Summer swim kids swimming in “wrong” age group

[Anonymous]

What is the genesis for the rule that if your birthday is after the start of the summer swim season, you don’t have to swim in the correct age group? Winter swim does not have a similar rule. Anyone know why it’s done that way?

[Anonymous]

It’s just too cumbersome to swim the age you are at each meet. Summer swim season is so short.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s just too cumbersome to swim the age you are at each meet. Summer swim season is so short.

Sort of similar to cut off age in school. Has to be at some point and would be hard to have a kid start an essentially 7 week season at one age and then finish in another. My kid has a winter birthday so used to seem unfair to me but as my kids got older, age doesn’t seem to matter as much. And summer swim meant to be developmental league.

[Anonymous]

I'm 50 years old and this was the rule in my summer swim league in the Midwest. As the PP said, it's a short season and not worth changing.

[Anonymous]

It’s also the rule in every other sport.

[Anonymous]

NVSL used to require you to age up if you had a summer birthday. The rule was changed 10 years ago? Maybe 12. They made a bunch of changes at the time. I think it was tough on coaches and would change relay teams mid-summer, etc. But this was before all the software that teams now use.

It would be easy now to go back to that rule and not have it as disruptive. I think that there is something to be said for it since at least with summer it is crazy to have a 13 year old swimming as a 11-12 or a 15 year old in 13-14. Or a 19 year old in the 15-18 group.

[Anonymous]

NVSL voted to implement the rule starting in the summer of 2012. My middle DS was 9 that summer and he has a Sept birthday. When he was 8, he loved how swimmers "aged up" on their birthdays - it made him one of the oldest in his age group. But that first summer, he was competing in the same age group with boys who turned 11 in early June and he was not happy. Of course, he completely forgot about it a couple of summers later.

I believe the team reps and NVSL board members are able to introduce rule changes and then they vote on the changes. So if you're a team rep, and you're not happy with how it's done, introduce a motion to age up on your actual birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s also the rule in every other sport.

But it has never been the rule in swim.

[Anonymous]

It very heavily advantages kids who are older than the cutoff. In our league, almost all of the top swimmers are the 13 year old in 11-12 or the 11 year old in 9-10.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It very heavily advantages kids who are older than the cutoff. In our league, almost all of the top swimmers are the 13 year old in 11-12 or the 11 year old in 9-10.

In MCSL, it feels pretty evenly divided. And today at all stars, a few low age kids won (who were legit young age).

[Anonymous]

My kid has a summer birthday. He is always the youngest on his soccer and baseball teams and one of the youngest in his grade. Can he have this ONE thing where the cutoff is June 1 instead of September?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NVSL used to require you to age up if you had a summer birthday. The rule was changed 10 years ago? Maybe 12. They made a bunch of changes at the time. I think it was tough on coaches and would change relay teams mid-summer, etc. But this was before all the software that teams now use.

It would be easy now to go back to that rule and not have it as disruptive. I think that there is something to be said for it since at least with summer it is crazy to have a 13 year old swimming as a 11-12 or a 15 year old in 13-14. Or a 19 year old in the 15-18 group.

You can change the rule, but my kid’s birthday was the same day as divisionals. We’re a mid-tier pool and it’s unlikely my kid will ever swim all-stars, but summer swim is SO short. So some years he would swim with his “correct” age group through divisionals, other years he would switch age groups after the regular meet and swim in a new age group at divisionals. I don’t think his swimming ability is changing much the week of his birthday.

What purpose does making kids with June/July birthdays switch age groups kid season accomplish except punish those kids? It’s not just the meet placement. At our pool it means changing practice time and moving away from your friends to join a different group. There is no way that a kid who is technically 8 for the first 3 meets is magically a different swimmer the day they turn 9.

[Anonymous]

It is only like that for summer swim, which is fine since it doesn't matter for anything. It's just for fun.

In the year-round competitive leagues, you age up on your birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a summer birthday. He is always the youngest on his soccer and baseball teams and one of the youngest in his grade. Can he have this ONE thing where the cutoff is June 1 instead of September?

right!! My kid is June too. She just turned 10. She swam with 9/10s. Next year she will turn 11 after the cut off so will still swim with the 9/10s. But the year round kids who have been swimming since they were 6 and practice 4x a week still have an advantage. Age is only a part of it.

[Anonymous]

It is a 5 week season, 6 if you one of the best on your team and make divisionals and 8 if you are one of the best in the county and make all-stars. At most someone might be almost 8 weeks older if they were born on June 2. Not really a big deal.