Reply to Divisionals really shows why the unfair birthday rule matters

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid is an end of May birthday.  It is what it is.  The cutoff has to be somewhere.

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It can be their actual birthday. That’s what USA Swimming uses. [/quote]

Summer swim is a special thing that is less about competitiveness and more about community and teamwork and encouraging kids to work hard and build skills. The birthday rules for summer swim were designed to ensure that kids wouldn't have to switch divisions in the middle of the short season so that they can stay with friends and not have to switch meets or whatever. It's only 6 weeks. It would really suck for kids with birthdays during those 6 weeks to have to switch levels so the cut-off date was selected (as close as possible to the start of the season) to create a better community experience.

So in a way OP is right -- this rule was adopted "for" summer birthday kids. But not to give them an advantage in races but to allow them to enjoy their summer swim experience without having to worry about suddenly having to go swim in the next age group for the last two weeks of the season.

Because the levels are divided by age bands there will always be an age spread in any division with the oldest kids in that band somewhat advantaged and the youngest kids somewhat disadvantaged. Shifting the cut-off or changing the rule so kids aged up on their birthdays would not eliminate this element of summer swim (and all swimming) but it would undermine the experience for kids whose birthdays fell during the season. Why would you want to do that to a 9 or 11 year old.[/quote]

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