Reply to MCSL rule changes for summer 2026

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Reply to "MCSL rule changes for summer 2026"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I love the idea of the age group determination date being August 1st. Whatever age you are by August 1st is the age group you swim in for that summer season. 
So if you turn 9 on August 1st or anytime before that, you swim in 9-10s that whole summer. It makes sense.

Most of the girls in the "8&U" age group who made coach's long course and individual all stars this year were already 9 years old or days/weeks away. The fastest "8&U" girl who is breaking a bunch of MCSL records literally had her birthday announced on the individual all star meet day. Before all you keyboard warriors come at me like OMG ARE YOU A STALKER?! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THEIR AGES?!...this is publicly available information online. If you don't like this, write to you're representative to get legislation in place. It's utterly creepy how publicly available all of our swimmers' info is on MeetMobile etc etc.

Let's not kid ourselves either about "oh this is just for fun!!! It's summer swim you troll!!!! How dare you take this from the children?!?!". I'd say 99% of the 8&U girls who made coach's long course or individual all stars are year-round club swimmers. So they're used to the year-round rule which is....you age up on your birthday. Changing it to August 1st would give ACTUAL 8&Us that aren't club swimmers a chance to make those events.  [/quote]

Changing the date would advantage different kids, but it wouldn’t change the huge advantage that club swimmers have.  Why are you confusing those things?[/quote]

Why even let club swimmers do summer swim at all then?![/quote]

I am the PP you quoted.  I don’t object to club swimmers swimming, as long as they get that it’s a team rec sport and entirely different from club swimming.

But the PP I quoted seemed to be saying that the advantage that club swimmers have somehow justifies changing the age when the two things are completely separate.

The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others.  I have a kid with a late July birthday, he  has an advantage in Summer Swim, a disadvantage in his favorite sport which has a August 1 cut off, a bigger disadvantage in lacrosse where they play by age and lots of kids are redshirted, and unclear status in soccer right now because the ages seem to be changing.  It just is what it is.  But I don’t go demanding that the rules change in any of those sports.  Because I am not a poor sport.[/quote]

+1. Summer swim is what? Six weeks? Are we really going to kick freshly minted 9-year olds out of their age groups and relays in mid July and make them start swimming 50s with kids who are nearly two full years older? How is that fair?

I have no problem with the age up rule in club swim. Everyone is going to have a down period as they have birthdays, no one gets singled out. But for summer swim you are really penalizing the summer birthday kids. These kids get penalized enough. June 1 is fine. [/quote]
I really don’t care about the age up issue, but the people that insist the rule remain age on June 1st are no different than the people arguing it should be age on August 1st. The only difference is which group of kids is being disadvantaged. It’s 2 sides of the same coin.[/quote]

Except for the fact that you’d have actual 8 year olds being forced to compete their entire seasons as 9 year olds. They swim different events. It matters. [/quote]
Come on, they are 8 years and 11 months old, not that much different than a 9 year old 1 month kid. The flip side is you have actual 9 year olds winning events that are 8 and under. That result is also not great. Again 2 sides, same coin. [/quote]

Except in your example, 8 year olds have to compete with 9 year olds in 9-10 competition despite not actually being 9. The current kids get two down years in a row. What problem are you trying to solve? As you say, 9 years and 1 month isn’t much different than 8 years and 11 months. But it is a hell of a lot different than 10 years and 11 months. [/quote]

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