Time Conversion Accuracy

Being off by a tenth or so is close enough. Just grow some finger nails. Q: When I enter Nationals, do I have to provide proof that I achieved a qualifying time? A: No. Your entry times for Nationals are submitted on the honor system. Q: Do I have to achieve my qualifying time in a swim meet? A: No. You could use a time that you swam in a workout or time trial. Again, remember that this is all on the honor system.

The Swimming World Time Conversion Utility is internally inconsistent. I ran into this just the other day, while reviewing my (alas, converted) entry times to LCM nats. Try this: Select Gender = MALE, Event = 100 Backstroke, SCY Time = 1:05.00 Convert SCY 1:05.00 to SCM = 1:12.54 Convert SCM 1:12.54 to LCM = 1:14.71 Convert LCM 1:14.71 to SCY = 1:02.38 (not 1:05.00) Now try the other way, Select Gender = MALE, Event = 100 Backstroke, SCY Time = 1:05.00 Convert SCY 1:05.00 to LCM = 1:17.84 Convert LCM 1:17.84 to SCM = 1:15.58 Convert SCM 1:15.58 to SCY = 1:07.72 (not 1:05.00) Now try your favorite event. Convert SCY to SCM to LCM to SCY. What do you get? In fairness to the converter, the page explicitly says, These factors will allow you to convert metric times achieved in a 25-meter or 50-meter pool to an equivalent time for a 25-yard pool, or vice-versa. In other words, you can go from meters to yards, or yards to meters, but don't try to go from meters to meters. In my experience, the conversions from yards to SCM or LCM are reasonably accurate, but the conversion from SCM to LCM is not. So to convert an SCM time to LCM, first convert SCM to SCY, then convert SCY to LCM. Select Gender = MALE, Event = 100 Backstroke, SCM Time = 1:12.54 Convert SCM 1:12.54 to SCY = 1:05.00 Convert SCY 1:05.00 to LCM = 1:17.84 For my case, this conversion is closer to accurate. Bottom line: Duh? If it is necessary to go through yards to get a consistent conversion from SCM to LCM, why isn't that done internally? Either it should be done internally, or the SCM to LCM conversion feature should be disabled.

So, eventhough I made an error looking at the qualification times, it does not lessen my enthusasim for swimming. It makes me want to train harder, smarter and faster. So that's what I'll do, and I WILL see some of you at Spring Nationals next year, cause i'm going to qualify. :) (think positive, do positive!)

Time conversions are not accurate. Just think about it. The events are different lengths with a different number of turns. Given a SCY 50 free time, you could probably predict SCY 100 free more accurately than LCM 50 free.

On this topic, my kids are at a swim meet today and unfortunately I'm working so I'm getting the results from my wife. My daughter (9) could care less but my son (12)is very motivated and wanted to make cuts. Before this meet he asked me to help him with goals and Ii tried to give him reasonable expectations by multiplying his previous best SCY times by 1.09361 (the distance factor only), telling him it's not competely accurate. Uh-oh, SCY*1.094 != LCM by any stretch. Yes, the distance is 1.094 times farther, but there are complicating factors: First, there are fewer turns. Unless the turns are very very slow, turning is faster than swimming. Second, there is the fatigue factor. Even the most fit swimmer can't cover 1.094 times the distance in 1.094 times the time at race pace. Third, the strategy is different. I've heard some people say SCY and LCM are different sports. That seems like hyperbole to me, but they are significantly different races. For SCY to SCM the number of turns is the same, but the fatigue factor is still there. For a ballpark estimate, I suggest: For SCY to SCM: multiply by 1.11. For SCY to LCM, multiply by 1.11 and add 1.1s for each missing turn. In my experience, the Swimming World time converter: www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../conversions.asp works reasonably well for SCY SCM and for SCM LCM, but not for SCY LCM. To go between SCY and LCM, do it in two steps, converting to SCM first. (A previous poster pointed out that it is not internally consistent.) The Great Bay Masters time converter is internally consistent: www.greatbaymasters.org/convert.html Here is one by Colorado Swimming: www.csi.org/coursealti.aspx Here is one by Overlook Swim Team geared to 25s: overlookswimteam.org/.../conversion.html He's swam two races so far today and apparently is very disappointed so far from what my wife says. He got 42 seconds on the 50M back, qualifying was 41.6. I want to cheer him up by saying that converts to 34.56 based on the swimming magazine website converter (his previous best was 37.8) and focus on his improvement. Using just the distance factor that comes to 38.4 (don't want to tell him that, lol). Does 34.56 sound reasonable? I want to cheer him up without lying. Good news, he made the cut in the 50 *** (48.2). Swim mag converts it to 41.11, previous best was 43.52 SCY. 34-mid for 50 SCY back based on 41.6 for a LCM 50 back sounds optimistic to me. Using the Swimming World converter in two stages converts the 41.6 LCM to 36.19 SCY. Using my 1.11 scaling factor +1.1s/turn converts the 41.6 LCM to 36.49 SCY.

Uh-oh, SCY*1.094 != LCM by any stretch. Yes, the distance is 1.094 times farther, but there are complicating factors: First, there are fewer turns. Unless the turns are very very slow, turning is faster than swimming. Second, there is the fatigue factor. Even the most fit swimmer can't cover 1.094 times the distance in 1.094 times the time at race pace. Third, the strategy is different. I've heard some people say SCY and LCM are different sports. That seems like hyperbole to me, but they are significantly different races. For SCY to SCM the number of turns is the same, but the fatigue factor is still there. For a ballpark estimate, I suggest: For SCY to SCM: multiply by 1.11. For SCY to LCM, multiply by 1.11 and add 1.1s for each missing turn. In my experience, the Swimming World time converter: www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../conversions.asp works reasonably well for SCY SCM and for SCM LCM, but not for SCY LCM. To go between SCY and LCM, do it in two steps, converting to SCM first. (A previous poster pointed out that it is not internally consistent.) The Great Bay Masters time converter is internally consistent: www.greatbaymasters.org/convert.html Here is one by Colorado Swimming: www.csi.org/coursealti.aspx Here is one by Overlook Swim Team geared to 25s: overlookswimteam.org/.../conversion.html 34-mid for 50 SCY back based on 41.6 for a LCM 50 back sounds optimistic to me. Using the Swimming World converter in two stages converts the 41.6 LCM to 36.19 SCY. Using my 1.11 scaling factor +1.1s/turn converts the 41.6 LCM to 36.49 SCY. You are absolutely correct. When I use the 2 step process in swim mag, comes to 36.5. Still an improvement of 1.1, so I'll run with it, lol. Will make him happy.

On this topic, my kids are at a swim meet today and unfortunately I'm working so I'm getting the results from my wife. My daughter (9) could care less but my son (12)is very motivated and wanted to make cuts. Before this meet he asked me to help him with goals and Ii tried to give him reasonable expectations by multiplying his previous best SCY times by 1.09361 (the distance factor only), telling him it's not competely accurate. He's swam two races so far today and apparently is very disappointed so far from what my wife says. He got 42 seconds on the 50M back, qualifying was 41.6. I want to cheer him up by saying that converts to 34.56 based on the swimming magazine website converter (his previous best was 37.8) and focus on his improvement. Using just the distance factor that comes to 38.4 (don't want to tell him that, lol). Does 34.56 sound reasonable? I want to cheer him up without lying. Good news, he made the cut in the 50 *** (48.2). Swim mag converts it to 41.11, previous best was 43.52 SCY.

The Swimming World Time Conversion Utility is internally inconsistent. In other words, you can go from meters to yards, or yards to meters, but don't try to go from meters to meters. Wow, good detective work! I've used that converter a lot, and occasionally found myself thinking "Huh? Is that right?". But I pretty much trusted it, till now. Now I know how to get around it!