The big kids are absolute rock stars at our pool. They are coaches, mentors and role models to the little ones. It would be so sad if the 17 and 18 yos didn't come to swim because they thought they were too grown up for summer swim. Everyone gets excited to see them set records. And it's super fun to cheer when such amazing swimmers go head to head. My 10 yo watches awestruck. Then they show up to practice to teach flip turns, starts and legal strokes. Our team wouldn't be the same without them.

I'll note that our team isn't super competitive. We're in a lower division and won exactly one meet this year. No one is there because all the want to do is win. They're there for the fun (and to see their kid grow).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

It is 7-8 weeks of summer swimming, just relax. I’m so surprised people are thinking about fairness with such a short, only for fun, activity. The pools don’t even have blocks and the distances are a joke, and there is a mixed age relay; just have your kid enjoy it and focus on improving their times. Who even examines other kids’ ages that closely? And yeah, in the VERY unusual circumstance where a D1 swimmer with a summer birthday came back and did summer swimming the kids on our team would be psyched to see them, nbd. I can’t imagine someone getting seriously upset about this.

People are upset because a 10U boy is 11 years and 5 weeks and are claiming some huge advantage. What about the Olympians and nationally ranked swimmers who come back to swim for their summer pool?

How is that fair? My kid doesn’t even club swim but these kids have access to the best coaching in the world /s

“Katie Ledecky returns to her summer swim league to sign autographs — and set records” - WaPo

I’m kidding of course - I love this aspect of summer swim, but it puts into perspective how silly the moving the cutoff argument is.

“People” being one obsessed poster who brings this up every year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

This is a genuine question:

Why would a college swimmer come back to swim team? It sounds like such a bizarre and specific example that I’m really curious. What would be the benefit to them? Isn’t this like any other college athlete trying to come home and play on a high school team.

Does it really happen? My pool’s summer team was full of kids.

Yes, it happens all the time. Why? Bc most summer swim is fun, they know tons of friends, and are often coaching and giving lessons that summer as well.

We are in the lower divisions but have had d3 college swimmers come back in order to coach, and for many of them that has included swimming as a 15-18. Assuming no red shirting kids born in June, July, August and September (so 1/4 of all kids) are still 18 the summer after their freshman year. Even if you switched it to August 1 cut off, all the August and Sept kids still would fall into that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

It is 7-8 weeks of summer swimming, just relax. I’m so surprised people are thinking about fairness with such a short, only for fun, activity. The pools don’t even have blocks and the distances are a joke, and there is a mixed age relay; just have your kid enjoy it and focus on improving their times. Who even examines other kids’ ages that closely? And yeah, in the VERY unusual circumstance where a D1 swimmer with a summer birthday came back and did summer swimming the kids on our team would be psyched to see them, nbd. I can’t imagine someone getting seriously upset about this.

People are upset because a 10U boy is 11 years and 5 weeks and are claiming some huge advantage. What about the Olympians and nationally ranked swimmers who come back to swim for their summer pool?

How is that fair? My kid doesn’t even club swim but these kids have access to the best coaching in the world /s

“Katie Ledecky returns to her summer swim league to sign autographs — and set records” - WaPo

I’m kidding of course - I love this aspect of summer swim, but it puts into perspective how silly the moving the cutoff argument is.

I think I having a cutoff is appropriate for summer swim because the season is so short, but don’t pretend that using August 1 instead of June 1 is ridiculous. It creates the same issue for small groups of swimmers regardless of the cutoff date you use. An 11 year 5 week old competing in the 9-10 group is the same as the 10 year 11 month old competing in the 11-12 group, it just disadvantages different small groups of swimmers.

Ask Tuckahoe….look at their 15-18 boys. They had 2 division 1 swimmers come back…one specifically for ASR where they set two NVSL records and to swim against CB in the final meet.

MOST people take summer swim as just for fun but not all teams….

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

This is a genuine question:

Why would a college swimmer come back to swim team? It sounds like such a bizarre and specific example that I’m really curious. What would be the benefit to them? Isn’t this like any other college athlete trying to come home and play on a high school team.

Does it really happen? My pool’s summer team was full of kids.

It does happen. The winner of two events in our Division swam in college for the 22-23 year. Not a phenom- swimming in a small school- but still a college swimmer in NVSL.

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

This is a genuine question:

Why would a college swimmer come back to swim team? It sounds like such a bizarre and specific example that I’m really curious. What would be the benefit to them? Isn’t this like any other college athlete trying to come home and play on a high school team.

Does it really happen? My pool’s summer team was full of kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

It is 7-8 weeks of summer swimming, just relax. I’m so surprised people are thinking about fairness with such a short, only for fun, activity. The pools don’t even have blocks and the distances are a joke, and there is a mixed age relay; just have your kid enjoy it and focus on improving their times. Who even examines other kids’ ages that closely? And yeah, in the VERY unusual circumstance where a D1 swimmer with a summer birthday came back and did summer swimming the kids on our team would be psyched to see them, nbd. I can’t imagine someone getting seriously upset about this.

People are upset because a 10U boy is 11 years and 5 weeks and are claiming some huge advantage. What about the Olympians and nationally ranked swimmers who come back to swim for their summer pool?

How is that fair? My kid doesn’t even club swim but these kids have access to the best coaching in the world /s

“Katie Ledecky returns to her summer swim league to sign autographs — and set records” - WaPo

I’m kidding of course - I love this aspect of summer swim, but it puts into perspective how silly the moving the cutoff argument is.

Anonymous wrote:It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

It is 7-8 weeks of summer swimming, just relax. I’m so surprised people are thinking about fairness with such a short, only for fun, activity. The pools don’t even have blocks and the distances are a joke, and there is a mixed age relay; just have your kid enjoy it and focus on improving their times. Who even examines other kids’ ages that closely? And yeah, in the VERY unusual circumstance where a D1 swimmer with a summer birthday came back and did summer swimming the kids on our team would be psyched to see them, nbd. I can’t imagine someone getting seriously upset about this.

It isn’t fair but that’s the rule. I’m sure those who think it’s fair also think it’s fair when newly 19 year old division 1 swimmers finish a full year of college training, and then return home to swim against kids who were 14 years old a few weeks ago.

Clearly, that’s fair, too.

I grew up in Texas and the rule was the same there in the 80s and 90s. In fact, the date was probably earlier because we were out of school by Memorial Day, but I digress. It was the one advantage I had, because I was the youngest in my class (even back in the 80s when the cutoff ages for school were September 1), so it felt good to be the "big kid" for a few weeks every year.

I'd bet if your kid graduated high school at 17 and had a summer birthday you'd sign them up for summer swim the next year. You know you would!

You could never do August 1 in this area because summer swim is over by then. Nice try, though.

It is what it is and it's part of Summer Swim. Just let your kids have fun, that's the most important thing. Cheer at the meets (all of the meets) and enjoy being part of the team.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i honestly think it's a little unfair when my kid is swimming in an age group higher than all the rest of his classmates at school. seems to me that splitting it up by grade is the obvious solution

Ha. No. You don't get an advantage because you redshirted. My 10 yo rising 6th grader is happy to race in U10.

+1, those types of groupings are part of what drives the ridiculous amount of redshirting that goes in in this area. In club swim there is no reason to go by anything other than the swimmer’s age.

At least this way you don’t kids aging up out of 12u as 11 year olds. Imagine an 11yo boy swimming against almost 14y/o boys. That would be absolutely brutal. It’s already tough enough around that age group. Just be patient. It all evens out around 13/14

Anonymous wrote:Age group swimming ends quickly. Enjoy it while it lasts. My kid relished the wins when they knew they beat kids who was older than them. They also relished victories when they won at the bottom of the bracket (so 13 or 11).

And most of these kids swim winter league where age at meet is enforced.

All of this made them better able to race as a high school kid when they had to compete against kids 4 years older.

This. The best swimmer in my high school was a 14 year old freshman girl.