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I don't post often, but this hits a little close to home for me. Why should we discourage someone, who obviously shares a love for the sport as we do, from chiming in on this board, based solely on his age? Personally, I have found many 16 year olds to have the maturity level, emotionally and physically, of those who are 18. I applaud our teen poster for having the initiative to seek out this board and to post. For what it's worth, I've a daughter swimmer that age, who is helping me to learn to butterfly. Her swim buddies think it's pretty cool that someone "my age" is competing. Frankly, I think that ideas and enthusiasm from the young (almost) adults are a breath of fresh air, and swimming is an excellent vehicle to help bridge the generation gap(s). And as for this statement... "Look--I don't ask to swim on a competitive basis with the age-group swimmers in the jr high and high school AND they shouldn't ask to swim with the Masters groups." .....while it may be a humbling experience, I have found myself (as a member of USA Swimming) competing against teens many times, primarily because of a lack of opportunity to compete against my peers, and my desire to get some competition experience. Big deal! It made for some good fun and showed the kids that there is swimming beyond puberty without olympic expectations. The exchange between teens and adults is mutually beneficial, and not threatening or intrusive at all. We should exercise caution against treating youngsters harshly. Cheers!

I don't post often, but this hits a little close to home for me. Why should we discourage someone, who obviously shares a love for the sport as we do, from chiming in on this board, based solely on his age? Personally, I have found many 16 year olds to have the maturity level, emotionally and physically, of those who are 18. I applaud our teen poster for having the initiative to seek out this board and to post. For what it's worth, I've a daughter swimmer that age, who is helping me to learn to butterfly. Her swim buddies think it's pretty cool that someone "my age" is competing. Frankly, I think that ideas and enthusiasm from the young (almost) adults are a breath of fresh air, and swimming is an excellent vehicle to help bridge the generation gap(s). And as for this statement... "Look--I don't ask to swim on a competitive basis with the age-group swimmers in the jr high and high school AND they shouldn't ask to swim with the Masters groups." .....while it may be a humbling experience, I have found myself (as a member of USA Swimming) competing against teens many times, primarily because of a lack of opportunity to compete against my peers, and my desire to get some competition experience. Big deal! It made for some good fun and showed the kids that there is swimming beyond puberty without olympic expectations. The exchange between teens and adults is mutually beneficial, and not threatening or intrusive at all. We should exercise caution against treating youngsters harshly. Cheers!