Summer swim kids swimming in “wrong” age group

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, let it go. All of this for summer swim. The August cut off idea just "benefits" the August birthday kids and makes it worse for the July ones. The June date makes it harder for May and better for June, I guess. This is so stupid. Your kid won't win every year. Accept it.

There are always going to be kids with a birthday that is better for a particular part of the swim season. I think what creates more of an issue with summer swim is that there are kids that are older than the age group they are participating in. My kid has a good JO birthday and a bad summer swim birthday, but her good JO birthday doesn’t mean that she’s still competing in the 10U category after she turns 11. While changing the age up date might be advantageous for the august birthday kid, at least the august birthday kid is in the correct age group, even if they are about to age out. It’s also patently absurd for college students to be participating in kids’ summer rec swim. If you are 18 and have already spent a year at college (let alone swam in college), I’m sorry but you should not be participating.

Changing the cut off to August doesn't change the college issue. I have a kid who went on time who will be 18 for the entire summer after freshman year. If you want to stop those kids from participating, then you have to make that the rule. An August 1st birthday cut off won't do it.

[Anonymous]

So few kids who swim in college want to come back to summer swim that it's a non issue.

The few that do are great roleodels and sources of inspiration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the interesting age cutoff history. I enjoy parent rep drama as a parent rep myself!

Our club has a lot of really successful summer birthday swimmers. It definitely helps to turning 9 and competing against a group with a lot of 6-7 year olds, or turning 13 and competing against just-turned 11 year olds. Those are some big jumps physically and developmentally. I have a spring birthday kid so she is young for most activities that she does and the youngest in her grade because of pandemic redshirting. It is what it is so all you can do is observe it and shrug it off. When it gets my kid down, I gently remind her that she is being compared to kids who were in preschool when she was born. That helps give her some perspective.

A “turning 9” won’t compete against a 6 year old. They will be competing against 7-8 year olds. The max age difference remains 24 months.
Example: youngest kid in 7-8 bracket turned 7 on June 1st. Oldest kid was 8 on June 1st, turned 9 on June 2. 24 months.

Do these people not realize no matter when the cutoff is, it’s still the same? There will always be one kid who is the youngest and one kid who is the youngest. It’s like they can’t do math.

Right except if you use actual birthdays, you don’t have a situation where a kid doesn’t belong in that age bracket at all, but is swimming it because a bunch of team reps got together and decided to change the rules from the way the rest of competitive swimming works in order to advantage their own kids.

Not to mention the people in this very thread who are arguing in favor of this because, wait for it, it advantages their kids.

Exactly. And they lie saying “it doesn’t even apply to/benefit my child,” because anonymous message board, but it’s BS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You swim mommies are annoying AF. Such whiners. It is a sport where they swim the length of a pool and back. Who gives a crap about the birthdays. Can you not make anything fun? Is everything a competition in your poor kids life? Swim team is supposed to be enjoyable. Parents ruin everything

You have way too much time on your hands to open a thread about swimming if your child isn't a swimmer, read all of it and comment.

I'm 8:48. The June 1st date has disadvantaged my swimmer but that's life. These are the children in the age group, my child is faster than some and slower than some. Partly based on age and partly based on ability, but that's life. You could do age groups based on birth year but you will still have someone who is the very youngest 13yr old and the very oldest 14yr old who are essentially two years apart.

It's a 6wk season, shuffling kids based on birthdays gets way too complicated for what is a fun summer activity.

I am a swim mom and you are ANNOYING!! The irony is you are here going back and forth about a little kids sport. Someone gonna be old. Someone gonna be young. Move on. Get laid. Drink wine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Won’t some swimmer always have an advantage? I guess swimmers with August bdays will be the “oldest” if the “age as of June 1” rule is no longer in place. And if you all are sincere about ‘fairness’ would’t single year age groups also be on your agenda? Is it ‘fair’ for my 7 year old to swim against your 8 year old? And what about that 15-18 year age group? Those poor 15 and 16 year olds have zero chance of making it to all stars. So unfair.

So your solution is some 15 year olds should get to swim against 13 year olds?

Given the very compressed summer swim season, a swimmer with a June 1st birthday is 8 weeks older than a swimmer that ages up the day after All Stars. Are you really telling me that there are that many kids born in that 8 week window to monumentally change the competitive landscape? And, are you saying that someone who is 8 weeks older than the oldest “legitimate” competitor, who ages up a day after All Stars, has that big of an advantage? Please give these facts some thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You swim mommies are annoying AF. Such whiners. It is a sport where they swim the length of a pool and back. Who gives a crap about the birthdays. Can you not make anything fun? Is everything a competition in your poor kids life? Swim team is supposed to be enjoyable. Parents ruin everything

You have way too much time on your hands to open a thread about swimming if your child isn't a swimmer, read all of it and comment.

I'm 8:48. The June 1st date has disadvantaged my swimmer but that's life. These are the children in the age group, my child is faster than some and slower than some. Partly based on age and partly based on ability, but that's life. You could do age groups based on birth year but you will still have someone who is the very youngest 13yr old and the very oldest 14yr old who are essentially two years apart.

It's a 6wk season, shuffling kids based on birthdays gets way too complicated for what is a fun summer activity.

I am a swim mom and you are ANNOYING!! The irony is you are here going back and forth about a little kids sport. Someone gonna be old. Someone gonna be young. Move on. Get laid. Drink wine.

+1

I have a swimmer with a May birthday, who is one of the youngest in her age group every other year. I also have a swimmer with a birthday in early June, who is one of the oldest in his age group every other year. That’s what I tell them both - in every sport, grade etc. someone is the oldest and someone is the youngest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of folks in this thread with year round swimmers who are arguing for the age up change because their children are being disadvantaged in a recreational summer swim league.

What would level the playing field the most for the majority of kids is not changing the age up date, but instead prohibiting club swimmers from participating in recreational summer swim leagues. There are tons of other sports that prohibit club kids from participating in rec leagues. Swim is one that doesn’t. I’m mostly kidding, but it does appear from this 9 page thread that it’s the club swim parents who are upset by the age up date.

This sounds like a great idea. Divisions 1-5 will agree. Families paying for private swim clubs will agree. Get rid of all star relays bc after 8 they won’t be anything without strong club swimmers. Just call them the ymca.

I think you missed my point. I was pointing out that pretty much anyone is at a disadvantage in some way and complaining about an age up date seems disingenuous from parents of club swimmers. The biggest group being disadvantaged is the kids who only swim in the summer who no doubt would also like to participate in all stars (that is an all stars competition for the recreational swim league). But they often don’t get the opportunity because the club swimmers come in and take them all. But those parents aren’t in here lobbying for a change to the rules. They just want their kids to have fun because it’s a recreational swim league.

[Anonymous]

It’s an interesting point. My son is a small 7 and he is racing against kids that turned 9 mid season. There is a huge difference between a 7 year old and a 9 year old in height, weight, strength.

[Anonymous]

This is so whiny. OMG! You realize a summer birthday is only a few weeks older than a May birthday, right? You don’t magically get bigger or strong or faster when you blow out the candles.

My summer birthday DC is always younger than your October Dc in school. If I red shirted, people would complain that my DC was too old. It’s like it’s OK for summer kids to always be on the young end, but people freak if they are older. Such weirdness. Spoiler: summer swim is just for fun. We f you can’t see it that way, maybe you shouldn’t be involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of folks in this thread with year round swimmers who are arguing for the age up change because their children are being disadvantaged in a recreational summer swim league.

What would level the playing field the most for the majority of kids is not changing the age up date, but instead prohibiting club swimmers from participating in recreational summer swim leagues. There are tons of other sports that prohibit club kids from participating in rec leagues. Swim is one that doesn’t. I’m mostly kidding, but it does appear from this 9 page thread that it’s the club swim parents who are upset by the age up date.

This sounds like a great idea. Divisions 1-5 will agree. Families paying for private swim clubs will agree. Get rid of all star relays bc after 8 they won’t be anything without strong club swimmers. Just call them the ymca.

I think you missed my point. I was pointing out that pretty much anyone is at a disadvantage in some way and complaining about an age up date seems disingenuous from parents of club swimmers. The biggest group being disadvantaged is the kids who only swim in the summer who no doubt would also like to participate in all stars (that is an all stars competition for the recreational swim league). But they often don’t get the opportunity because the club swimmers come in and take them all. But those parents aren’t in here lobbying for a change to the rules. They just want their kids to have fun because it’s a recreational swim league.

I see summer swim as something more than just rec. To me it's akin to county basketball in fairfax where the kids represent their local area clubs against other clubs and like county, teams are comprised of everything from rec players to high level club players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s an interesting point. My son is a small 7 and he is racing against kids that turned 9 mid season. There is a huge difference between a 7 year old and a 9 year old in height, weight, strength.

My kid has a horrible sports birthday. You know what, it makes them have to work harder. When they’re older they’re going to have better technique, stamina, and in certain years they’re going to have the advantage of the birthday. Making excuses for our kids age/size has got to stop. Teaching them they can succeed despite obstacles is an important life skill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s an interesting point. My son is a small 7 and he is racing against kids that turned 9 mid season. There is a huge difference between a 7 year old and a 9 year old in height, weight, strength.

Hang on…wait til your swimmer is 11 swimming against that kid when he’s 13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so whiny. OMG! You realize a summer birthday is only a few weeks older than a May birthday, right? You don’t magically get bigger or strong or faster when you blow out the candles.

My summer birthday DC is always younger than your October Dc in school. If I red shirted, people would complain that my DC was too old. It’s like it’s OK for summer kids to always be on the young end, but people freak if they are older. Such weirdness. Spoiler: summer swim is just for fun. We f you can’t see it that way, maybe you shouldn’t be involved.

I have a May birthday swimmer, and the difference is that when she has just turned 10 she’s actually competing in her age group against some kids who turn 11 in June/July, so it’s not a few weeks it’s almost a full year. I do find it weird that club parents complain about this though, because other than the 11 year old who is also a club swimmer in my DDs age 9-10 age group, she still is faster because she swims year round. She just uses the 11 year old as a good comparison point, it bothers her not at all that her friend is 11 and still in the 9-10 age group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s an interesting point. My son is a small 7 and he is racing against kids that turned 9 mid season. There is a huge difference between a 7 year old and a 9 year old in height, weight, strength.

And do you think if those kids turned 9 in August instead of July that is would make a big difference in how fast they can swim during summer swim?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an interesting point. My son is a small 7 and he is racing against kids that turned 9 mid season. There is a huge difference between a 7 year old and a 9 year old in height, weight, strength.

Hang on…wait til your swimmer is 11 swimming against that kid when he’s 13.

You poor thing. Your 11 year old swimmer must not be very fast. My 11 year old swimmer can hold their own against the 13 year olds.