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][b]I think aging up on your birthday makes swimming the fairest sport out there.[/b] [/quote]

It can't be anymore fair than that.

I think what OP doesn't like is that it's [b]TOO[/b] fair - no potential ambiguity by which one could gain an unfair advantage.

[/quote]

Lol, what?[/quote]

What could be more fair than competing the age you are at the time of competition, not the age you may have been at some point in the past?

No wiggle room, no ambiguity - you compete at your age.

It's so fair, it just may be too fair for OP because she is used to the the less fair ways that other sports determine age eligibility.

[/quote]

Is this actually a serious post?  Let me help you out here.  The JO's are March 10.  Johnnie turns 11 on March 9, so he has to compete as an 11 year old.  Adam turns 13 on March 11, so he competes as a 12 year old in the same races as Johnnie even though he is two years older.  Mikey turns 11 on March 11, so he gets to compete as a 10-year old and doesn't have to compete against Johnnie even though he is older 2 days younger.  [/quote]

The reason USA Swimming has the rule that if you start the meet at one age you finish the meet at that age is because it would be a huge PITA for the host team to move kids from one age bracket to the next during the meet.  Also you're talking about a couple days being unfair, while simultaneously arguing that USA Swimming should use some arbitrary cut off date during the year.

Are you the OP?  It seems like your kid is just not that good if you are so wound up about this.  I have a February birthday kid, and she works to make cuts for the next age group up so that she can swim the March meets, but she also dominates the December meets.  Swimming is a year round sport. [/quote]

No, not OP.  I'm arguing against the idea the system somehow more fair than a single cut-off date.  It isn't.  Any system is going to create winners and losers and you're going to get kids that have differences of nearly two years in age swimming against one another as long as the brackets span two years.  But the idea that the current system is somehow more fair is pretty ridiculous.  You don't suddenly become bigger and stronger on your birthday.

The main reason other sports use a single cut-off is that it would be very disruptive if kids were constantly aging out of a team so the members of the team would constantly be changing during the season as kids aged up.  That rationale isn't quite as strong with swim because it's not a team sport, but it still does apply because teams train together by age group.  My DD started the season in the 9-10 group and then started training with the 11-12 group in December after she turned 11 in Nov.  That meant a whole new schedule and set of kids to swim with.     [/quote]

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