Screen time, practice, and priorities

This week, I had to deal with something that every coach eventually experiences.

We had morning practice with our top senior group—the group with the highest standards, the biggest goals, and the expectation of full commitment. Out of 18 swimmers, 10 showed up.

Not terrible. But not great.

Later that afternoon, when everyone was back together, I decided not to lecture. Instead, I asked a few questions.

“How many of you spent more than two hours on your phone today.”

No words but knowing glances shoot from swimmer to swimmer.

Then I asked another question.

“Did you miss practice this morning? Or at any point this week?”

More silence and this time down cast eyes.

I paused and said something that landed harder than I expected:

“If you missed practice but spent more than two hours on your phone today, you didn’t skip practice because you didn’t have time. You skipped practice because you chose something else. You prioritized your phone over your performance”

The point wasn’t to demonize phones. It was to reveal a gap—between goals and choices. and underscore the importance of time management.

The Real Issue Isn’t Attendance. It’s Alignment.

In high-performance environments, commitment isn’t a slogan. It’s a daily decision.

Every athlete in our senior group has goals. Futures, Juniors, College swimming, etc.

But here’s the truth we don’t say often enough:

Your commitment level will always reveal your real expectations.

Not your words. Not your Instagram bio. Your actions.

When swimmers say they missed practice because of homework or studying, I understand. School matters. Life is busy. Pressure is real.

But I also know this: Most athletes don’t lose hours all at once. They lose minutes—scroll by scroll, video by video, game by game.

My coach used to say, “every excuse is a good excuse, but they are all still excuses.” The truth is, if you miss practice, you missed practice, you missed an opportunity to improve, a chance to stick to the plan, progress, etc. That time is gone and there are no “make up assignments” that will recover that time. Time management and priorities become the issue.

Four hours of screen time doesn’t feel like four hours. It feels like “just a little here and there.”

But four hours is also:

• Two practices.

• A focused study session.

• Recovery, mobility, or sleep.

• Or the margin between average and excellent.

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness.

Phones Aren’t the Enemy. But They Are Powerful.

Phones aren’t evil. They connect us, entertain us, and sometimes even help us learn.

But they also do something subtle:

They train us to choose what’s easy over what’s important.

Swimming is the opposite.

Swimming is uncomfortable. Swimming is repetitive. Swimming is delayed gratification.

And that’s exactly why it builds something phones never will:

• Discipline

• Resilience

• Confidence earned, not curated

• A body and mind that can handle pressure

Every skipped practice quietly shifts the balance away from those things.

The Question That Matters Most

I didn’t tell the group to stop using their phones.

I asked them something simpler:

“How willing are you to skip a day on your phone the way you’re willing to skip a day of practice?”

That question hung in the air.

Because deep down, they knew the answer.

If your goals matter to you, your schedule has to reflect that.

Time management isn’t about doing everything. It’s about protecting what matters most.

And in a high-performance group, skipping practice isn’t just an attendance issue.

It’s a priority issue.

A Message to Swimmers, Parents, and Coaches

To swimmers: Your future isn’t built in the big moments. It’s built in the quiet choices no one sees.

To parents: The conversation isn’t just about screen time—it’s about helping young people learn how to invest their time in things that actually grow them.

To coaches: Sometimes the most powerful lesson isn’t technical. It’s philosophical.

We didn’t solve attendance in one conversation. But we did something more important.

We made the invisible visible.

And once athletes see the gap between their goals and their habits, they can’t unsee it.

That’s where real growth begins.