it does stink though. End of may birthday going up against those 2 years older. All the top swimmers on our team and we have many are summer birthdays.

But there is really no fair equitable way to do it, unless like in the winter where you swim your actual age/ age up on your birthday.

Anonymous wrote:I have been waiting. This thread is appearing late this summer, no?

Nah, it’s right on time for Divisionals!

My kid has an early May birthday and has been struggling mightily in the higher age group. His fault for being born a month premature I guess haha

Right on time. This weekend marks the annual tradition of a bunch of 11-year-olds dominating the 10 and under events at NVSL Divisionals.

Let me guess, your kid has a spring birthday, OP.

That used to be the NVSL rule and it was changed. No chance it will be revisited. We will all survive, even the kids born mid-May.

Most sports put the cutoff in the offseason so as to avoid this situation. Though, it does make some sense kids that are near the cutoff get to be both the oldest and youngest. For many sports it makes sense to keep kid's teams intact and just sync to the school calendar, so they don't end up with stranded kids without teams.

Get a life. Find a hobby.

I have one kid born at the end of May and another at the end of August. Sure, it would be better for the May birthday kid to be born a few days later to June 1st, but it's life. We deal with it.

Eh, neither of my kids “benefit” from the age rule. It does matter here and there, but not as much as kids who have the time/money/drive to do year round intense swim practice and just have generally good athleticism/genetics.

Those summer birthday kids are at a disadvantage in school. You win some you lose some.

Why? So my August child is 8 because she doesn’t turn 9 until swim season is over, but my July child is 7 even though he’s 6 at the beginning of the season? Folks new to this: The June 1st rule is fairly universal across every single summer league, and has been the case for many many many decades. If you want an age-up rule, swim long course and club. You are the age you are the first day of whatever meet. Two months is not making a difference in whether your child makes all stars or not.

There are no unfair advantages

What difference does it make? Every cutoff has winners and losers.

I have been waiting. This thread is appearing late this summer, no?

I think the rule should be that whatever age you turn during the summer (June-August) should be your swim age for summer swim (e.g., if you turn 11 on June 2, you’re an 11-12 swimmer and need to swim 50M instead of 25M). Would seem to ease the unfair advantage of that situation a bit.