Pressure to do well in sports versus stress from school: which is greater, students weigh in

    Lauren Smith does not play a sport, so a sport cannot take up time in her life, however as she has seen other people balance work, school, clubs, and sports, she still has an opinion on the topic. In terms of her own schoolwork, she takes around 6 hours a week to complete it, not counting classwork or make-up work.

    “Sports may make it a bit more difficult to keep grades up, but with the copious amounts of free time due to Covid, setting time aside to study and do homework is made much easier,” Smith says. 

    In her opinion, school takes up more time with more pressure put on students to do well on schoolwork rather than sports. “The pressure to do well in school is more than the pressure to do well in a sport, especially when you consider the fact that if you’re not doing well in school, your sports privileges get revoked,” she adds.

    On the other hand, North Harford High School student, Sophia Quinn, thinks differently. She plays volleyball unprofessionally (as in she is not on a team at the moment), however, she “feel[s] like it would take up a lot of my[her] time considering how long after school practices are and how long you need to train” if she was able to play on a team.

    Currently, school already takes up a lot of Quinn’s time. “I need about four to five hours a day to complete my schoolwork depending on how much I accomplish or if I get distracted so about 20 hours a week,” Quinn says. 

    How busy somehow is outside of both school and sports as well as each of those is also a factor. According to Quinn, “Being busy definitely hurts my ability to finish my schoolwork since I’m home most of the day I’m able to easily get distracted. Plus having the ability to just leave with my brothers and put my schoolwork to the side makes it very difficult and hard to prioritize.”

    Additionally, “I’m assuming both will be a lot to deal with but I’m guessing it would be more pressure with sports since it’s not just you, it’s your whole team. Schoolwork would also be a pressure since you need to do well to be able to do sports but I think it’s more of the person’s priorities at the end of the day,” Quinn adds.

    According to an Ohio University study, parents and coaches can create added stress in both school and sport-related activities. 30% of students that quit a sport said it was due to negative actions of either a coach or parent. Although exercise can help to alleviate stress, 5-10% of players experience excessive stress, especially those with anxiety.