Summer swim absurd age rules

[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.

Correct age to you is whatever age your kid is. They have to make a cut somewhere. It’s no big deal.

[Anonymous]

There’s nothing absurd about this. At least by putting the age cut off at the beginning of the season you have kids swimming at their age. Some seasons have age cut off that mean they never compete in championships at the max age for the age group. Doesn’t happen this way.

[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 swimmer was one of the top recruits nationally in their graduating class with an end of May birthday. Did not care. In fact, it likely led to them being more competitive, trying to keep up!

[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.

How should they swim? As a 10 year old on Friday and an 11 year old Saturday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

How should they swim? As a 10 year old on Friday and an 11 year old Saturday?

I think this was sarcasm pointed at the inanity of the initial post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were the correct age on June 1st. Too bad for other kids. Summer birthdays win the day in summer swim!

Agree - every birth date has its pros and cons. It is what it is.

I think it annoys people because kids are named 11-12 year champion or whatever, but they are technically 13. Something about 13 year olds getting an award that has “12” written on it really rubs people the wrong way.

If you kept the June 1 cutoff and called the groups something other than 8u, 10u etc, it would help. Like Squirts, Junior I, Junior II, Senior I and Senior II, for example. Those names are kind of dumb, but you get the idea. Then you could have a Junior I champ and everyone would know that the kid was born between x and y dates and is possibly 11, but they wouldn’t get so irate that they are called a 10u champ.

Po-tay-toh, po-tah-toh… names vs numbers, they represent the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

How should they swim? As a 10 year old on Friday and an 11 year old Saturday?

I think this was sarcasm pointed at the inanity of the initial post

Thanks goodness. Gotta admit, you never know on this forum!

[Anonymous]

Every one knows age-group swimming is stupid for swimming. But everyone knows that it doesn't matter because kids like swimming with classmates in a fun activity where the scores don't matter for everything.

Except for the parents desperately fighting for relevance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They were the correct age on June 1st. Too bad for other kids. Summer birthdays win the day in summer swim!

Agree - every birth date has its pros and cons. It is what it is.

I think it annoys people because kids are named 11-12 year champion or whatever, but they are technically 13. Something about 13 year olds getting an award that has “12” written on it really rubs people the wrong way.

If you kept the June 1 cutoff and called the groups something other than 8u, 10u etc, it would help. Like Squirts, Junior I, Junior II, Senior I and Senior II, for example. Those names are kind of dumb, but you get the idea. Then you could have a Junior I champ and everyone would know that the kid was born between x and y dates and is possibly 11, but they wouldn’t get so irate that they are called a 10u champ.

Po-tay-toh, po-tah-toh… names vs numbers, they represent the same thing.

Names do matter. That is why figure skating has so many convoluted categories with names so mysterious it puts buying a mattress to shame. I don’t think people would complain as much about a 15 year old kid getting a “senior I” record as opposed to getting a “13/14” record.

By the way, how hot and contentious was it when the rule was changed? Any crazy stories?

[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.

Week to week meets, I don' think my kids care at all. My record-holding kid minds a tiny bit when setting a record at say 12.5 that gets broken the next year by a classmate who has been 13 for almost two months by the time it gets broken at all stars. In our house, we do say "records are meant to be broken" and kids shrug it off for the most part, but we know a 12yo didn't get that record.

[Anonymous]

This is my kid. June 16th birthday. She’s the number 1 girl in the 9/10 group at our pool and she newly 11. But to put this in perspective we are division N. Other girls at A meets from the competing pool still beat her. She didn’t even get close to making all stars.
She’s the youngest kid at soccer, and the 2nd youngest kid in her class. She doesn’t win much, except swim the last 2 summers. OP please let her have this little bit of “ I’m good and I can win” for 6 weeks of the year.

[Anonymous]

Not sure why the same person posts this every year. It's been pointed out over and over that every single summer swim league in this area has the same rule (with slightly different cutoff dates).

Every sport with a cutoff has the same exact "issue". Wrestling has a Dec. 31st cutoff, but has matches and tournaments through March. So kids who are 11 compete in the 10U bracket. Who cares?

[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.

The worst age group is probably the 11 year old boys swimming with June / July turned 13 year old boys - but as long as no one is lying about their age - you just have to get used to and accept the rule. There's no point complaining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two summer birthday kids and I can tell you that summer swim is literally the only world in which that is an advantageous birthdate. It sucks for everything else.

Read Malcolm Gladwell’s book - outliers - for some perspective. It’s not just summer swim.

In short, move on. Summer swim is like this nationwide.

I totally agree - it's the one benefit my August bday boy gets, who went to school on time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at the league record-breakers for our summer league and every single one of them is swimming in the age bracket below their true age. Why is summer swim set up like this? Club teams manage just fine having kids swim their true age.

It sounds like summer swim isn't the sport for you and your family.