Summer swim absurd age rules

[Anonymous]

For every kid who has aged up, there is another winning out of the low-age part of the bracket.

[Anonymous]

My daughter has a June 1 birthday. Do I hate that if she were born 12 hours later she’d get an extra year to swim? Yup. Do I complain about it? Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has a June 1 birthday. Do I hate that if she were born 12 hours later she’d get an extra year to swim? Yup. Do I complain about it? Nope.

We have a new baby in the family with a June 2nd birthday. She was born in the wee hours of the night. My kids went to sleep knowing their aunt was in labor, and woke up asking which swim year she'll be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has a June 1 birthday. Do I hate that if she were born 12 hours later she’d get an extra year to swim? Yup. Do I complain about it? Nope.

We have a new baby in the family with a June 2nd birthday. She was born in the wee hours of the night. My kids went to sleep knowing their aunt was in labor, and woke up asking which swim year she'll be.

HA! PP here and if I’d had the choice I totally would have pushed labor back a few hours

[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

Maybe but in most cases, the age at first day of the meet is used - so if it's 3 days of events and the swimmer is 10 on the first day but turns 11 the second or even third day, they compete at a 10yo for that meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

They aren't. They're claiming to be that fastest 12U swimmer, a category that includes some 13 year olds. How can someone not realize what an incredibly bad sport you have to be to twist a kid's achievement in the way you are doing. It's so ugly.

[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.

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.

This just happened on our team. Record held by a kid who was 12 and 5 months was just broken by a kid who is over 13.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

They aren't. They're claiming to be that fastest 12U swimmer, a category that includes some 13 year olds. How can someone not realize what an incredibly bad sport you have to be to twist a kid's achievement in the way you are doing. It's so ugly.

Check you heat sheet. The swimming category is 11-12.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

They aren't. They're claiming to be that fastest 12U swimmer, a category that includes some 13 year olds. How can someone not realize what an incredibly bad sport you have to be to twist a kid's achievement in the way you are doing. It's so ugly.

You would have a point except that the entire swimming community as an international sport does it a different way, as do many summer swim programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Maybe but in most cases, the age at first day of the meet is used - so if it's 3 days of events and the swimmer is 10 on the first day but turns 11 the second or even third day, they compete at a 10yo for that meet.

And what they DON’T do, is continue to compete as a 10 year old for two more months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

They aren't. They're claiming to be that fastest 12U swimmer, a category that includes some 13 year olds. How can someone not realize what an incredibly bad sport you have to be to twist a kid's achievement in the way you are doing. It's so ugly.

You would have a point except that the entire swimming community as an international sport does it a different way, as do many summer swim programs.

Which summer swim programs.

Club and rec do things differently all the time in all sorts of sports, so the international swimming community is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

What kid is claiming to be the fastest 12 yr old in the history of the league? It’s horrible parents like you that make such a big deal out of it and torture their children

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Pp. Just adding that I guess I’m sympathetic to parents of summer born kids asking “can my kid have one small thing”, but I think having a rule that is consistent and convenient for a short summer league trumps all that. I like the age rule for club swim but it would be too hard for beleaguered summer volunteers to keep track of. June 1 makes sense to me.

I agree with you that I think what rubs people the wrong way is calling a 13 year old an 11-12 record holder or whatever. Summer swim is so short that keeping a cutoff is not that big of a deal. The best kids rise to the top regardless of the age cutoff. Although I don’t think aging up on your birthday would have any impact on the volunteers.

Youth hockey used to call their players mites, squirts etc. but a few years ago decided to change the names to 8u, 10u. So technically in the spring there are kids who already turned 9 competing in the 8u division (because age cutoff is Jan 1 but the season goes Sep through March) but I never hear parents complaining about that

I think a difference is in team sports, you usually don’t know details of the opposing players so you don’t have obsessive parents scrutinizing birth dates.

The difference is, in team sports, you don’t have a 13 year old claiming to be the fastest 12 year old in the history of the league.

They aren't. They're claiming to be that fastest 12U swimmer, a category that includes some 13 year olds. How can someone not realize what an incredibly bad sport you have to be to twist a kid's achievement in the way you are doing. It's so ugly.

You would have a point except that the entire swimming community as an international sport does it a different way, as do many summer swim programs.

Wow, why doesn’t a sports league that operates for 6 weeks have the same age rules as one that operates all year? Gee, I wonder. But every other summer swim league does follow this rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Maybe but in most cases, the age at first day of the meet is used - so if it's 3 days of events and the swimmer is 10 on the first day but turns 11 the second or even third day, they compete at a 10yo for that meet.

And what they DON’T do, is continue to compete as a 10 year old for two more months.

All leagues should have one month age ranges to make everything fair. Sure, the meets will take 12 times as long but it’s only fair.