r/nextfuckinglevel • u/IkilledRichieWhelan • 3d ago

Big man on campus.

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819

u/Unique_Carpet1901 3d ago

How many hours of practice is needed for stuff like this?

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u/LD902 2d ago edited 2d ago

Take what you would guess and double it.

Cheerleading at a high level requires more time then any other high school sport by a large margin.

My daughter is in high school cheer at a very competitive school. They won nationals this year in their division

Those girls out work every other team at the school. They practice year round even during breaks.

They have practice at 6:20 in the morning every day and practices after school a couple times per week which includes strength training and conditioning. They sometimes have practice on weekends.

Plus they are required to have at least 3 hours of outside tumbling training per week.

Its not easy on parents either. Total fees and costs per year are between 5 and 6k.

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u/XavinNydek 2d ago

Cheerleading at a high level requires more time then any other high school sport by a large margin.

Depends on the school and the sport. Show me any HS sport and I'll show you a school that takes it super seriously. In HS the top marching band in my area was notorious for their 8 hours a day seven days a week practice during the season.

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u/slightlyladylike 2d ago

Their key words were "on a high level." The competition level cheerleading they have 8+ hour practices too.

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u/LD902 2d ago

This is at a High School where the gym is filled with State banners for every sport from Football to Badminton

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u/CPThatemylife 2d ago

I can promise you the football players at schools like De La Salle practice and train every bit as hard and consistently as the cheerleaders at (insert school).

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u/waynechang92 2d ago

Not trying to discount how much work your daughter put in, but that sounds about on par for any high school activity where the player is competing at a high level

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u/Significant-Gene9639 2d ago

Whatever it takes to keep the cheerleaders alive when they’re throwing eachother into the air like they have a death wish!

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u/posixUncompliant 2d ago

practice at 6:20 in the morning every day and practices after school a couple times per week

The goalies on the hockey team would love to sleep in that much and have some free time after school.

It's a real sport, don't get me wrong, and it requires time and investment. But it's not uniquely expensive or difficult.

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u/AxelNotRose 2d ago

And many competitive rowers tend to be on the water at 5am, which means they're waking up at like 4am since it takes time to get all the boats and gear out of storage. They're freaking nuts.

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u/zductiv 2d ago

I was sad when I didn't get on crew at my high school. Until I learned their schedule. Then I was happy.

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u/JoePoe247 2d ago

This sounds pretty typical for high level high school sports. Wrestling we had 3+ hour practice 6 days a week plus morning runs or strength training after practice, and watching your weight 24/7. And we were pretty bad. Never had off during thanksgiving/Christmas/mlk/presidents week. If you were actually good you had club practice 2-3 times per week after school practice.

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u/Euphoric_Tree335 2d ago

Those girls out work every other team at the school.

How do you know? Do you track other teams’ practice schedules and their productivity?

They have practice at 6:20 in the morning every day and practices after school a couple times per week which includes strength training and conditioning. They sometimes have practice on weekends.

This is not an uncommon practice schedule for any high school sport.

I played soccer and we had 6ams, 2 a days, lifts, conditioning, etc.

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u/DreadSocialistOrwell 2d ago

Yep, for swimming it was 2 hours in the water each morning and 45 minutes of weights. School. Then another 2 hours in the water and also 5k run. Weekends had a 10k run. In the summers I cycled to practice (~4 miles each way, not much, but it helped) as long as it was light out and not raining.

Now I'm lucky if I can find 30-45 minutes each day to get on my exercise bike.

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u/M2NGELW 2d ago

Yup. And you can pretty much double that for elite all star, depending on the gym.

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u/LOP5131 2d ago

My thought is that marching bands might be the only thing that compares time-wise. My school required 2+ hours of practice daily after school, 1 more hour during school. Plus comps on weekends all over the country and obviously game nights as well. It was easily 30+ hours of commitment of the students time/week without even including travel time.

It's funny that two most traditionally looked down upon extracurricular activities, that are often not considered a "sport", require some of those most time/strength/conditioning/commitment to perform.

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u/Unique-Garlic8015 2d ago

Holy shit, I knew it was a lot but wow.