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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"actually don’t think most of the people complaining are club parents. My kid has the worst summer swim birthday but because she swims year round and is talented, she is going to beat most kids in her age group even in the year she is at the lower end. This is the case for most good club swimmers. Sometimes when she is at the lower end there are some kids that are 2 years older than her that beat her, but that’s the nature of competition, which club parents are used to because it happens whenever their kid ages up."

As a parent whose 3 children are just about to start swim, and have always played travel baseball, this same thing is discussed in the stands. What we have noticed is that the parents who are more fixated on it have what we call "bubble kids". Average to maybe a little below average skill for their baseball age, and are usually on the younger side for that age group. We’ve been around youth sports long enough to see that sometimes it’s the bubble kids that have to work harder at the younger ages that eventually end up being the better players once the puberty fairy shows up. Not always, but enough that we’ve noticed. 
I’ve read this entire thread and the one from last year on the same topic and I still can’t figure swim birthdays out. 
So, what are the good swim birthdays for summer and club? Am I reading right that the age groups are more fluid in Club swim?
Our kids that will be starting swim have March, July, and August birthdays. 
Thanks![/quote]

March and July depend very much on whether the birthday falls early or late in the month. August is the perfect swim birthday. The best would be August/September or late March/April. My club swimmer has the worst swim birthday (February), but still manages to qualify for JOs, NCSA, Zones etc (though not win). I think in the long run this will be good for him because he is forced to have a lot of grit and work much harder than those with the lucky birthdays. But it is definitely hard in the moment![/quote]

And just to clarify for the previous poster, someone born in early March will age up right before the short-course championship season (short course is swimming 25 yard laps), while an early/mid July birthday ages up right before the long course championships (long course is 50 meter laps). The latter one has a good summer swim birthday of course but  the LC disadvantage is probably more important for a serious swimmer.  When they get to past puberty though it stops being as disadvantageous but still somewhat. [/quote]

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