I just got back from the SPMS meet and I am in a funk. I have talked to several of my contemporaries who share my dysphoria at getting slower. From age 50-62 I slowed down very little. Ages 63 and 64 were one injury or illness after another, but at least there was a cause and I felt I would do better. Age 65 I aged up and for most of the year was healthy. That was a great year,but my times were all significantly slower than at 62. Since then it is very unusual to have one swim that is faster than I did the previous year.At 67(almost 68) I am notably slower than at 65. I have seen the graphs of how times slow with age, intellectually, if I am staying at the same rate of decline as my peers I should accept it, but I don't like it. I know most forumites are much younger and what I am saying may seem like something natural that I should just acknowledge and go on, that is what I thought until I was 63. I know that our having age groups every 5 years is a partial solution to the problem, but there is more difference between a 65 year old and a 68 year old than between a 40 year old and a 50 year old, in my experience. How do the other older swimmers out there cope and have a good attitude? The common saying in Masters Swimming is that "you are only competing against yourself",but my slightly younger self is kicking my butt and I am tired of it.
I just happened upon another online calculator, this one by the New England LMSC. I sent an email to Ed (not sure exactly who Ed is, but hopefully he will reply) and copied Chris Stephenson on this, too.
It seems to me that if New England is already calculating these ratings for their swimmers, it should be possible to adapt their computer code to the USMS tabulations in general. Anyhow, here is their calculator www.egswim.com/.../RatingTime.php And here is a link to their LMSC's all time 100 top rated swims for different events and age groups, men and women. Both Laura and Allen, I suspect, would place very high on these listings if they swam for New England-based teams. www.egswim.com/.../ratingEvent.php
Personally, I would love to see ratings automatically added for each swim we do that winds up in the USMS database. If they decided on a single time standard--perhaps the records as of the end of each course in 2016--then used these as a baseline, you wouldn't have to update each year. New records would simply get increasingly higher 100+ scores, but an individual could look at his or her times at, say, age 44 and see how the ratings for these compare to the same events at, say, age 67. What say ye?
Hi Jim
Not too sure why you would want to have a single time standard. I like the idea of each ranking always being compared with the 'best' at any one point in time. That to my mind is a current ranking. If some faster guys come on the scene then i have got to do something about it to maintain my ranking.
i hope someone can let me know the point i have missed :)
T
I just happened upon another online calculator, this one by the New England LMSC. I sent an email to Ed (not sure exactly who Ed is, but hopefully he will reply) and copied Chris Stephenson on this, too.
It seems to me that if New England is already calculating these ratings for their swimmers, it should be possible to adapt their computer code to the USMS tabulations in general. Anyhow, here is their calculator www.egswim.com/.../RatingTime.php And here is a link to their LMSC's all time 100 top rated swims for different events and age groups, men and women. Both Laura and Allen, I suspect, would place very high on these listings if they swam for New England-based teams. www.egswim.com/.../ratingEvent.php
Personally, I would love to see ratings automatically added for each swim we do that winds up in the USMS database. If they decided on a single time standard--perhaps the records as of the end of each course in 2016--then used these as a baseline, you wouldn't have to update each year. New records would simply get increasingly higher 100+ scores, but an individual could look at his or her times at, say, age 44 and see how the ratings for these compare to the same events at, say, age 67. What say ye?
Hi Jim
Not too sure why you would want to have a single time standard. I like the idea of each ranking always being compared with the 'best' at any one point in time. That to my mind is a current ranking. If some faster guys come on the scene then i have got to do something about it to maintain my ranking.
i hope someone can let me know the point i have missed :)
T
