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With the demands of high performance training and tournament travel, many top-tier high school student-athletes are finding the balance between school and sports extremely challenging. The traditional education style for K-12 students has been a factory-model, brick-and-mortar setting, where the teacher and/or district sets the pace for the entire student population. This model poses difficulties for many students who find the pacing mismatched to their needs and aptitudes, but also brings unique challenges for student-athletes who require flexible schooling arrangements to accommodate their irregular schedules. With traditional schooling, many student-athletes find themselves falling behind and may have to choose between excelling in their chosen sport and excelling in their studies.

Technology has paved the way for a hybrid style of education to emerge, a combination of online learning and traditional schooling referred to as "blended learning." Blended learning merges online education delivered by core course instructors with face-to-face classroom instruction in a way that shifts the accountability, responsibility, pacing, and decision-making back to the student. Students in a blended learning setting have the ability to customize their schedules and learning paces to suit their individual needs, while still receiving guidance and hands-on instruction from accredited teachers. As a result, student-athletes with demanding travel schedules can work ahead to prepare or go back and review live recorded online sessions to catch up on missed work. Brad Barber, director of Advantage Tennis Academy's blended learning center in Irvine, CA, calls blended learning the "ideal environment" for high performance student-athletes: "Student-athletes have really found success with blended learning. Elite athletes who compete nationally find it increasingly difficult to balance a rigorous course load with their extensive training and travel schedules. Blended learning has allowed these students to continue to challenge themselves with college preparatory classes."