When your kid has a "bad birthday" for a sport

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This makes a huge difference for swimmers. Consider this:

A 13 year old with a summer birthday is swimming against kids who are a month or less into the age of 11. In most cases, the 13 year old has an adult’s body. You can see when the kids line up. Same with making cuts for certain meets. Some kids can make those cuts weeks or days before aging out of that group and others would have to make that cut days into the new age. For example:

A kid who is 12 years and 11 months old will almost always more make the cut over a kid who is 11 years and 2 weeks old. Of course there are exceptions, but they are fairly rare.

My kid has a bad birthday for lots of swim cuts.

When is your kids birthday?

How is this helpful?

Different poster here. Even though my birthday wasn't the worst, I hit puberty way after my swimming friends. When I got up on the blocks, it looked like a ten year old competing against grown women. I went into synchronized swimming instead. In the end I never grew to the average height of elite swimmers these days.

Right, but how is knowing a kid's actual birthday important? The actual day of your birthday didn't change when you hit puberty or how tall you ended up being. How is knowing this kid's birthday going to help this discussion?

The competition groups they are in. Sounds like competitive vs. supportive parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We knew a boy that was the opposite. Parents redshirted him and he was almost two years older than my son. He was a star player thru middle school. Top recruit for High School. Got to HS and was nothing special. But he had so much confidence from being the star player for 8 years.

Irrelevant. Redshirting doesn’t affect club sports, which she’s clearly talking about.

How wouldnt it affect club sports?

My kid plays club lacrosse, and her team is based on graduation year. She was born in 2008 and plays on a 2026 team. There are other girls who were born from late summer of 2006 through fall of 2008 all playing on 2026 team.

It’s irrelevant because redshirting isn’t relevant when it’s based on birthdays, like most club sports. A kid could be the oldest in 6th grade due to redshirting but will likely still compete against kids in his age bracket.

DP, but it is relevant because at least some club sports use graduation year. The op mentions club lacrosse. Baseball teams can also use either age or grad year. Not unusual to see 15yo and 13yo on the same 14u team, all with the same graduation year. My kids have played on basketball teams that go by grad year as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We knew a boy that was the opposite. Parents redshirted him and he was almost two years older than my son. He was a star player thru middle school. Top recruit for High School. Got to HS and was nothing special. But he had so much confidence from being the star player for 8 years.

Irrelevant. Redshirting doesn’t affect club sports, which she’s clearly talking about.

How wouldnt it affect club sports?

My kid plays club lacrosse, and her team is based on graduation year. She was born in 2008 and plays on a 2026 team. There are other girls who were born from late summer of 2006 through fall of 2008 all playing on 2026 team.

It’s irrelevant because redshirting isn’t relevant when it’s based on birthdays, like most club sports. A kid could be the oldest in 6th grade due to redshirting but will likely still compete against kids in his age bracket.

DP, but it is relevant because at least some club sports use graduation year. The op mentions club lacrosse. Baseball teams can also use either age or grad year. Not unusual to see 15yo and 13yo on the same 14u team, all with the same graduation year. My kids have played on basketball teams that go by grad year as well.

Sorry *pp mentions club lacrosse not op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were young enough for birthdays to really matter we addressed it matter of factory “Yeah, that’s a bummer. But you’ll have fun on X team and if a few years it’ll at even out.”

Birthdays only really matter at an age when sports should be about having fun and learning skills anyway. Sure, they may not have a chance to shine, but that’s just for ego, and such is life.

I definitely see how birthdays matter when young (I have swimmers and divers and it definitely makes a difference in what opportunities they get) but those are the breaks and they’re learning life lessons by dealing with it. The truly talented will rise to the top regardless.

Agree with this. Birthdays do factor in when kids are playing sports in early years, but those years are just about having fun and learning some skills. By high school, everything pretty much evens out.

Eh, it affects 11, 12 and 13 year olds. I don’t consider that the early years for some kids.

True, but things still do even out by high school. I played a lot of sports as a youth. In elementary and middle school, there were a lot of "stars," at least in the eyes of parents.. This seems even more common today, with elementary and middle school kids playing year round sports, travel teams and individual coaches/trainers. It's going to be tough when a lot of these kids don't make their high school teams.

[Anonymous]

^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

I agree with previous posters, though, that there's no birthday for swimming where you never get your moment. There's usually championship meets in December, March, and July. Higher level meets in April/August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

I agree with previous posters, though, that there's no birthday for swimming where you never get your moment. There's usually championship meets in December, March, and July. Higher level meets in April/August.

Yep, and for age groupers there are also high level invitational meets in November and January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

I agree with previous posters, though, that there's no birthday for swimming where you never get your moment. There's usually championship meets in December, March, and July. Higher level meets in April/August.

Yep, and for age groupers there are also high level invitational meets in November and January.

Kids in the 12 and under range sometimes qualify for big meets, much bigger than the local invitationals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

I agree with previous posters, though, that there's no birthday for swimming where you never get your moment. There's usually championship meets in December, March, and July. Higher level meets in April/August.

Usually kids are grouped with 2-3 years so 9-12 for example so in less you have an amazing 9 year old, the older kids usually win but a good swimmer age doesn't matter. Its all for parents ego. But, they'll eventually have their glory via age. I'm just happy when mines not last, even being oldest in the group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

The really good swimmers win because of speed, not age. My slow kid doesn't win because of age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is talented enough for the team it doesn't matter their birthday. Sorry, that's the way the world works. Some kids are so talented that they play up and are the youngest on an older team. I say this as someone who has a kid who is the youngest on their travel baseball team. I want my kid to work hard, not get a pass because of an unfortunate birthday.

This. My middle son’s birthday is April 15. Horrible travel baseball birthday as he is only 15 days from the cut off. Still, he’s never failed to make an All-Star team or D1 travel squad. For awhile I thought the birthday may come back to bite him in high school because he’s not the biggest kid out there. But I think we’ll be all right as he will have had the opportunity to be on the big field in 7th grade vs the summer birthdays who don’t get on the big field until the end of 8th grade. His size will be fine for a middle infielder. The parents who argue that their March kid is too young usually gets quiet when they hear that DS is April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kid is talented enough for the team it doesn't matter their birthday. Sorry, that's the way the world works. Some kids are so talented that they play up and are the youngest on an older team. I say this as someone who has a kid who is the youngest on their travel baseball team. I want my kid to work hard, not get a pass because of an unfortunate birthday.

This. My middle son’s birthday is April 15. Horrible travel baseball birthday as he is only 15 days from the cut off. Still, he’s never failed to make an All-Star team or D1 travel squad. For awhile I thought the birthday may come back to bite him in high school because he’s not the biggest kid out there. But I think we’ll be all right as he will have had the opportunity to be on the big field in 7th grade vs the summer birthdays who don’t get on the big field until the end of 8th grade. His size will be fine for a middle infielder. The parents who argue that their March kid is too young usually gets quiet when they hear that DS is April.

A lot of those summer birthday baseball players will play up to stay with their graduation year, even in middle school, so if he’s always been the youngest that should ease up a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^i agree it evens out by high school, but most kids will have finished 3/4 of their under 18 competitive play time by the time the reach high school. That’s why it’s a hard thing. If a swimmer started at 5 and goes through 18, only 4 of those years are on an even playing field.

I agree with previous posters, though, that there's no birthday for swimming where you never get your moment. There's usually championship meets in December, March, and July. Higher level meets in April/August.

Yep, and for age groupers there are also high level invitational meets in November and January.

Kids in the 12 and under range sometimes qualify for big meets, much bigger than the local invitationals.

Goodness gracious. I am talking about “big meets.” For age groupers. Your 10 year old is not qualifying for junior nationals, sorry. What meets are you talking about, exactly?

[Anonymous]

Ugh, going through this right now with my swimmer! He just had a big meet and made tons of age group nationals cuts for his current age (10), but his birthday is in a couple weeks so he ages up and won’t actually get to compete at nationals. It is very tough mentally and sucks for him to see his peers with birthdays just a few weeks later to go to these big exciting meets, but luckily his club is good about this and does not discount kids based on birthday/meet qualifications at the age group level because they are looking at the long game. It does even out at the senior level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This makes a huge difference for swimmers. Consider this:

A 13 year old with a summer birthday is swimming against kids who are a month or less into the age of 11. In most cases, the 13 year old has an adult’s body. You can see when the kids line up. Same with making cuts for certain meets. Some kids can make those cuts weeks or days before aging out of that group and others would have to make that cut days into the new age. For example:

A kid who is 12 years and 11 months old will almost always more make the cut over a kid who is 11 years and 2 weeks old. Of course there are exceptions, but they are fairly rare.

My kid has a bad birthday for lots of swim cuts.

They don’t have a bad birthday they have competitive parents. My swim kid will be the slowest at any age group. So what.

There are so many swim "seasons" that no one has a bad birthday all around. You have championship meets in the April (short course), August (Long course) and December (short course) for year-around club competitions and summer swimming uses a July cut-off. Everyone has a bad birthday for one of those championship meets.