Divisionals really shows why the unfair birthday rule matters

[Anonymous]

What a ridiculous whine. LOL. Every sport has cutoffs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I would change is moving the date to July 1 instead of June 1 or maybe June 15…. Just to try and capture the age kids are for the bulk of the season.

I think age has next to no effect for the 12 and under kids. It can be brutal for those 13 and over boys! Big difference to be 13 racing a 15 year old!! But it is what it is.

Dumb idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous whine. LOL. Every sport has cutoffs.

NP: I have 15-18 yr old kids so this isnt my issue now…but I think the idea is that yes, all sports have cut offs, but the cut off for everything in swim is your actual birthday except for summer swim. I don’t think people are advocating for no cut off, just a consistent one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous whine. LOL. Every sport has cutoffs.

NP: I have 15-18 yr old kids so this isnt my issue now…but I think the idea is that yes, all sports have cut offs, but the cut off for everything in swim is your actual birthday except for summer swim. I don’t think people are advocating for no cut off, just a consistent one.

Except that isn't true. Your actual birthday doesn't matter for high school swim. Should that be changed too? Sorry Jane, you just turned 19 in the middle of your senior year. You can't swim on your high school team any more!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with a June 1 birthday. It is what it is.

I also just watched a different kid with a June first birthday get two all star qualifying times being the youngest person in their age group.

Huh? Isn’t the June 1 birthday the best possible swim birthday? Or does it have to be June 2?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with a June 1 birthday. It is what it is.

I also just watched a different kid with a June first birthday get two all star qualifying times being the youngest person in their age group.

Huh? Isn’t the June 1 birthday the best possible swim birthday? Or does it have to be June 2?

No it's the worst possible. It's age on June 1st. So if the kid turns 9 on June 1st they swim in the 9/10. If they turn 9 on June 2nd they swim in 8U.

It is what it is. You have to have a cut off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous whine. LOL. Every sport has cutoffs.

NP: I have 15-18 yr old kids so this isnt my issue now…but I think the idea is that yes, all sports have cut offs, but the cut off for everything in swim is your actual birthday except for summer swim. I don’t think people are advocating for no cut off, just a consistent one.

But it is consistent. It’s been June 1st for a while now. It’s not like they are changing the cutoff every year.

Even if it’s Aug 1 some kids would still benefit by being older.

The 13-14 age group will always be tough. There will always be kids who physically mature earlier or later.

Do people really think 1-2 month makes a huge difference in swim times?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with a June 1 birthday. It is what it is.

I also just watched a different kid with a June first birthday get two all star qualifying times being the youngest person in their age group.

Huh? Isn’t the June 1 birthday the best possible swim birthday? Or does it have to be June 2?

For NVSL, it’s your age on June 1. So June 1 is the worst. I too know June 1 kids that qualified for all stars yesterday at bottom of age group. Our team has a lot of all star qualifiers every year. Almost none of them are advantaged by the cut off date.

Regardless of my anecdotal experience disputing your assertions, summer swim isn’t supposed to be about the end of season individual championship meets. It’s a team sport. I’m not a fan of re writing rules for the sake of helping individual swimmers be more competitive. That’s what club swim is for. This is summer rec leagues, no blocks, and lots of donuts. I have a very intense and competitive swim family, but it makes me sad to see the fun and mission of summer swim eroded by the NOVA culture of entitlement and competitiveness. Let us keep summer swim fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with a June 1 birthday. It is what it is.

I also just watched a different kid with a June first birthday get two all star qualifying times being the youngest person in their age group.

Huh? Isn’t the June 1 birthday the best possible swim birthday? Or does it have to be June 2?

No it's the worst possible. It's age on June 1st. So if the kid turns 9 on June 1st they swim in the 9/10. If they turn 9 on June 2nd they swim in 8U.

It is what it is. You have to have a cut off.

I thought June 1 was the cutoff and May 31 the worst possible date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That won't work for summer swim. Need a consistent age up date or it would be an automation nightmare

An automation nightmare that the HY-TEK software is designed to handle. So … not a nightmare.

Have you actually run automation? Having summer volunteers manage this is a whole different situation than trained USA swimming people. Manually setting different age up dates on swimtopia or team unify sounds like a mess and something people would certainly make mistakes on.

[Anonymous]

It really is a pity you didn’t consider low-stakes childhood sports when timing the conception of your child, OP. 🙄 Do better next time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid with a June 1 birthday. It is what it is.

I also just watched a different kid with a June first birthday get two all star qualifying times being the youngest person in their age group.

Huh? Isn’t the June 1 birthday the best possible swim birthday? Or does it have to be June 2?

No it's the worst possible. It's age on June 1st. So if the kid turns 9 on June 1st they swim in the 9/10. If they turn 9 on June 2nd they swim in 8U.

It is what it is. You have to have a cut off.

I thought June 1 was the cutoff and May 31 the worst possible date.

Your age on June 1 is what matters. Turn 13 on June 1 swim as a 13. Turn 13 June 2nd so still 12 on a June 1 swim as a 12.

[Anonymous]

PP again. Also how about this …. Kid turns 15 on a Thursday in middle of season. They will have no times for 100 free/back/breast. How is the coach going to make the lineup? The kid was still 14 on Wednesday so doing 50s on the day of the B meet. Total mess! Summer swim is not USA swimming. You have to use a cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a ridiculous whine. LOL. Every sport has cutoffs.

NP: I have 15-18 yr old kids so this isnt my issue now…but I think the idea is that yes, all sports have cut offs, but the cut off for everything in swim is your actual birthday except for summer swim. I don’t think people are advocating for no cut off, just a consistent one.

I'll point out that for many sports rec and club have different cut offs. Soccer is by grade in many rec leagues, and by birth year in club.

I'll also point out that Water Polo, which follows swimming for lots of things, has a single date cut off, because it's a team sport and aging up on your birthday doesn't work for team sports.

[Anonymous]

It’s a recreational swim league, who cares? Logistically it makes sense to use June 1 that’s why leagues all over the country have done it for decades. It’s a short season and I doubt seriously that any college is recruiting at
divisionals

Want to make it truly fair and level the playing field, do what other sports do and don’t allow the club athletes to participate in the recreational league.

Problem solved.