Summer swim absurd age rules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world do you know all of these kids' ages? Please tell me your not google searching them.

There are swimming sites where the club swimmers’ age and month are listed (ie 12 years 11 months). You also can see for example kids competing at 13 and over champs this weekend that are listed as being 12 on their summer team because that was their age on June 1. Parents like to complain about this but the reality is the kids don’t care. And no I’m not a summer birthday parent, my kid has a May birthday.

The top kids who are the correct age do care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2011, NVSL had the rule that you aged up on your actual birthday. IF your birthday happened to fall during the week between Divisionals and All Stars, and you made All Stars, you could still swim at All Stars in your old age group, even if you were now in the higher age group. Otherwise, Week 1 you're an 8 & U, Birthday between Week 1 & Week 2, Week 2 you're now in 9-10s.

The team reps voted and the rule was changed for the 2012 season. When the rule changed, I disliked it but a couple of years later, I thought it was the right call.

For what it's worth, the NVSL team reps had kids who were advantaged by the rule change. That's why it was changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Besides club swim is there any other sport that has kids age up partway through the year?

Maybe some of the other individual sports. That’s why club swim uses the actual birthday, aging up in the middle of the season doesn’t impact anyone other than the swimmer and it’s the fairest way to do things. In an individual sport there should not be 11 year olds competing in a 10 and under group at champs in March just because they were 10 when the season started in September. You can’t have an age up on your birthday rule in a team sport like basketball though where you need to develop the ability to play together as a team in order to be successful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world do you know all of these kids' ages? Please tell me your not google searching them.

There are swimming sites where the club swimmers’ age and month are listed (ie 12 years 11 months). You also can see for example kids competing at 13 and over champs this weekend that are listed as being 12 on their summer team because that was their age on June 1. Parents like to complain about this but the reality is the kids don’t care. And no I’m not a summer birthday parent, my kid has a May birthday.

The top kids who are the correct age do care.

You mean the kids with the summer birthday who are competing in the correct group according to the rules? Or the kids who wish they were the top kids, but happened to get unlikely birthdays for this particular rec sport, and are now whining?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world do you know all of these kids' ages? Please tell me your not google searching them.

There are swimming sites where the club swimmers’ age and month are listed (ie 12 years 11 months). You also can see for example kids competing at 13 and over champs this weekend that are listed as being 12 on their summer team because that was their age on June 1. Parents like to complain about this but the reality is the kids don’t care. And no I’m not a summer birthday parent, my kid has a May birthday.

The top kids who are the correct age do care.

My kid with the May birthday is still a top kid, she competed against a 13 year old this year in the 11-12 group and she just took it as a challenge. I’ve not heard any other kid complaining, everyone knows the rules.

[Anonymous]

I swam in a summer league in the 80s and then coached for a number of years. This was the rule and no one cared. It’s like a 2 month season of a non serious activity- no one wants to fiddle with kids moving up part way through the summer. It’s not like a kid suddenly changes size and skill because they have a birthday 4 weeks in to a 8 week thing. Sheesh. If it makes you feel better, these kids are probably the youngest in their grades and may lose advantage in something that could actually be important.

[Anonymous]

Lol do we have to have this thread every summer? Summer swim is just for fun anyway and summer birthday kids get kind of screwed in other ways so let them have this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world do you know all of these kids' ages? Please tell me your not google searching them.

There are swimming sites where the club swimmers’ age and month are listed (ie 12 years 11 months). You also can see for example kids competing at 13 and over champs this weekend that are listed as being 12 on their summer team because that was their age on June 1. Parents like to complain about this but the reality is the kids don’t care. And no I’m not a summer birthday parent, my kid has a May birthday.

The top kids who are the correct age do care.

Then they don’t know the rules and are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

For winter swim they use your age as of the start of the meet. It’s crazy that a kid who turns 11 Friday night can still swim with the 10u group Saturday and Sunday. That is totally unfair. We need to know the time of day every kid was born so we can group them appropriately on their birthdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world do you know all of these kids' ages? Please tell me your not google searching them.

There are swimming sites where the club swimmers’ age and month are listed (ie 12 years 11 months). You also can see for example kids competing at 13 and over champs this weekend that are listed as being 12 on their summer team because that was their age on June 1. Parents like to complain about this but the reality is the kids don’t care. And no I’m not a summer birthday parent, my kid has a May birthday.

The top kids who are the correct age do care.

If they do, it’s because their parents complain about it at home. Only obsessive, hyper-competitive people care about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For winter swim they use your age as of the start of the meet. It’s crazy that a kid who turns 11 Friday night can still swim with the 10u group Saturday and Sunday. That is totally unfair. We need to know the time of day every kid was born so we can group them appropriately on their birthdays.

You should only ever swim against someone who was born within 24 hours of you.

[Anonymous]

I think the people in the volunteering thread who are arguing that no one really cares about times and winning should probably come here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How in the world do you know all of these kids' ages? Please tell me your not google searching them.

There are swimming sites where the club swimmers’ age and month are listed (ie 12 years 11 months). You also can see for example kids competing at 13 and over champs this weekend that are listed as being 12 on their summer team because that was their age on June 1. Parents like to complain about this but the reality is the kids don’t care. And no I’m not a summer birthday parent, my kid has a May birthday.

The top kids who are the correct age do care.

If they do, it’s because their parents complain about it at home. Only obsessive, hyper-competitive people care about this.

Yup, this is so true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2011, NVSL had the rule that you aged up on your actual birthday. IF your birthday happened to fall during the week between Divisionals and All Stars, and you made All Stars, you could still swim at All Stars in your old age group, even if you were now in the higher age group. Otherwise, Week 1 you're an 8 & U, Birthday between Week 1 & Week 2, Week 2 you're now in 9-10s.

The team reps voted and the rule was changed for the 2012 season. When the rule changed, I disliked it but a couple of years later, I thought it was the right call.

For what it's worth, the NVSL team reps had kids who were advantaged by the rule change. That's why it was changed.

For what it’s worth, the rule was changed just a few years prior to that. For most of NVSL history, the age used was a kids age on June 1. For a short period of time, some NVSL reps, whose kids it advantaged, changed it and then everyone realized it didn’t work and moved it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in 2011, NVSL had the rule that you aged up on your actual birthday. IF your birthday happened to fall during the week between Divisionals and All Stars, and you made All Stars, you could still swim at All Stars in your old age group, even if you were now in the higher age group. Otherwise, Week 1 you're an 8 & U, Birthday between Week 1 & Week 2, Week 2 you're now in 9-10s.

The team reps voted and the rule was changed for the 2012 season. When the rule changed, I disliked it but a couple of years later, I thought it was the right call.

For what it's worth, the NVSL team reps had kids who were advantaged by the rule change. That's why it was changed.

For what it’s really worth, it takes 2/3 of all team reps voting to institute a rule change. It must have been some great coincidence that they all had kids that benefitted.