Swimmers,
this is a continuation of a topic from the 'Top Ten Link' thread I posted earlier. In that thread, there was a discussion about keeping track of ALL swim times, so that everyone could see how he/she was doing. This is an update on that project.
At the start of long-course season, I volunteered to round up as many sanctioned meets for Jim Matysek as I could, to be put into the USMS searchable database, found at:
www.usms.org/.../toptimes.shtml.
I know of 49 meets (as of last weekend) that have had results posted to LMSC or Zone web sites. Of that number 44 are in the database, for a yield of about 90%. I would encourage each of you to usethis tool to see how you like it. It is not completely error-free since I had to manually-convert HTML files and Word documents for about half of all meets. I even hand-entered a couple of PDF files, which are the worst to deal with. Please let me know if you find any errors in what you see.
I think this shows that we CAN archive all the meets with a bit of work. Certainly, it's managable for LCM and SCM courses -- maybe not yet for SCY.
If you find this a valuable service, you can help by encouraging meet directors to submit their meet results to the USMS.
Enjoy!
Mel Dyck
I'm probably a little premature in this response, however, Pacific Masters has no one to "lean on" since Michael Moore and the rest of our "group" is more than "on top of" your request. We only wish that other organizations were as organized as ours, along with the few others that are, also. Before you slam me, I am aware that not all LMSC's have the volunteer's that we have the opportunity to "take advantage" of. :) I'd personally like to thank them all at this time though!
Jim Clemmons
Former Member
croak, croak, croak...
SwimToad has posted the last few meets for the 2002 SCM season in the USMS searchable database. This brings the total to 46 meets, with results from 6 meets missing from the database. That is a yield of 88%, a bit lower than the 93% for the LCM season. So, it looks like 90% is about what we can expect for the two meters courses, based on the 2002 results.
Mel or The Toad will open a new thread for 2003 when the first meters meet results start to become available. Also, one of us will do some statistics on the accuracy that we have gotten from these files, compared to the Top Ten final lists.
Meanwhile, The Toad wishes all finny creatures a good new year. Remember, 2003 is the year that everyone MUST compete in breaststroke events! The Toad knows who you are and where you live....
croakingly yours,
The Toad
PS If you are wondering why there is no mention of the SCY meets in the above message it is because it is too much work at the moment to solicit or hunt down meets from meet directors who are not willing to pass along their meet information. The two meters seasons produced a few over 100 meets in 2002. The SCY season easily outdoes that number. IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THE SCY MEET RESULTS POSTED IN A MORE COMPLETE WAY, PLEASE LEAN ON YOUR MEET DIRECTORS TO SUBMIT THE FILES.
Former Member
croak, croak, croak...
No slams intended, Jim. The PS in The Toad's last post was just meant to remind swimmers that Mel & The Toad don't have the time to ferret out the SCY swims. It has taken somewhere between 100 and 200 hours of time to find, capture and hand- (er flipper-) convert (in the majority of cases) the meters course files to the correct format as it is. Adding the SCY files (while they may be of greater interest to most swimmers) pushes the time invested to much too high a level. That was the reason for the PS in The Toad's last post. I think all of us would like to have the database be complete for all courses. Mel & The Toad believe that it will happen eventually, but that it will take pressure from individual swimmers to make it an automatic response on the part of meet directors.
Mel & The Toad will, however, be more than happy to post ANY files sent to them in the correct format (HyTek zipped backup, SDIF or CommLink).
I would like to commend Michael Moore and the PAC Masters group as well for pretty routinely making available the required file formats. A few other LMSCs and/or clubs also do that. We have also had a bunch of help from a few other notable individuals such as Bob Seltzer and Ed Saltzman -- many, many thanks to them.
croakingly yours,
Swim Toad
Sorry Toad. Guess I was just getting a somewhat defensive attitude happening about the implication without engaging my brain first. Maybe too much hypoxic stuff lately? Anyway, thanks for all the information all of you have taken the time to provide for all of us. We really do appreciate the time and effort that our volunteers have done, and are doing, on our behalf and for Masters Swimming in general.
