Reply to Why doesn’t USA Swimming use cut-off dates like every other youth sport?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Those who think the USA swimming rule is fair obviously have kids who are unaffected by the misfortune of having a late January-early March birthday. Many clubs put undue emphasis on end of season champs, especially short course, even at young ages. Qualifying for these meets can affect group placement, swimmer recognition, travel opportunities, etc etc. when you have a swimmer who ages up a few days or weeks before these important meets, you have put them in a situation where they are training all season with an appropriate age group, meeting appropriate goals, but then suddenly removed from all the opportunities their peers will enjoy because they were born a week or two earlier. In all other youth sports, there is a cutoff date and the purpose of that is to keep peer groups together, training at appropriate levels and not having to suddenly jump to a whole new team/training group with much higher standards mid-season on the DAY of their birthday. They should either use a seasonal cutoff date or do away with championship meets for age group swimmers. [/quote]
So, because your kid does not have a prime birthday for short course champs, no one should be able to compete? Come on. The sports with the cutoff date are team sports and it is not conducive to a successful team to have moving parts during a season. A basketball or soccer team need to practice and work together as a unit, swimmers do not. Our training groups are both age and ability based, there are kids from multiple age groups. [/quote]

No. There should not be “champs” that are the training focus of the entire season when the results of that champs meet are based primarily on the relative age of the swimmer and the same kids have a massive disadvantage every single year. [/quote]

My kids focus on one meet at a time and the club doesn't put any particular emphasis on one meet over another.  Maybe you should suggest that your kids, and their club, adopt a similar approach.

If measuring relative progress is all you care about though, there are plenty of ways to do that outside of one specific meet each year.  Take IMX for example.  If their IMX score at 11 years and 2 months is higher than it was at 10 years and 2 months, they are getting better.  Good for them.  You don't need to stop the world from turning or to schedule a separate "champs" meet just to figure this out though.[/quote]

You don’t seem to understand the sport of swimming very well. A swimmer is never going to swim their fastest at a mid-season, untapered, timed finals meet compared to a championship prelims/finals meet with all the excitement, adrenaline etc when they are properly trained, rested, and tapered. Swimmers who age up just before these meets never get to experience that at the top of their age group or even close. [/quote]

Again, my kids' experience differs greatly from yours.  I guess when you put all the focus on one meet, then that's the only time they do well.[/quote]

The coaches do that though. And the meet format itself. Do you think a swimmer can really say, “actually I’m not going to focus on champs, I’m going to choose this random meet as my focus and go ahead and taper myself, oh - and can you just make the meet director make it prelims/finals just for me?”  :roll: [/quote]
There are generally 3 different champs meets with prelims/finals formats: December, March and July. It gives everyone a shot at a champs meet where their birthday isn’t a disadvantage. And if your club doesn’t offer this and it is that important to you, maybe you need to look for another club. [/quote]

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