Topic 2: Balancing Sports and Studies

How is your training schedule like?

My training starts at 7.30pm and ends at 9.30pm. I’ll shower at the Wushu Federation, pack up, and take the train back. So usually when I reach home, it’s about 11.15pm.

How has training affected your studies?

I don’t really have much time for my studies. After spending the whole day in school, I have to attend training. I’ll be quite drained out from my day, but I still have to rush for project assignments and deadlines.

I think there are clashes between my sports and studies almost every semester. My training is 5 days a week, and usually there are mid-semester tests and end-semester tests. I will need some time to revise before the actual examination dates. It’s actually quite hard for me to juggle because I have to revise quite a lot of content for all the modules that I’m taking. By the time I reach home, it’s usually quite late, around 11.15pm. Then I’ll have to unpack my things and settle down, so it’d be about 12am already. By that time, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate also.

It’s actually quite hard for me to study during exam period. So what I’ll do is I’ll take leave from my federation, but not every day. I’ll take leave on days where school ends later, so when school ends late, I don’t have to go to training. I can head home and study. But when school ends early, like 1-2pm, then I’ll use the time before training starts to study so I don’t have to take leave and neglect my attendance for training.

What’s your biggest challenge in managing sports and studies?

I’m actually a very heavy sleeper. I love to sleep. Sometimes, when I don’t get enough rest, I get a bit moody, and I’ll lack the concentration or motivation to go to school and training.

This is one of the struggles I have, but it just means I have to be more disciplined. Sometimes when I don’t have adequate rest throughout the night, I’ll tend to doze off in class the next day in school, or I’ll think about skipping training because I’m very tired and I want to go home and sleep after school.

But I know that I have to be disciplined and attend training regularly, so that I can see the fruits of my labour when I go for competitions. So that if I were to lose in any competition, I won’t blame it on the fact that I didn’t attend training regularly. I can at least tell myself that I have tried my best.

How do you juggle your sports and studies, especially when you have group projects?

Usually my groupmates will stay back after school and meet up to do the project without me because I have training. After that, I’ll just ask them about what I’ve missed out on. Sometimes, my groupmates would assign the parts to me and I’ll just do my part from home. We would also use Skype or Microsoft Teams to discuss our projects from home. They understand that I have training almost every day.

I’ll also ask my friends if they are okay to meet before my training, because I have to leave school latest by 6pm to be able to make it on time for my training. Sometimes when lessons end at around 1-2pm, then I’ll ask them if they are okay to stay back and do our work together, because 2-6pm is my free period. However, usually if school ends early, it also means it started early. So we woke up quite early, and some of them just want to go home early and take a nap. Sometimes I’ll ask if they are willing to sacrifice their nap time so that I’ll be able to make it for the project.

If not, I’ll ask if they can take some time off their weekends because I don’t train on the weekends. That’s usually when I catch up on my school work, so I’m okay to do the project on the weekends as well.

If that doesn’t work as well, I’ll just tell my friends to update me on what they’ve discussed during the meeting, then they can assign me some tasks, and I’ll try to finish what they’ve assigned me in my own time. Before our next project meeting, I’ll try to get that task they’ve assigned to me done.

Did you approach your seniors to ask them for tips on time management?

I sought the advice of seniors from my Federation because they have the same lifestyle as me – being a poly student and attending training 5 times a week.

Different seniors would give me different advice. Some advised me to create my personal time table to plan my time well, and know when my free time is so that I’m able to finish my school work, and so that I don’t have to burn the midnight oil when I reach home. For example, if school ends at 2pm, I can just stay in school to finish up my school work from 2 to 6pm, then attend training. Once training ends, I can go home and just go to bed.

Some seniors have also advised me to do my school work on the train while travelling. Rather than scrolling through social media, I can do my revision on the train. But I don’t think this suits me, because I find it quite hard to concentrate since it’s quite noisy and there are a lot of people on the public transport as well.

I think that doing a timetable for myself is actually quite helpful, because it helps me keep track of what I have to do.

What are some tips you would like to share with athletes struggling to manage their time?

Based on my experience, try not to procrastinate too much. If you think that your timetable suits you, then you should follow it strictly and not make excuses. For me, sometimes after making a timetable, I tell myself that 2-6pm is my revision time, but sometimes I’ll use this time to hang out with my friends or play games with them.

This boils down to discipline, which means I’m not disciplined enough to follow my schedule. So I think for student-athletes out there who are struggling to manage their time, you can do a timetable for yourself. Most importantly, try your best to follow according to what you’ve planned for yourself.

I feel that time management is actually very important, not only when you go to poly or JC. Because next time, when you start working, you have to manage your time well because your boss will give you work or projects that you’ll have to rush before the deadline. Time management is a skill. I feel there’s no perfect age to start managing your time well. I feel that everyone should start as early as they can to make it a habit, be it in sports, studies or for family and friends. If you plan your time well, you can live everyday fruitfully and maximise your time. But of course, you shouldn’t neglect your rest time.

I think it’s important especially at my age. In poly, we also have an internship, and it’s also to prepare us for internship, and soon after for me, I’ll have to do my National Service, and then go to university. At university, the workload is definitely more than what I’m experiencing now in poly, so all the more I should start to have good fundamental time management skills.