MCSL rule changes for summer 2026

[Anonymous]

Rule # 1 should be no obnoxious, uber-competetive parents obsessing about MCSL age rules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rule # 1 should be no obnoxious, uber-competetive parents obsessing about MCSL age rules

Yep.

It’s always so obvious to that these are the parents that never help with the team either so don’t realize what a logistical mess a rolling cutoff would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rule # 1 should be no obnoxious, uber-competetive parents obsessing about MCSL age rules

Yep.

It’s always so obvious to that these are the parents that never help with the team either so don’t realize what a logistical mess a rolling cutoff would be.

This is so true. Fortunately aging up during the season is such a bad idea that it will never happen.


Other input on rule changes would be welcome. We had no issues this season, so we are unlikely to propose anything, but we are only one club.

[Anonymous]

I would like to see the relay carnival window open for weeks 2-5 instead of 2-4.

The weekend of the fourth really screws everyone over, and the PVS LC meet schedule also is a total killjoy.

[Anonymous]

The main problem ,imo, with MCLS is the elitism, imo, that results in a smallish number of team members swimming at and deciding "A" swim meets. There is no reason why meets can't have more heats and include more team members in the swimming and scoring. PMSL seems far more inclusive. If you're a A or AA mcsl swimmer that can't crack an A meet...join a PMSL pool is my suggestion. HoCo also maybe though I'm less familiar. PMSL, everyone basically swims at A meets. If they need more heats, the teams typically agree to just have more heats. BFD.
If you're a good swimmer, why would you join a summer swim team where you have 2, 3, 5 people ahead of you for A meets? You only live once.

[Anonymous]

^ A smart MCSL team recognizes this disparity and makes their B meets the main focus of the summer experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ A smart MCSL team recognizes this disparity and makes their B meets the main focus of the summer experience.

Which would be nice, but they're on Wednesdays and parents work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The main problem ,imo, with MCLS is the elitism, imo, that results in a smallish number of team members swimming at and deciding "A" swim meets. There is no reason why meets can't have more heats and include more team members in the swimming and scoring. PMSL seems far more inclusive. If you're a A or AA mcsl swimmer that can't crack an A meet...join a PMSL pool is my suggestion. HoCo also maybe though I'm less familiar. PMSL, everyone basically swims at A meets. If they need more heats, the teams typically agree to just have more heats. BFD.
If you're a good swimmer, why would you join a summer swim team where you have 2, 3, 5 people ahead of you for A meets? You only live once.

As someone who swam and coached in MCSL, but now lives in Howard County and has kids in CMSL... there are pros and cons to expanding Saturday meets. CMSL (Central MD Swim League) only has Saturday meets. Entries are limited to three total events - individual and relay, three total. So far less swims per kid. Much longer meet; the higher division meets end close to 1pm.

It is nice that everyone is together on Saturdays, but with the longer meets with lots of heats, the team scoring aspect really gets lost in the experience. So many of the heats don't "matter" for team scoring, and the meets are really long. Most families leave well before the end of the meet.

The A/B meet structure isn't perfect, especially for kids or families who have to participate in both, and the B meet swimmers inevitably feel left out of the A meet experience. But as someone who has been part of both league structures, MCSL > CMSL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the idea of the age group determination date being August 1st. Whatever age you are by August 1st is the age group you swim in for that summer season.
So if you turn 9 on August 1st or anytime before that, you swim in 9-10s that whole summer. It makes sense.

Most of the girls in the "8&U" age group who made coach's long course and individual all stars this year were already 9 years old or days/weeks away. The fastest "8&U" girl who is breaking a bunch of MCSL records literally had her birthday announced on the individual all star meet day. Before all you keyboard warriors come at me like OMG ARE YOU A STALKER?! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THEIR AGES?!...this is publicly available information online. If you don't like this, write to you're representative to get legislation in place. It's utterly creepy how publicly available all of our swimmers' info is on MeetMobile etc etc.

Let's not kid ourselves either about "oh this is just for fun!!! It's summer swim you troll!!!! How dare you take this from the children?!?!". I'd say 99% of the 8&U girls who made coach's long course or individual all stars are year-round club swimmers. So they're used to the year-round rule which is....you age up on your birthday. Changing it to August 1st would give ACTUAL 8&Us that aren't club swimmers a chance to make those events.

Changing the date would advantage different kids, but it wouldn’t change the huge advantage that club swimmers have. Why are you confusing those things?

Why even let club swimmers do summer swim at all then?!

I am the PP you quoted. I don’t object to club swimmers swimming, as long as they get that it’s a team rec sport and entirely different from club swimming.

But the PP I quoted seemed to be saying that the advantage that club swimmers have somehow justifies changing the age when the two things are completely separate.

The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others. I have a kid with a late July birthday, he has an advantage in Summer Swim, a disadvantage in his favorite sport which has a August 1 cut off, a bigger disadvantage in lacrosse where they play by age and lots of kids are redshirted, and unclear status in soccer right now because the ages seem to be changing. It just is what it is. But I don’t go demanding that the rules change in any of those sports. Because I am not a poor sport.

DP - I've seen the bolded argument made so many times and I think it's overblown. Is club swim mostly more intense than summer swim? Yes, absolutely. But the best clubs find ways to make practices fun, build a sense of community, and develop supportive teammates. Not all clubs foster an insanely cut-throat, in it for myself mentality. On our summer team at least, it's usually the year-round swimmers who are the best teammates, in the truest sense of the word.

But to that point, here's another rule I think MCSL should have: all kids should participate in a minimum of two practices per week, regardless of club commitments. It's not much of a team when the ringers come in on Saturdays only and clean up. Or, it leads to two very different "teams" within the larger team. That's not much fun, either.

Totally disagree. Our summer team practices are already crowded. To cater to another group of kids would require more lanes. We appreciate that the "summer only" swimmers get to take over the practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this thread just about age up dates?

I'd like to see MCSL adopt NVSL rules on maximum number of events to be more inclusive in A meets. A 2 event max seems preferable to the MCSL rule which allows 3 individual events, plus IM plus a relay - so a swimmer can swim in 5 events each A meet.

No, it's about a crazy summer swim parent who has a kid who got beat by a kid who is playing by the same rules as everyone else and they are upset because they want their kid to win a race.

Np. Maybe. But there is a very valid point that you have say, an actual 9 year olds swimming as an "8 and under".

This would be fixed by moving the cut off date to August 1. That way everyone swims their actual age. Someone just screwed up years ago when the current cut off date was selected.

Not to be obtuse, but how does this address the concern? If an 8 year old turns 9 in July, which age group do they swim with that summer? Either way, they’re not swimming their actual age for part of the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the idea of the age group determination date being August 1st. Whatever age you are by August 1st is the age group you swim in for that summer season.
So if you turn 9 on August 1st or anytime before that, you swim in 9-10s that whole summer. It makes sense.

Most of the girls in the "8&U" age group who made coach's long course and individual all stars this year were already 9 years old or days/weeks away. The fastest "8&U" girl who is breaking a bunch of MCSL records literally had her birthday announced on the individual all star meet day. Before all you keyboard warriors come at me like OMG ARE YOU A STALKER?! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THEIR AGES?!...this is publicly available information online. If you don't like this, write to you're representative to get legislation in place. It's utterly creepy how publicly available all of our swimmers' info is on MeetMobile etc etc.

Let's not kid ourselves either about "oh this is just for fun!!! It's summer swim you troll!!!! How dare you take this from the children?!?!". I'd say 99% of the 8&U girls who made coach's long course or individual all stars are year-round club swimmers. So they're used to the year-round rule which is....you age up on your birthday. Changing it to August 1st would give ACTUAL 8&Us that aren't club swimmers a chance to make those events.

Changing the date would advantage different kids, but it wouldn’t change the huge advantage that club swimmers have. Why are you confusing those things?

Why even let club swimmers do summer swim at all then?!

I am the PP you quoted. I don’t object to club swimmers swimming, as long as they get that it’s a team rec sport and entirely different from club swimming.

But the PP I quoted seemed to be saying that the advantage that club swimmers have somehow justifies changing the age when the two things are completely separate.

The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others. I have a kid with a late July birthday, he has an advantage in Summer Swim, a disadvantage in his favorite sport which has a August 1 cut off, a bigger disadvantage in lacrosse where they play by age and lots of kids are redshirted, and unclear status in soccer right now because the ages seem to be changing. It just is what it is. But I don’t go demanding that the rules change in any of those sports. Because I am not a poor sport.

"The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others."

Except....in club swim. There is no cut off date. You swim as the age you are. You age up on your birthday. That doesn't advantage or disadvantage any kids. It just is what it is. Everyone knows it and accepts it.

I fully support summer swim kids aging up on their birthdays. Someone picking a random arbitrary date and everyone sticking by it for years and years is ludicrous to me. It's like the people that say, "Oh this is how we've always done it! It's tradition!"
A tradition that makes no sense.

Club swim isn't a team sport.

DP - unless a kid is swimming unaffiliated, it's not an entirely individual sport. It's not a team sport in the way that soccer or softball are, but club meets do keep track of team scores/results. So kids are scoring points for their team, even while they're swimming individual events.

As an aside, my kids' club absolutely makes them feel like they're on a team. They cheer for each other at meets, hang out, etc. That's a huge part of the fun.

Yes to all the above plus RELAYS in club meets (wish there were more relays). It isn’t soccer or basketball but there is some teamwork in club swim.

No one is saying that club isn’t fun, or doesn’t develop teamwork.

But summer swim is structured like soccer in that you have a group of kids working together for a clearly defined season towards a team goal. Having kids move from one group to another during the short season doesn’t make sense, just like it doesn’t make sense for soccer players to age up mid season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the idea of the age group determination date being August 1st. Whatever age you are by August 1st is the age group you swim in for that summer season.
So if you turn 9 on August 1st or anytime before that, you swim in 9-10s that whole summer. It makes sense.

Most of the girls in the "8&U" age group who made coach's long course and individual all stars this year were already 9 years old or days/weeks away. The fastest "8&U" girl who is breaking a bunch of MCSL records literally had her birthday announced on the individual all star meet day. Before all you keyboard warriors come at me like OMG ARE YOU A STALKER?! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THEIR AGES?!...this is publicly available information online. If you don't like this, write to you're representative to get legislation in place. It's utterly creepy how publicly available all of our swimmers' info is on MeetMobile etc etc.

Let's not kid ourselves either about "oh this is just for fun!!! It's summer swim you troll!!!! How dare you take this from the children?!?!". I'd say 99% of the 8&U girls who made coach's long course or individual all stars are year-round club swimmers. So they're used to the year-round rule which is....you age up on your birthday. Changing it to August 1st would give ACTUAL 8&Us that aren't club swimmers a chance to make those events.

Changing the date would advantage different kids, but it wouldn’t change the huge advantage that club swimmers have. Why are you confusing those things?

Why even let club swimmers do summer swim at all then?!

I am the PP you quoted. I don’t object to club swimmers swimming, as long as they get that it’s a team rec sport and entirely different from club swimming.

But the PP I quoted seemed to be saying that the advantage that club swimmers have somehow justifies changing the age when the two things are completely separate.

The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others. I have a kid with a late July birthday, he has an advantage in Summer Swim, a disadvantage in his favorite sport which has a August 1 cut off, a bigger disadvantage in lacrosse where they play by age and lots of kids are redshirted, and unclear status in soccer right now because the ages seem to be changing. It just is what it is. But I don’t go demanding that the rules change in any of those sports. Because I am not a poor sport.

"The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others."

Except....in club swim. There is no cut off date. You swim as the age you are. You age up on your birthday. That doesn't advantage or disadvantage any kids. It just is what it is. Everyone knows it and accepts it.

I fully support summer swim kids aging up on their birthdays. Someone picking a random arbitrary date and everyone sticking by it for years and years is ludicrous to me. It's like the people that say, "Oh this is how we've always done it! It's tradition!"
A tradition that makes no sense.

Club swim isn't a team sport.

DP - unless a kid is swimming unaffiliated, it's not an entirely individual sport. It's not a team sport in the way that soccer or softball are, but club meets do keep track of team scores/results. So kids are scoring points for their team, even while they're swimming individual events.

As an aside, my kids' club absolutely makes them feel like they're on a team. They cheer for each other at meets, hang out, etc. That's a huge part of the fun.

Yes to all the above plus RELAYS in club meets (wish there were more relays). It isn’t soccer or basketball but there is some teamwork in club swim.

No one is saying that club isn’t fun, or doesn’t develop teamwork.

But summer swim is structured like soccer in that you have a group of kids working together for a clearly defined season towards a team goal. Having kids move from one group to another during the short season doesn’t make sense, just like it doesn’t make sense for soccer players to age up mid season.

The age up argument is so tired and I agree that aging up in the middle of a 6 week season is stupid, but summer swim is not akin to a team sport like soccer or basketball where teamwork and chemistry are a big part of how well a team performs. Summer swim is a bunch of individual swims that score points for the team. Relays are the only area of teamwork and honestly there is not that much teamwork involved in swimming a relay, you dive in and swim your leg.

[Anonymous]

I love the suggestion about limiting individual events at Divisionals to make it more of a team effort. Other leagues do this. It fits with the rec aspect and spreads the special opportunity among more young swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the idea of the age group determination date being August 1st. Whatever age you are by August 1st is the age group you swim in for that summer season.
So if you turn 9 on August 1st or anytime before that, you swim in 9-10s that whole summer. It makes sense.

Most of the girls in the "8&U" age group who made coach's long course and individual all stars this year were already 9 years old or days/weeks away. The fastest "8&U" girl who is breaking a bunch of MCSL records literally had her birthday announced on the individual all star meet day. Before all you keyboard warriors come at me like OMG ARE YOU A STALKER?! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THEIR AGES?!...this is publicly available information online. If you don't like this, write to you're representative to get legislation in place. It's utterly creepy how publicly available all of our swimmers' info is on MeetMobile etc etc.

Let's not kid ourselves either about "oh this is just for fun!!! It's summer swim you troll!!!! How dare you take this from the children?!?!". I'd say 99% of the 8&U girls who made coach's long course or individual all stars are year-round club swimmers. So they're used to the year-round rule which is....you age up on your birthday. Changing it to August 1st would give ACTUAL 8&Us that aren't club swimmers a chance to make those events.

Changing the date would advantage different kids, but it wouldn’t change the huge advantage that club swimmers have. Why are you confusing those things?

Why even let club swimmers do summer swim at all then?!

I am the PP you quoted. I don’t object to club swimmers swimming, as long as they get that it’s a team rec sport and entirely different from club swimming.

But the PP I quoted seemed to be saying that the advantage that club swimmers have somehow justifies changing the age when the two things are completely separate.

The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others. I have a kid with a late July birthday, he has an advantage in Summer Swim, a disadvantage in his favorite sport which has a August 1 cut off, a bigger disadvantage in lacrosse where they play by age and lots of kids are redshirted, and unclear status in soccer right now because the ages seem to be changing. It just is what it is. But I don’t go demanding that the rules change in any of those sports. Because I am not a poor sport.

DP - I've seen the bolded argument made so many times and I think it's overblown. Is club swim mostly more intense than summer swim? Yes, absolutely. But the best clubs find ways to make practices fun, build a sense of community, and develop supportive teammates. Not all clubs foster an insanely cut-throat, in it for myself mentality. On our summer team at least, it's usually the year-round swimmers who are the best teammates, in the truest sense of the word.

But to that point, here's another rule I think MCSL should have: all kids should participate in a minimum of two practices per week, regardless of club commitments. It's not much of a team when the ringers come in on Saturdays only and clean up. Or, it leads to two very different "teams" within the larger team. That's not much fun, either.

Totally disagree. Our summer team practices are already crowded. To cater to another group of kids would require more lanes. We appreciate that the "summer only" swimmers get to take over the practices.

+1 My club swim child did not want to overtrain during summer swim season, and on one occasion, was actually injured once by a summer swimmer who did not know basic lane courtesy (or was being obnoxious). Child complained to the summer team coach who did nothing about it. Child decided to just swim club practices, show up at A meets, get points for the team, enjoy the spirit nights, hang out with friends, and that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love the idea of the age group determination date being August 1st. Whatever age you are by August 1st is the age group you swim in for that summer season.
So if you turn 9 on August 1st or anytime before that, you swim in 9-10s that whole summer. It makes sense.

Most of the girls in the "8&U" age group who made coach's long course and individual all stars this year were already 9 years old or days/weeks away. The fastest "8&U" girl who is breaking a bunch of MCSL records literally had her birthday announced on the individual all star meet day. Before all you keyboard warriors come at me like OMG ARE YOU A STALKER?! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THEIR AGES?!...this is publicly available information online. If you don't like this, write to you're representative to get legislation in place. It's utterly creepy how publicly available all of our swimmers' info is on MeetMobile etc etc.

Let's not kid ourselves either about "oh this is just for fun!!! It's summer swim you troll!!!! How dare you take this from the children?!?!". I'd say 99% of the 8&U girls who made coach's long course or individual all stars are year-round club swimmers. So they're used to the year-round rule which is....you age up on your birthday. Changing it to August 1st would give ACTUAL 8&Us that aren't club swimmers a chance to make those events.

Changing the date would advantage different kids, but it wouldn’t change the huge advantage that club swimmers have. Why are you confusing those things?

Why even let club swimmers do summer swim at all then?!

I am the PP you quoted. I don’t object to club swimmers swimming, as long as they get that it’s a team rec sport and entirely different from club swimming.

But the PP I quoted seemed to be saying that the advantage that club swimmers have somehow justifies changing the age when the two things are completely separate.

The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others. I have a kid with a late July birthday, he has an advantage in Summer Swim, a disadvantage in his favorite sport which has a August 1 cut off, a bigger disadvantage in lacrosse where they play by age and lots of kids are redshirted, and unclear status in soccer right now because the ages seem to be changing. It just is what it is. But I don’t go demanding that the rules change in any of those sports. Because I am not a poor sport.

"The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others."

Except....in club swim. There is no cut off date. You swim as the age you are. You age up on your birthday. That doesn't advantage or disadvantage any kids. It just is what it is. Everyone knows it and accepts it.

I fully support summer swim kids aging up on their birthdays. Someone picking a random arbitrary date and everyone sticking by it for years and years is ludicrous to me. It's like the people that say, "Oh this is how we've always done it! It's tradition!"
A tradition that makes no sense.

Club swim isn't a team sport.

DP - unless a kid is swimming unaffiliated, it's not an entirely individual sport. It's not a team sport in the way that soccer or softball are, but club meets do keep track of team scores/results. So kids are scoring points for their team, even while they're swimming individual events.

As an aside, my kids' club absolutely makes them feel like they're on a team. They cheer for each other at meets, hang out, etc. That's a huge part of the fun.

Yes to all the above plus RELAYS in club meets (wish there were more relays). It isn’t soccer or basketball but there is some teamwork in club swim.

No one is saying that club isn’t fun, or doesn’t develop teamwork.

But summer swim is structured like soccer in that you have a group of kids working together for a clearly defined season towards a team goal. Having kids move from one group to another during the short season doesn’t make sense, just like it doesn’t make sense for soccer players to age up mid season.

The age up argument is so tired and I agree that aging up in the middle of a 6 week season is stupid, but summer swim is not akin to a team sport like soccer or basketball where teamwork and chemistry are a big part of how well a team performs. Summer swim is a bunch of individual swims that score points for the team. Relays are the only area of teamwork and honestly there is not that much teamwork involved in swimming a relay, you dive in and swim your leg.

Chemistry and spirit in our experience actually have a big impact on how kids swim on summer team. Just because they're not ball-handling at the same time doesn't mean they're not competing together and mentoring one another. You sound like you haven't had the good fortune to be on a summer team with a strong culture.