USATF and AAU, giving kids born early in the year a tremendous advantage over those born late in the year.

Wendy Ard wrote:

Why can't they just go to a system where you run at your age during the meet instead of your age at the last day of the year

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're saying, but wouldn't your solution just lead to a different group being equally disadvantaged? Under your proposal, wouldn't the delta between the age of the youngest and oldest competitors be the same as it is now, since you'd shift both the upper and lower end of the window by the same amount? As long as you have a two-year age group, the youngest kids will be two years younger than the oldest kids, right?

Wendy Ard wrote:

Why can't they just go to a system where you run at your age during the meet instead of your age at the last day of the year

Because no matter what arbitrary cut-off date for the nominal age-group designation, some kids' birthdays will fall just before or just after the competition date -- giving kids whose birthday falls just after the competition an advantage, and those whose birthdays fall just before the competition date a disadvantage.

Look at the big picture. Age group events will never be "fair".

Let's say your kid runs cross country. He could be 11 months older than some kids who just turned 14 at the beginning of November. Is that fair?

More kids are born in September, so moving to that system means more kids are older and less are disadvantaged by being at the bottom of the group. September is 9 months after December..

wr potential wrote:

More kids are born in September, so moving to that system means more kids are older and less are disadvantaged by being at the bottom of the group. September is 9 months after December..

But then the disadvantaged kids are even more disadvantaged because they're competing against a larger number if significantly older kids.

A late birthday is a disadvantage in USATF competition but now that this kid is in high school he has gained the advantage over the January kids.

life isn't always fair

How is he doing now? My boy has a December birthday, turned 8, yet he has to compete in 9-10 this year in junior olympics. Complete bs!

Don't buy it. My daughter was born in October and just crushed her age group.

The birthday bias is even worse in team sports where the best players in an age group get better coaching, opportunities, etc. Here is an article in the Irish Times about the problem in International Football (soccer). At least in T&F, there isn't too much sorting at an early age.

irishtimes.com

How a footballer’s birth month can affect their chances of reaching the top

Research into the Relative Age Effect shows preference given to older players

Link:www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/nation...

Track should go to the USA Swimming system. Your age is your age on the first day of any given meet.

Why? It is the same, just a different cutoff.

It has always been like this. There's no perfect system. How about grade level since that's what they do in high school and some middle school meets? Or have a F/S, JV and Varsity squad like they do in high school?

There will be 3 categories. One for elementary kids, one for Junior high and a high school team.

There are always going to be some that are older and some that are going to be younger in any classification. If you use grades some are really old for their grade and some are young. If you use actual age then depending on the time of year of the race some will have an advantage. If it's by year of birth (USATF) then January is much different then a December birthday. There is no perfect system. I feel like at some point in HS it starts to even out for the most part. Although boys that are almost 19 and still in HS have an advantage.

I coach loads of middle school kids. Lots of parents keep their kids back in school in the hopes that they will have more time to mature and better chance at getting a collegiate scholarship.

We have a 13 year old 7th Grader who dominates school meets but struggles in club where he forced to run in his own age group.

My quick answer is this; This is grade school and these are kids so everyone just needs to relax. My own kid is on the very young 11 year old side and gets smoked constantly by older 12 year olds.

If your kids has talent and desire they will be absolutely fine in the long run.

Hold your kid back, so he graduates HS at 19 or 20. He can then have a 1-2 yr advantage when chasing HS records and a college scholarship.

It is surprising that more people don't do this.

100% Coachy

This is what I always tell parents. High School is where it all evens out. Valby didn't start running until she was 14!

So middle school (11-14) is just DEV work as we say in the software industry. High School is where start PROD.

I am just back from the USATF Junior Cross Champs in Texas and I amazed at all the fast times. US Kids are getting faster!!

These are the sad parents.