Swimming - County qualifying times

[Plutotheplanet]

My 9 year old daughter (10 year old in swimming terms as her Birthday is the end of this month) has just competed at 100m Breaststroke for the first time. She's around 12 seconds off the 10/11 year old County Qualifying time for this event. There are definite areas she can work on to bring down that time (starts and turns are slow) as well another year developing her stroke etc. I was thinking this time next year (when she will be 10 and classed as an 11 year old) that time might well be achievable. My question is, as she would be classed as a 12 year old by the time she competed at County's, would she need to have a qualifying time for a 12 year old or is it the age you are when you get the qualifying time? I hope that makes sense.

It’s a good while since my DDs competed but from memory you need the qualifying time for the age group you would be swimming in. Not 100% sure tho, it’s been a long time now!

You need the Poolside chat gang, swim mums with experience of all levels of competition. But in short swimmers have to re qualify each year in the right age group. And your racing age is your age for the season, DD had a Jan birthday, and her friend who was end of Dec always swam the next age group up.

More poolside chat | Mumsnet https://share.google/FtV2jJQXTDoUS8sqO

Galas normally run on an "age on day" or "age as of 31st December" basis. Level 1 and 2 and county and regional etc galas are normally "age as of 31st December".

The age she is when she gets the qualifying time is largely irrelevant as long as it's within their cut off. In the conditions it usually says something like "time must have been achieved since x date" this is to stop people entering galas with times they achieved many years ago but haven't achieved since

So you need to look at the age she will be on 31st December of the year of the event and try to achieve the qualifying times for that age.

But as an ex swim mum whose son completely burnt out at 15 through over training and unrealistic expectations from coaches just let her enjoy swimming and competing and if she gets the times she gets them, chasing county and regional times can be sole destroying better to achieve them when you were just swimming the races without one eye on qualifying times.

Thanks all that's really helpful. So if she would need to get a qualifying time for a 12 year old not a 10/11 year even though she would still only be 10 when getting the times. I guess she's just unlucky being born the very end of the year.

@turkeyboots That's a useful link, I will definitely follow it.

@Littletreefrog Thanks, that's good advice. To be honest I am just following her pace of what she wants to do. I just didn't want to tell her if you knock 12 seconds off your time over the next year you'll qualify for Counties, when in reality it's a fair bit more than that.

She needs to get times for her age at 31 December the year of counties which is usually February that year. So as she’s missed the boat for Feb 2026 counties most likely she needs to qualify in 2026 to compete in 2027 which would be 12 years times.
To reassure you once they qualify once they tend to find requalifying every year a doddle and then the step up to regionals is easier too.