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][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]

"The reality is that every team sport has a cut off date that advantages some kids and disadvantages others."

Except....in club swim. There is no cut off date. You swim as the age you are. You age up on your birthday. That doesn't advantage or disadvantage any kids. It just is what it is. Everyone knows it and accepts it.

I fully support summer swim kids aging up on their birthdays. Someone picking a random arbitrary date and everyone sticking by it for years and years is ludicrous to me. It's like the people that say, "Oh this is how we've always done it! It's tradition!"
A tradition that makes no sense. [/quote]

The birthday rule does disadvantage certain kids in club swim because the big championship meets are in March every year.  So kids who age up right before that have to swim against kids in the championship meets almost two years older (or almost a year older in their interim year).  [/quote]

Right. But that disadvantage is based on the date of your birth, something that cannot be changed and is totally legitimate.....not a random arbitrary age up date picked by some person 25 years ago.

My DC has a late February birthday and they already know this is a huge disadvantage in club swim. It is what it is. [/quote]

The fact that the big meets are in march is definitely random and arbitrary.[/quote]
There are also big meets in December, May and July. If you’re a February birthday kid, the winter champs meets are your focus. Also by the time a club swimmer is in HS the timing of their birthday matters a lot less. [/quote]

The Long Course ones are an after thought for lots of kids because of summer swim and vacations.  Many don’t even go.  The winter ones are not LSC wide.  What big meets are in May?  Zones?  Let’s not pretend that short course AGC isn’t the big meet of the year.[/quote]

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