Getting into club / year round swimming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he loves it, that’s a good reason to look for a program but I don’t have a specific recommendation now as we moved from the area. Agree that birthday is not a good reason to choose a sport, especially in swimming when there are meets throughout the year. My son has the worst possible birthday for year round swimming but he is very good and while he does not get quite as much “glory” in the championship meets as an age grouper due to birthday, I think it’s probably good for his longer term development and having to hustle more to qualify “up” is advantageous in the long run.

Honestly I would start with what is most convenient to where you live, then visit and get a feel for the vibe. I think it’s super important to keep it fun and light at that age.

Just curious, what is considered to be the "worst possible birthday for year round swimming"? Is it a fall birthday because never the oldest right before any champs meet?

Probably February is the worse and April is probably the best. February means you age up right before championships and that makes it hard. An April birthday is great for short course but rough for long course. Early fall birthdays are not bad either.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s universally accepted that summer or late summer birthdays are the best- I remember seeing an article saying that most Olympians also benefit from “good birthdays” depending on their sport and for swimming, most are born in the summer months. There are exceptions, of course

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s universally accepted that summer or late summer birthdays are the best- I remember seeing an article saying that most Olympians also benefit from “good birthdays” depending on their sport and for swimming, most are born in the summer months. There are exceptions, of course

It sounds like you’re thinking of summer swim, which utilizes a cut-off date (usually June 1), allowing swimmers to finish their season in a lower age group even after they age up. USA swimming is very different and does not utilize cut-off dates, swimmers age up on their birthday. I have never read anything indicating most Olympic swimmers were born in summer; in fact, at the last Olympics the most common birthday month for swimmers was February, which is usually considered the worst birthday month for age groupers. Michael Phelps has a summer birthday, but it’s June 30, which would be considered terrible for long course in the age group years.

The fact of the matter is that swimming is very different from team sports when it comes to relative age effect. Young swimmers feel it because they earn fewer ribbons and medals at championship meets when they are 12 &u, but there isn’t the long term issue of not being selected for teams, not getting the same caliber training, etc. Coaches look at all times and meets, not just SC and LC champs. And they understand there is a huge physiological difference between a swimmer who just turned 11 and one who is almost 13. Then, during the high school years when athlete comparison really starts to matter, swimmers are compared by times and ranked based on graduation year. The age groups are open, and at that point it’s actually a disadvantage, especially for boys who are likely still growing, to have a spring/summer birthday unless they are redshirted. Swimming is just really different from other sports and the relative age effect really only impacts superficial success at the earliest ages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s universally accepted that summer or late summer birthdays are the best- I remember seeing an article saying that most Olympians also benefit from “good birthdays” depending on their sport and for swimming, most are born in the summer months. There are exceptions, of course

This is not true for swimming. Summer birthday is great for summer league but that is not factored in to real swimming. College swimmers are looked at for their high school and club times and only usaswimming sanctioned meets.

[Anonymous]

Among the cohort of posters on this board who live and die for NVSL ribbons and medals it is universally accepted that summer and early fall birthdays are best.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

Many clubs swim short course through March and then switch to long course for May-July, which has a slight overlap with summer swim. They're careful to schedule the June/July meets around summer swim, though.

As for birthdays and swimming, you can probably argue that any birthday is "bad" for winter swim depending on what kind of cut you've just missed. My late September kid and my mid-December kid have been just fine in recent years.

OP, if your kid likes swimming, give it a shot! Look for a club with good technique instruction. My oldest was a really slow turtle for years. He'd drop a second here and there. Once he hit puberty and the testosterone kicked in, all bets were off. He's 17 now and a AA swimmer. He loves it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Among the cohort of posters on this board who live and die for NVSL ribbons and medals it is universally accepted that summer and early fall birthdays are best.

Best Birthdays are June and early July for summer. All Stars tends to be dominated by these birthdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

Many clubs swim short course through March and then switch to long course for May-July, which has a slight overlap with summer swim. They're careful to schedule the June/July meets around summer swim, though.

As for birthdays and swimming, you can probably argue that any birthday is "bad" for winter swim depending on what kind of cut you've just missed. My late September kid and my mid-December kid have been just fine in recent years.

OP, if your kid likes swimming, give it a shot! Look for a club with good technique instruction. My oldest was a really slow turtle for years. He'd drop a second here and there. Once he hit puberty and the testosterone kicked in, all bets were off. He's 17 now and a AA swimmer. He loves it.

How does this work? Are long course meets later in the afternoon? Looking at the PVS schedule they are the same weekends as summer meets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

Many clubs swim short course through March and then switch to long course for May-July, which has a slight overlap with summer swim. They're careful to schedule the June/July meets around summer swim, though.

As for birthdays and swimming, you can probably argue that any birthday is "bad" for winter swim depending on what kind of cut you've just missed. My late September kid and my mid-December kid have been just fine in recent years.

OP, if your kid likes swimming, give it a shot! Look for a club with good technique instruction. My oldest was a really slow turtle for years. He'd drop a second here and there. Once he hit puberty and the testosterone kicked in, all bets were off. He's 17 now and a AA swimmer. He loves it.

How does this work? Are long course meets later in the afternoon? Looking at the PVS schedule they are the same weekends as summer meets.

They don’t actually schedule meets around summer swim, with the lone exception being that the PVS LC opens are 1 day meets on Sundays. The meets put on by individual clubs are usually still for the whole weekend (sometimes Fridays too) and the club kids either skip that Saturday’s summer swim meet or skip the Saturday of the club meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

Many clubs swim short course through March and then switch to long course for May-July, which has a slight overlap with summer swim. They're careful to schedule the June/July meets around summer swim, though.

As for birthdays and swimming, you can probably argue that any birthday is "bad" for winter swim depending on what kind of cut you've just missed. My late September kid and my mid-December kid have been just fine in recent years.

OP, if your kid likes swimming, give it a shot! Look for a club with good technique instruction. My oldest was a really slow turtle for years. He'd drop a second here and there. Once he hit puberty and the testosterone kicked in, all bets were off. He's 17 now and a AA swimmer. He loves it.

How does this work? Are long course meets later in the afternoon? Looking at the PVS schedule they are the same weekends as summer meets.

Looking at some of the PVS meets on the site - It looks like meets were Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday. So, yep, they were not Saturday morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

Many clubs swim short course through March and then switch to long course for May-July, which has a slight overlap with summer swim. They're careful to schedule the June/July meets around summer swim, though.

As for birthdays and swimming, you can probably argue that any birthday is "bad" for winter swim depending on what kind of cut you've just missed. My late September kid and my mid-December kid have been just fine in recent years.

OP, if your kid likes swimming, give it a shot! Look for a club with good technique instruction. My oldest was a really slow turtle for years. He'd drop a second here and there. Once he hit puberty and the testosterone kicked in, all bets were off. He's 17 now and a AA swimmer. He loves it.

How does this work? Are long course meets later in the afternoon? Looking at the PVS schedule they are the same weekends as summer meets.

Looking at some of the PVS meets on the site - It looks like meets were Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday. So, yep, they were not Saturday morning.

Exactly, the PVS LC championship meets are typically all day (prelims/finals) Thursday, Friday, Sunday, with distance Saturday afternoon.

The PVS LC open meets are actually one meet's worth of events broken into two Sundays in June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry to derail but what does the PP mean by short course ends in March? We swim at Fairland but swim thru the end of May when we switch to summer pool. My kid is 10 so swims with the 9/10 kids. Birthday is June but not really relevant to my question lol.

Many clubs swim short course through March and then switch to long course for May-July, which has a slight overlap with summer swim. They're careful to schedule the June/July meets around summer swim, though.

As for birthdays and swimming, you can probably argue that any birthday is "bad" for winter swim depending on what kind of cut you've just missed. My late September kid and my mid-December kid have been just fine in recent years.

OP, if your kid likes swimming, give it a shot! Look for a club with good technique instruction. My oldest was a really slow turtle for years. He'd drop a second here and there. Once he hit puberty and the testosterone kicked in, all bets were off. He's 17 now and a AA swimmer. He loves it.

How does this work? Are long course meets later in the afternoon? Looking at the PVS schedule they are the same weekends as summer meets.

Looking at some of the PVS meets on the site - It looks like meets were Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday. So, yep, they were not Saturday morning.

Exactly, the PVS LC championship meets are typically all day (prelims/finals) Thursday, Friday, Sunday, with distance Saturday afternoon.

The PVS LC open meets are actually one meet's worth of events broken into two Sundays in June.

Oh, except the fastest one (open age, faster QTs) is a full 4day meet. My kids' group usually doesn't focus on this meet, so they may swim one day of it and it's not Saturday. The fastest HS kids are focusing on a travel meet - futures. NCSAs, zones, etc.

[Anonymous]

We are so very happy with Machine. We've tried and hated RMSC in the past but Machine is warm and encouraging and supportive and the kids are improving like crazy.

[Anonymous]

If my arm was twisted and HAD to pick a date, I’d say Sept. 1st, or the the school year age up date. You’re close to the oldest in your graduating class (especially boys that continue to grow and get stronger, it’s a great birthday for both SC and LC championship meets. And if you’re concerned about summer swim, it’s also a good birthday for an MCSL swimmer.