will become hermits and eliminate most social interaction in order to cope with all the demands. Still others experience emotional breakdowns of some kind, and exhibit eating disorders, anxiety, or alcholism. But there are others who experience moderate to great success, and even go on to a professional career / the Olympics. </p>
<p>I’m going to be honest and tell you that it can be a really hard road and you should expect that going in. At the same time, there are so very many rewards of participation that bring a lot of joy and satisfaction to those who can manage it. My D would say it’s hard, but even in the absence of successful performances yet, wouldn’t think of giving it up.</p>
<p>The coaches don’t break the rules. The rules mean the time the coaches actually practice. Not included are warm-ups, cool downs, showers, getting to and from practice, etc. But all that time is counted by me as part of the athletic program - it’s just the NCAA doesn’t count it.</p>
<p>If the athlete is including all that time in the 20hrs, it is very difficult to compete in programs where 20hrs means 20hrs of coaches time.</p>
<p>In my son’s sport he spends at least 4 hours 6 days a week in the off season. During their fall practices, he spends at least 5 hrs a day on official practice days (2days), 7+ hrs on scrimmage days, plus 4 hours the remaining 3 days. Many of those hours are truly voluntary and not countable as official practice time (e.g., field prep, pregame warmup, batting practice on scrimmage days, film work, post game lifting, locker room wind down, etc.)(if he were in a D1 power program, those hours would be “voluntary”). Not included in these computations are extra meal and nap time.</p>
<p>During the season (for home games - double headers) they arrive for breakfast at 9:00am and can meet up with their parents for dinner about 7:00pm. There is 1 more game per week (if home they get to the locker at 1:00 and leave the locker at 6:00. Three more practices, plus lifting run another 5 hours per day. One day is off - they can do whatever they want - usually means a couple of hours. This schedule is probably lighter than power programs. And if they are away, well…</p>
<p>There is a huge difference in time committment between true power programs and the rest - a huge trade-off in terms of the time which is left over to study (and party).</p>
<p>My daughter’s DI time commitment far exceeds 20 hours a week, but actual practice time with coaches present is right on the money. As stated above, there is travel time to and from practice, 20-30 minutes each way 6 days a week, on your own workouts 2-4 hrs a week, Dr/trainer visits 1-2 times a week at 1 1/2 to 2 hrs each including travel, mandatory study hall 8 hrs, advising 30 minutes a week. Team travel is a huge time commitment in the spring, leaving midday Friday and back Saturday or Sunday evening, depending on location. And the extra sleep needed to keep up with the demands needs to be taken into account. My daughter naps every chance she gets, forgoing social activities to meet her need for sleep. Yes, it is a huge time commitment and absolutely not for everyone. But for those athletes who thrive in this environment, the rewards are greater still.</p>
<p>D is a freshman, running DIII. Her time commitment has been approximately 2 hours a day/6days a week since the first day of school (season officially started Nov. 1). Practices probably somewhat longer now that she’s in season. That is without meets, which have not started.</p>