Summer swim absurd age rules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an outsider looking in, I have to say it’s no wonder you have parents obsessing over this- the swim league creates this monster with three timers a lane and the hype around divisional and all stars. You can’t say it’s a relaxed summer rec sport on one hand and then omg we need three timers a lane and this, that, or the other.

The multiple timers is to ensure an accurate time, which is really the only thing most swimmers should care about because you are always swimming against your own best time (which is why worrying about age cut offs is silly -- every swimmer can swim for their personal best and that is ultimately what matters). Three timers per lane allows them to take the middle time, so swimmers feel more confident about the accuracy of their time and can know how they are doing week to week. If you didn't have three timers, it would never be clear if a kid swam a bit slower this week or just got a timer with slower reflexes. It takes it from "relaxed" to "meaningless" and no one wants to do something totally meaningless.

And divisional and all-stars are the same thing. Most leagues have teams select their two fastest swimmers from each division to send to these events. Not the two swimmers who have won the most, but just the fastest. This is just what swimming is -- competing against the clock. Having "hype" around these events is part of the fun and allows the kids to cheer each other on and support teammates who are swimming well. This is one of the main points of swim team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the lower divisions but have had d3 college swimmers come back in order to coach, and for many of them that has included swimming as a 15-18. Assuming no red shirting kids born in June, July, August and September (so 1/4 of all kids) are still 18 the summer after their freshman year. Even if you switched it to August 1 cut off, all the August and Sept kids still would fall into that.

It shows the absurdity of the summer birthday rule. Go look at the height differences in the 13-14 (15!) year olds. A lot of that will go away if the rule is changed.

Why would the height difference between kids who are 13 year 2 months to 15 year 2 months, be significantly different from the height difference between kids who are 13 year 0 months and to 15 year 0 months, or between kids who are 12 year 10 months to 14 year 10 months? It's going to be a 24 month spread whichever way you go.

Why would club swim count only the day of your birthday taking place on day 1 of a meet as the sole reason to allow a swimmer of a different “age” to swim in a meet? If it was uniformly fair, it would be uniformly applied.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

It is 7-8 weeks of summer swimming, just relax. I’m so surprised people are thinking about fairness with such a short, only for fun, activity. The pools don’t even have blocks and the distances are a joke, and there is a mixed age relay; just have your kid enjoy it and focus on improving their times. Who even examines other kids’ ages that closely? And yeah, in the VERY unusual circumstance where a D1 swimmer with a summer birthday came back and did summer swimming the kids on our team would be psyched to see them, nbd. I can’t imagine someone getting seriously upset about this.

People are upset because a 10U boy is 11 years and 5 weeks and are claiming some huge advantage. What about the Olympians and nationally ranked swimmers who come back to swim for their summer pool?

How is that fair? My kid doesn’t even club swim but these kids have access to the best coaching in the world /s

“Katie Ledecky returns to her summer swim league to sign autographs — and set records” - WaPo

I’m kidding of course - I love this aspect of summer swim, but it puts into perspective how silly the moving the cutoff argument is.

I think I having a cutoff is appropriate for summer swim because the season is so short, but don’t pretend that using August 1 instead of June 1 is ridiculous. It creates the same issue for small groups of swimmers regardless of the cutoff date you use. An 11 year 5 week old competing in the 9-10 group is the same as the 10 year 11 month old competing in the 11-12 group, it just disadvantages different small groups of swimmers.

It’s not the same when you are talking about the next age groups up. It creates a mich bigger discrepancy in the 13-14 and 15-18 groups. Hormones. Just let it go man!

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No, with an August cutoff you would be talking about kids swimming up for a few weeks into an age group that they are only weeks from being anyway. It’s the same thing as the June cutoff allowing kids who are just past their birthday to swim down for a few weeks. Your hormones argument works both ways because you are talking about very small periods of time, a kid who is 12 years 11 months old is not appreciably different from the kid who is 13 years and 1 week old, and vice versa. If you think a kid who is 12 years 11 months old is being horribly disadvantaged by swimming in the 13-14 year old category, it’s the same disadvantage for the 11-12 year olds to have a kid that is 13 years and 1 month swimming in their group.

You have spent way too much time thinking about this. I suggest a breath of fresh air.

Or a nice, relaxing swim? 😂

[Anonymous]

Would love to see the date moved to August 1st!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to see the date moved to August 1st!

So you hate the poor kids with June and July birthdays who are always youngest in their school classes but get to be oldest for 6 weeks every other year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would love to see the date moved to August 1st!

That just causes the opposite "problem". Kids who are 8 for the entire season now swim in the 9/10 age group. Is that really better?

[Anonymous]

The only thing that will make it more fair is to make the age brackets smaller, like one year instead of two. But that creates other problems like doubling the lengths of meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh god. Not this again. Please stop this.

+ 1000. Every summer two popular but identical threads 1) complaints about June 1 age cutoff and 2) complaints about families not volunteering

BORING!!!

[Anonymous]

For the poster(s) who wants the rule changed, what is your proposal? Unlike club swim that have 2-4 day meets, summer league spans about 6 weeks. From a logistical/admin standpoint, competition age should not change for any swimmer during the season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the poster(s) who wants the rule changed, what is your proposal? Unlike club swim that have 2-4 day meets, summer league spans about 6 weeks. From a logistical/admin standpoint, competition age should not change for any swimmer during the season.

USA triathlon goes with your age on December 31. I’m guessing the people above with august/September kids will have some issue with that rules though 😂

[Anonymous]

My kid with the summer birthday doesn't even do summer swim, so this rule doesn't benefit my family. But I actually find it HILARIOUS that it upsets people this much because if you actually had to deal with a kid with an early August birthday, like we do, you'd deal with this problem constantly, all the time. Your kid is the youngest in class, the shortest in class. Your kid can't go to camp with their friends because they are in a different age bracket. Your kid is the last to lose a tooth, last to hit puberty, last to drive. No one is in town for your kid's birthday. And on and on, it's exhausting.

But those of you without summer birthday kids encounter this one time and are like "nope, we have to change the rules." Amazing. Guess I should have been lobbying for different cut off dates for schools, camps, and activities all these years instead of just sucking it up and teaching my kid to suck it up too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are in the lower divisions but have had d3 college swimmers come back in order to coach, and for many of them that has included swimming as a 15-18. Assuming no red shirting kids born in June, July, August and September (so 1/4 of all kids) are still 18 the summer after their freshman year. Even if you switched it to August 1 cut off, all the August and Sept kids still would fall into that.

It shows the absurdity of the summer birthday rule. Go look at the height differences in the 13-14 (15!) year olds. A lot of that will go away if the rule is changed.

On what basis are you making that absurd statement??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid with the summer birthday doesn't even do summer swim, so this rule doesn't benefit my family. But I actually find it HILARIOUS that it upsets people this much because if you actually had to deal with a kid with an early August birthday, like we do, you'd deal with this problem constantly, all the time. Your kid is the youngest in class, the shortest in class. Your kid can't go to camp with their friends because they are in a different age bracket. Your kid is the last to lose a tooth, last to hit puberty, last to drive. No one is in town for your kid's birthday. And on and on, it's exhausting.

But those of you without summer birthday kids encounter this one time and are like "nope, we have to change the rules." Amazing. Guess I should have been lobbying for different cut off dates for schools, camps, and activities all these years instead of just sucking it up and teaching my kid to suck it up too.

Agree. This is one time when my summer birthday kids have an advantage. My nearly 14 year old is going to be pissed next year though when all his fellow 9th graders are able to get life guarding jobs next summer and he’s not old enough until late august,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid with the summer birthday doesn't even do summer swim, so this rule doesn't benefit my family. But I actually find it HILARIOUS that it upsets people this much because if you actually had to deal with a kid with an early August birthday, like we do, you'd deal with this problem constantly, all the time. Your kid is the youngest in class, the shortest in class. Your kid can't go to camp with their friends because they are in a different age bracket. Your kid is the last to lose a tooth, last to hit puberty, last to drive. No one is in town for your kid's birthday. And on and on, it's exhausting.

But those of you without summer birthday kids encounter this one time and are like "nope, we have to change the rules." Amazing. Guess I should have been lobbying for different cut off dates for schools, camps, and activities all these years instead of just sucking it up and teaching my kid to suck it up too.

Agree. This is one time when my summer birthday kids have an advantage. My nearly 14 year old is going to be pissed next year though when all his fellow 9th graders are able to get life guarding jobs next summer and he’s not old enough until late august,

Obviously you agree. The divided people between the line in the sand has parents/kids who this rule helps (for the rule) and those it hurts (against the rule). Your kid lifeguarding or not has nothing to do with this rule. The lifeguarding age rule applies to everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid with the summer birthday doesn't even do summer swim, so this rule doesn't benefit my family. But I actually find it HILARIOUS that it upsets people this much because if you actually had to deal with a kid with an early August birthday, like we do, you'd deal with this problem constantly, all the time. Your kid is the youngest in class, the shortest in class. Your kid can't go to camp with their friends because they are in a different age bracket. Your kid is the last to lose a tooth, last to hit puberty, last to drive. No one is in town for your kid's birthday. And on and on, it's exhausting.

But those of you without summer birthday kids encounter this one time and are like "nope, we have to change the rules." Amazing. Guess I should have been lobbying for different cut off dates for schools, camps, and activities all these years instead of just sucking it up and teaching my kid to suck it up too.

Agree. This is one time when my summer birthday kids have an advantage. My nearly 14 year old is going to be pissed next year though when all his fellow 9th graders are able to get life guarding jobs next summer and he’s not old enough until late august,

Obviously you agree. The divided people between the line in the sand has parents/kids who this rule helps (for the rule) and those it hurts (against the rule). Your kid lifeguarding or not has nothing to do with this rule. The lifeguarding age rule applies to everyone.

So does the summer swim age rule.