Summer swim kids swimming in “wrong” age group

[Anonymous]

It’s a straight-forward rule that makes a short season simpler. (And since it’s the rule, the kids are swimming in the correct age categories, based on that rule.)

[Anonymous]

I mean, it's summer swimming, who cares?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a summer birthday. He is always the youngest on his soccer and baseball teams and one of the youngest in his grade. Can he have this ONE thing where the cutoff is June 1 instead of September?

+100000. Mine has to deal with tons of disadvantageous cut offs in sports and other areas all. the. time. For instance her whole girl scout troop signed up for a sleep away summer camp and went without her because she was the only one too young to go.

She's also super into basketball, but the AAU cutoff is literally the day after her birthday making her the absolute youngest (and also the smallest). So instead she sticks with rec basketball and soccer where she's always the youngest on her team.

Truthfully she's not super thrilled to be swimming a grade down from her friends (but with her age) in summer swim but I think she'll appreciate it in the longer run as she becomes more competitive. (She didn't swim this year, but wants to try next summer.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a summer birthday. He is always the youngest on his soccer and baseball teams and one of the youngest in his grade. Can he have this ONE thing where the cutoff is June 1 instead of September?

Soccer leagues have all switched to years so he should be average for soccer.

Yeah this person is clueless. Travel soccer is birth year. Travel baseball through U13 is May 1. He has a great baseball birthday.

[Anonymous]

It's not the "wrong" age group. Put away the sour grapes.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NVSL used to require you to age up if you had a summer birthday. The rule was changed 10 years ago? Maybe 12. They made a bunch of changes at the time. I think it was tough on coaches and would change relay teams mid-summer, etc. But this was before all the software that teams now use.

It would be easy now to go back to that rule and not have it as disruptive. I think that there is something to be said for it since at least with summer it is crazy to have a 13 year old swimming as a 11-12 or a 15 year old in 13-14. Or a 19 year old in the 15-18 group.

You can change the rule, but my kid’s birthday was the same day as divisionals. We’re a mid-tier pool and it’s unlikely my kid will ever swim all-stars, but summer swim is SO short. So some years he would swim with his “correct” age group through divisionals, other years he would switch age groups after the regular meet and swim in a new age group at divisionals. I don’t think his swimming ability is changing much the week of his birthday.

What purpose does making kids with June/July birthdays switch age groups kid season accomplish except punish those kids? It’s not just the meet placement. At our pool it means changing practice time and moving away from your friends to join a different group. There is no way that a kid who is technically 8 for the first 3 meets is magically a different swimmer the day they turn 9.

Yep.

[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?

Which is the issue now. And the playing field is not even close to level. The fact that a 19 year old would be allowed to swim is crazy.

[Anonymous]

This is the very rare situation where having a summer birthday might actually make you the oldest in your group. I'd say let it go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NVSL used to require you to age up if you had a summer birthday. The rule was changed 10 years ago? Maybe 12. They made a bunch of changes at the time. I think it was tough on coaches and would change relay teams mid-summer, etc. But this was before all the software that teams now use.

It would be easy now to go back to that rule and not have it as disruptive. I think that there is something to be said for it since at least with summer it is crazy to have a 13 year old swimming as a 11-12 or a 15 year old in 13-14. Or a 19 year old in the 15-18 group.

This was why I quit swimming. I think the cutoff was 7/1 back in the day. My birthday is in June. So, the summer I turned 13, I was swimming 13-14 with a girl whose birthday was early July and turned 15. I just couldn’t compete.

[Anonymous]

I have a kid with a summer birthday. Summer swim is literally the only time where a bday change could actually benefit my kid. We live with the opposite happening all the time. You just accept it and move on. It’s summer swim, for Pete’s sake.

[Anonymous]

Yikes! People have up years and down years. 13 yo swimmers do beat 15 yo swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NVSL used to require you to age up if you had a summer birthday. The rule was changed 10 years ago? Maybe 12. They made a bunch of changes at the time. I think it was tough on coaches and would change relay teams mid-summer, etc. But this was before all the software that teams now use.

It would be easy now to go back to that rule and not have it as disruptive. I think that there is something to be said for it since at least with summer it is crazy to have a 13 year old swimming as a 11-12 or a 15 year old in 13-14. Or a 19 year old in the 15-18 group.

This was why I quit swimming. I think the cutoff was 7/1 back in the day. My birthday is in June. So, the summer I turned 13, I was swimming 13-14 with a girl whose birthday was early July and turned 15. I just couldn’t compete.

Seriously? You quit swimming because of that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NVSL used to require you to age up if you had a summer birthday. The rule was changed 10 years ago? Maybe 12. They made a bunch of changes at the time. I think it was tough on coaches and would change relay teams mid-summer, etc. But this was before all the software that teams now use.

It would be easy now to go back to that rule and not have it as disruptive. I think that there is something to be said for it since at least with summer it is crazy to have a 13 year old swimming as a 11-12 or a 15 year old in 13-14. Or a 19 year old in the 15-18 group.

This was why I quit swimming. I think the cutoff was 7/1 back in the day. My birthday is in June. So, the summer I turned 13, I was swimming 13-14 with a girl whose birthday was early July and turned 15. I just couldn’t compete.

But you get that this might have happened anyway even if kids aged up on their birthday, it just would have been a girl with an August birthday instead of a July birthday. That girl didn't magically become a better, faster swimmer the day she turned 15 -- she was also better and faster than you when you were both 14. And if you'd stuck it out, then the following summer you would have been swimming against kids as old as 18 years old. Do you think you would have gotten so much better in that one year that this would have been easy? Like do you think the day you turned 15, you would also suddenly be a better, faster swimmer? Nope.

There's always someone better and faster. Always. If someone is going to quit for this reason, they were going to quit anyway. Unless you want to do away with age groups altogether, there will always be a youngest and an oldest within any given cohort. My kid is almost always the youngest in her cohort, but in certain summer activities, including swim, she's sometimes the oldest. I'd honestly rather she be right in the middle so this was never an issue because both pose issues. But the idea that it's ONLY unfair to kids with June birthdays in swimming is absurd -- all kids with summer birthdays deal with this and it's just a fact of life.