Summer swim kids swimming in “wrong” age group

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Former team rep here and I agree. Especially the D1 college swimmers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

This would not be a nightmare for us. Seriously. This would be the least of my concerns. Kids that swim age up (and out) of events all throughout the year. It is not a big deal.

I also know kids that are fine if they age up and are still able to compete.

[Anonymous]

because summer swim is a rec sport. who cares!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

My kid would like this so that they could do the age group activities with their actual classmates. Drives her crazy to be with the little kids and stuck with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

Sorry that you don’t like the rule. But it’s been the rule for a long time and you just need to move on. They changed it for a few years over a decade ago, but changed it back because it sucked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

I agree with this. A kid that completed their entire year of being age 12 is closer to 13 than 12. So if they turn 13 during the summer swim season, they can swim as a 13 year old.

Our boys 11-12 all star relays team had THREE 13 year olds on the team--puberty has been good to all of them. No kidding that they're faster than kids who just turned 11 in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the interesting age cutoff history. I enjoy parent rep drama as a parent rep myself!

Our club has a lot of really successful summer birthday swimmers. It definitely helps to turning 9 and competing against a group with a lot of 6-7 year olds, or turning 13 and competing against just-turned 11 year olds. Those are some big jumps physically and developmentally. I have a spring birthday kid so she is young for most activities that she does and the youngest in her grade because of pandemic redshirting. It is what it is so all you can do is observe it and shrug it off. When it gets my kid down, I gently remind her that she is being compared to kids who were in preschool when she was born. That helps give her some perspective.

A “turning 9” won’t compete against a 6 year old. They will be competing against 7-8 year olds. The max age difference remains 24 months.
Example: youngest kid in 7-8 bracket turned 7 on June 1st. Oldest kid was 8 on June 1st, turned 9 on June 2. 24 months.

Do these people not realize no matter when the cutoff is, it’s still the same? There will always be one kid who is the youngest and one kid who is the youngest. It’s like they can’t do math.

Right except if you use actual birthdays, you don’t have a situation where a kid doesn’t belong in that age bracket at all, but is swimming it because a bunch of team reps got together and decided to change the rules from the way the rest of competitive swimming works in order to advantage their own kids.

The rule was age on June 1st when the NVSL was created. If you don’t like the rule, find another swim league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

The fact that you can have D1 swimmers swimming after a year of college level training is absurd, but the easiest fix for that is to just bar swimmers more than 1 year removed from high school graduation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a team rep and would be fine with it either way. It would not be that tough to manage from a team/coach perspective.

I do hate 19 year olds swimming in a kid league.

How would it not be hard? It sounds like a pain to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

The fact that you can have D1 swimmers swimming after a year of college level training is absurd, but the easiest fix for that is to just bar swimmers more than 1 year removed from high school graduation

You realize a lot of 15-18 swimmers who aren’t D1 swimmers, train just as much as D1 swimmers right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You swim mommies are annoying AF. Such whiners. It is a sport where they swim the length of a pool and back. Who gives a crap about the birthdays. Can you not make anything fun? Is everything a competition in your poor kids life? Swim team is supposed to be enjoyable. Parents ruin everything

I cannot like this post enough! Thank you, summer swim is for fun and its a short little season with short distances so that it is accessibly to all kids. It's weird that people bring winter swim examples into this at all. The vast majority of summer swim kids don't swim year round. They are there to cheer, have fun and hang out with friends.

For some kids, it’s a record that they could break or a meet they could make or a relay they could be on but for…

It’s the rule. It 100% favors some kids. It won’t change so we have to accept it. But for a club swimmer who works hard all year, it’s a tough thing to accept when you see a kid break an NVSL record and he’s already the next age and your club swimmer, who swims nearly an identical time but was born 2 weeks earlier, it’s much more than a 25 meter swim. For a club swimmer with a bad swim birthday, that birthday haunts them for nearly every meet, all year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if you use actual birthdays, kids who have a birthday between divisional and all stars are just SOL in the years that they move from 25s to 50s? Do those kids not compete in relay carnivals or will they just forfeit if they make all stars? The current system works fine, kids advantaged by it are disadvantaged in other sports and vice versa. There are enough sports with enough different cut offs that you should be able to find one that works for your kid if you care that much.

Read back a few pages, someone brought this exact point up and several folks on here said that the kid who aged up between the relay carnival and all stars should absolutely give up their spot on the relay team to a kid that was the "correct age." If the leagues wants to change the date, go for it. But it should not occur during the summer swim season itself, its confusing and would be a nightmare for all the parent reps volunteers.

If they wanted EQUITY - if a kids birthday falls between June 1 and All Stars they start the season at that age. That would have made a lot more sense. Then you don't have a 19 year D1 swimmer swimming or a 13 year old swimming in that 11-12s.

THAT is what the rule should be and makes far more sense and something to lobby for.

Sorry that you don’t like the rule. But it’s been the rule for a long time and you just need to move on. They changed it for a few years over a decade ago, but changed it back because it sucked.

This statement is not true for NVSL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the interesting age cutoff history. I enjoy parent rep drama as a parent rep myself!

Our club has a lot of really successful summer birthday swimmers. It definitely helps to turning 9 and competing against a group with a lot of 6-7 year olds, or turning 13 and competing against just-turned 11 year olds. Those are some big jumps physically and developmentally. I have a spring birthday kid so she is young for most activities that she does and the youngest in her grade because of pandemic redshirting. It is what it is so all you can do is observe it and shrug it off. When it gets my kid down, I gently remind her that she is being compared to kids who were in preschool when she was born. That helps give her some perspective.

A “turning 9” won’t compete against a 6 year old. They will be competing against 7-8 year olds. The max age difference remains 24 months.
Example: youngest kid in 7-8 bracket turned 7 on June 1st. Oldest kid was 8 on June 1st, turned 9 on June 2. 24 months.

Do these people not realize no matter when the cutoff is, it’s still the same? There will always be one kid who is the youngest and one kid who is the youngest. It’s like they can’t do math.

Right except if you use actual birthdays, you don’t have a situation where a kid doesn’t belong in that age bracket at all, but is swimming it because a bunch of team reps got together and decided to change the rules from the way the rest of competitive swimming works in order to advantage their own kids.

The rule was age on June 1st when the NVSL was created. If you don’t like the rule, find another swim league.

This statement is not true. NVSL used to be like the rest of swim and you aged up on your birthday REGARDLESS of when in the season. LESS than ten years ago a movement to change the rule was pushed. I know that first hand several of the leads for this had kids with JUNE birthdays - shocking, right? They pushed a rule that benefitted their child and allowed their kids to come back and swim AFTER they went to college.

It was gamesmanship on their part. The fact that people would like to change is back or to something else is also quite reasonable.