Intercollegiate Athletics Hours

[pvpapaioann]

Hey guys,

I am curious as to how to list the number of hours I spent on my varsity sport. I calculated about 20 hours a week in the fall semester and 30 hours a week in the spring semester, which totals out to 2800 hours over four years. Should I list this as one event through the four years, or divide it up into individual years? It shouldn't be an issue to list 2800 hours because this is a common theme among college athletics, correct?

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[Cawolf]

If it was the same sport, definitely go with one entry and 2,800 hours. That is not uncommon for something with extended, significant involvement.

 

[purplegold201635]

When I was calculating my sports hours, I just went by NCAA weekly hour allowances (40 hours a week in season, 10 hours a week out of season), I also added extra hours for meetings/travel/summer school workouts/camps I had to work/etc.

 

[Flydiver]

I'm just here to say I love goldens

 

[LnSin]

I thought NCAA regulations prevented you from training for more than 20 a week?


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[pvpapaioann]

We practiced 6 days a week for sometimes four hours a day, so I'm not sure if this applied. Also, during games, we would spend sometimes 12 hours a day with the team including travel, which would definitely account for a 40 hour week.

 

[LnSin]

We practiced 6 days a week for sometimes four hours a day, so I'm not sure if this applied. Also, during games, we would spend sometimes 12 hours a day with the team including travel, which would definitely account for a 40 hour week.

I'm not disagreeing, but on the books you are legally restricted to 20 by regulation, correct? Therefore, AAMC may question the veracity of the claim because on paper, the documentation will only show 20/week.

Do you see what I'm saying?


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[JPmoleymole]

I thought NCAA regulations prevented you from training for more than 20 a week?


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Lots of "optional" practices lol

 

[pvpapaioann]

I'm not disagreeing, but on the books you are legally restricted to 20 by regulation, correct? Therefore, AAMC may question the veracity of the claim because on paper, the documentation will only show 20/week.

Do you see what I'm saying?


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I do see what you're saying, but, if anything, that probably applies to the offseason (fall semester for me). During the season for any sport, I feel confident that no sport abides to a 20 hour a week restraint due to games, travel, practice, and treatment.

 

[LnSin]

I do see what you're saying, but, if anything, that probably applies to the offseason (fall semester for me). During the season for any sport, I feel confident that no sport abides to a 20 hour a week restraint due to games, travel, practice, and treatment.

"During the Playing Season

Student-athletes may engage in only 4 hours per day and 20 hours per week of countable athletically related activities. A countable athletically related activity is any activity with an athletics purpose involving student-athletes that occurs at the direction of or supervised by one or more institutional coaching staff members (including strength and conditioning coaches)."

Countable Hours - Athletics Compliance - University of Notre Dame

You know more about this than me, I'm sure--this is what I'm getting from Notre Dame's website. As long as you are confident that someone can VERIFY that you've completed this many hours, I think you should be good. But will someone take the risk of violating such restrictions by vouching for you? That I'm not sure of.




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[DaWeasel]

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[aymar]

The best advice I can give you is to make sure that the contact you list is prepared to verify your hours if need-be. I purposely selected my team academic adviser (not my coach) who I knew was more aware of the time we spent week to week. I did this because I know that my coach was pretty oblivious about how all the hours added up.

When I was applying last cycle, the wise @Catalystik suggested including a short explanation of how you calculated your hours if space allows.

 

[Kr#36]

Is AMCAS really going to research the 20 hour rule and then call his/her coach to ask about hours? I would think not.

 

[UnassumingToad]

I personally did a less popular sport at a major D1 sports school (top program for the sport). We were technically supposed to practice less during the off season but this was never the case. I CONSERVATIVELY estimated that I practiced ~25 hours a week for 50 weeks a year. I put 4k+ hours on my app and have no doubt that I did more. In my description I alluded to the idea that it was my choice that I spent more time on the sport (sometimes it was my choice and other times it wasn't lol). Our team actually practiced a little more in the summer and off season because we didn't have to feel good for matches at the end of the week.

 

[LizzyM]

"During the Playing Season

Student-athletes may engage in only 4 hours per day and 20 hours per week of countable athletically related activities. A countable athletically related activity is any activity with an athletics purpose involving student-athletes that occurs at the direction of or supervised by one or more institutional coaching staff members (including strength and conditioning coaches)."

Countable Hours - Athletics Compliance - University of Notre Dame

You know more about this than me, I'm sure--this is what I'm getting from Notre Dame's website. As long as you are confident that someone can VERIFY that you've completed this many hours, I think you should be good. But will someone take the risk of violating such restrictions by vouching for you? That I'm not sure of.




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Yeah, and surgical residents are limited to an 80 hour week.

1) most adcoms will not know the NCAA rules.
2) those who do will know how it really goes down

 

[UnassumingToad]

Yeah, and surgical residents are limited to an 80 hour week.

1) most adcoms will not know the NCAA rules.
2) those who do will know how it really goes down

Very good to hear this from an Adcom. We used to joke about practice limitations and 'captain's practices' all the time. They were only mandatory if you didn't want to get cut

 

[Toutie]

Officially the NCAA limits in season hours to 20/week, plus game day. Off season hours are 8/week.

I know several water polo players (at UCLA and other schools) who easily put in 35-40+ a week during the season and 20+ in the off season...easily over 1000 hours a year. What the NCAA considers official and what the reality is are two entirely different things.

The NCAA is pretty clear that they know athletes are involved in many more hours than the official limits...as spelled out in their hours rules.

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/20-Hour-Rule-Document.pdf

 

[cke11]

I think I conservatively calculated 2800 and rounded up to 3000 hours on my app, that didn't include travel time, pre or post-game needs (rolling out, getting taped, talking with coaches etc), or any of the time spent during the summers where we were "encouraged" to play in a professional development league. Playing a D1 sport is tough, but I agree with one of the posters above, I'm sure you could put more than 4000 down, depending on the sport, and no one would care.

 

[scienceswimmer]

I think I put 3500 because my sport was very much mandatory year-round over 20 hours a week.. It's good to hear from an adcom member though!