Age / Birthday Cutoff

[passata_sotto]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

If the difference between December and January briths were that significant then you'd never find fencers qualifying for national teams in a age-group higher than their current one. We'd never have cadet fencers on junior (or senior!) teams. Since we frequently do -- occasionally people will make teams multiple years before they age out of the previous category -- we have empirical evidence that a 1-month difference isn't "a killer".

Does it HELP to be an 11-year-old in a field of 10's? Of course. Does variation between the developmental rates of different individuals make a considerably larger difference? Absolutely.

-B

I certainly did not mean that just because my son was born in Jan that he would be "mr fencer". However, as he just started fencing last year, the extra year as a Y10 will be helpful going into Y12s as compared to my other fencing son who did not start until Feb of this year but turned 15 at the end of April and will be too old to fence Y14 next season.

I have no doubt, that after a couple of years of fencing, birthdays should not matter nearly as much as determination and hard work.

[sjpfencer220]

Really though, in effect, had he started for example last year, he too would really be getting an extra year in the y14. The only problem for him is that, as the cadet deadling is earlier than the y14 deadling, he might get one less year in Cadet than he could otherwise have.