Summer swim absurd age rules

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

[Anonymous]

There’s already a league for those who don’t want to compete against fast swimmers: the Country Club League.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s already a league for those who don’t want to compete against fast swimmers: the Country Club League.

Really? Let me tell my friend who has a 13 year old who swam at sectionals earlier this year and then in her summer country club league. She didn’t get this memo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

Only a small minority care about it at all. I’m going on a hunch here, but I’m guessing it is parents of kids born in April and May.

They tried that for a few years in NVSL at one point for a few years and it sucked, so they changed it back.

As another poster pointed out, it does work like club swim in that they use your age on the first day of the meet where the 6-week season is one long meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s already a league for those who don’t want to compete against fast swimmers: the Country Club League.

The MD state record holder for ten year olds swims at a country club

One of the fastest 15 and over girls on the east coast swims for a country club

Olympians Jack Conger, Tom Dolan, and Andrew Wilson all swam for the country club league

It’s just smaller not necessarily slower

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

If you think the kids setting league records (who also all happen to be older than their age bracket) don’t also do club swim, I have a bridge to sell you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

Only a small minority care about it at all. I’m going on a hunch here, but I’m guessing it is parents of kids born in April and May.

They tried that for a few years in NVSL at one point for a few years and it sucked, so they changed it back.

As another poster pointed out, it does work like club swim in that they use your age on the first day of the meet where the 6-week season is one long meet.

This is the dumbest explanation I’ve heard yet. They use age on the first day of the meet because they have to feed all the information into a computer system that is not yet capable of seeding kids as two different ages, so the technology is literally not capable of seeding a multiple day meet with kids who change ages mid-meet. Swim tech is old and clunky.

That same technology is used to seed summer swim, but unlike in the example above, the tech could easily handle a birthday switch by doing exactly what it normally does - seeding kids by their real age.

There is no technological or practical reason for the birthday rule. It’s just parents of summer birthday kids wanting their kids to be advantaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

[The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. [/b]Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

We just had all stars. Almost everyone at all stars is a club swimmer. So you have club swimmers above the age bracket dominating club swimmers who are within the age bracket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

[The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. [/b]Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

We just had all stars. Almost everyone at all stars is a club swimmer. So you have club swimmers above the age bracket dominating club swimmers who are within the age bracket.

Except they are not above the age bracket. Unless you don’t understand his rules work. Like someone much earlier said, hockey has a similar rule. The age cutoff is January but the spring tournament season goes though March. No one complains there that 11 year olds play in a 10u tournament even. And that’s a 3 month gap.

Because most people know how rules work. Just because NVSL and MCSl and every other summer swim league calls their level 9-10, the rules clearly specify that includes kids with birthdays until early June. If you can’t read the rules and understand how they work, no one can help you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

[The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. [/b]Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

We just had all stars. Almost everyone at all stars is a club swimmer. So you have club swimmers above the age bracket dominating club swimmers who are within the age bracket.

Except they are not above the age bracket. Unless you don’t understand his rules work. Like someone much earlier said, hockey has a similar rule. The age cutoff is January but the spring tournament season goes though March. No one complains there that 11 year olds play in a 10u tournament even. And that’s a 3 month gap.

Because most people know how rules work. Just because NVSL and MCSl and every other summer swim league calls their level 9-10, the rules clearly specify that includes kids with birthdays until early June. If you can’t read the rules and understand how they work, no one can help you.

Except that’s now how swimming works in the entirety of the swim community and across the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

If you think the kids setting league records (who also all happen to be older than their age bracket) don’t also do club swim, I have a bridge to sell you.

The point is, they are NOT older than their age bracket; they meet the age requirements for the bracket. The title for the age bracket is misleading. That is your actual beef. To make the full rule the bracket title would be stupid as most people are not too dense to understand it..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

[The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. [/b]Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

We just had all stars. Almost everyone at all stars is a club swimmer. So you have club swimmers above the age bracket dominating club swimmers who are within the age bracket.

Except they are not above the age bracket. Unless you don’t understand his rules work. Like someone much earlier said, hockey has a similar rule. The age cutoff is January but the spring tournament season goes though March. No one complains there that 11 year olds play in a 10u tournament even. And that’s a 3 month gap.

Because most people know how rules work. Just because NVSL and MCSl and every other summer swim league calls their level 9-10, the rules clearly specify that includes kids with birthdays until early June. If you can’t read the rules and understand how they work, no one can help you.

Except that’s now how swimming works in the entirety of the swim community and across the country.

Only in year round swim. Because it is year round it makes sense that is how age rules work.

Across the country pretty much all major summer swim leagues have a similar rule as NVSL and MCSL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

[The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. [/b]Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

We just had all stars. Almost everyone at all stars is a club swimmer. So you have club swimmers above the age bracket dominating club swimmers who are within the age bracket.

Sorry you are having so much trouble understanding the summer brackets, but you are beating a dead horse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

[The vast majority of people doing summer swim don't do year round swim. [/b]Kids who do already have huge advantages. Why would we change a system that works to accommodate them?

Frankly, I think it would be great if summer swim worked like many other sports. If you do club you can't do rec. You have to choose.

We just had all stars. Almost everyone at all stars is a club swimmer. So you have club swimmers above the age bracket dominating club swimmers who are within the age bracket.

Except they are not above the age bracket. Unless you don’t understand his rules work. Like someone much earlier said, hockey has a similar rule. The age cutoff is January but the spring tournament season goes though March. No one complains there that 11 year olds play in a 10u tournament even. And that’s a 3 month gap.

Because most people know how rules work. Just because NVSL and MCSl and every other summer swim league calls their level 9-10, the rules clearly specify that includes kids with birthdays until early June. If you can’t read the rules and understand how they work, no one can help you.

Except that’s now how swimming works in the entirety of the swim community and across the country.

I would guess that summer swim teams are the majority of teams in the country. Club swim isn’t the entirety of the swim community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:would it make people feel better if instead of the category being named 11-12, it was, say, "age 11 or 12 as of June 1 of this year" or even "born between June 1, 2010 and May 31, 2012"?

It would make people feel better if summer swim worked like year round swim.

Only a small minority care about it at all. I’m going on a hunch here, but I’m guessing it is parents of kids born in April and May.

They tried that for a few years in NVSL at one point for a few years and it sucked, so they changed it back.

As another poster pointed out, it does work like club swim in that they use your age on the first day of the meet where the 6-week season is one long meet.

This is the dumbest explanation I’ve heard yet. They use age on the first day of the meet because they have to feed all the information into a computer system that is not yet capable of seeding kids as two different ages, so the technology is literally not capable of seeding a multiple day meet with kids who change ages mid-meet. Swim tech is old and clunky.

That same technology is used to seed summer swim, but unlike in the example above, the tech could easily handle a birthday switch by doing exactly what it normally does - seeding kids by their real age.

There is no technological or practical reason for the birthday rule. It’s just parents of summer birthday kids wanting their kids to be advantaged.

Let me guess… your kid has a May birthday.