When a new masters swimmer asked on a different thread for a meters to yard conversion utility, I referred her to the following site:
www.swiminfo.com/.../conversions.asp
Unfortunately, as another poster quickly pointed out, this site will soon be available only to those who pay for it.
I am wondering if someone with some computer savvy could recreate this very useful utility for us masters, then post it in an area of the USMS web site where we could access it for free.
This same area could also include some other useful tools for swimmers. There is, for example, a fun (though perhaps somewhat suspect) "future times predictor" for aging swimmers at:
http://n3times.com/swimtimes/
In addition, my friend and teammate Bill White wrote an Excel spreadsheet (so far not posted on the web) that allows you to easily calculate your 100 pace for distance swims. You can either input the total distance and total time and it will give you your average 100; or you can input the average 100 you hope to swim and the total distance, and it will crank out what your overall time will be if you can hold that pace.
Anyhow, I propose the USMS web site add a new section called something like "Swimmers Tool Box" that collects, in one place, all these useful and/or just fun-to-play-around-with utilities we can come up with. I know many of the posters here are brilliant amateur mathematicians, who enjoy inventing these things; maybe we could even have an annual award for whatever new calculator we users vote as the most interesting! Kind of like a Touring Prize (is that the right name) for swimming math esoterica!
Originally posted by jim thornton
I am wondering if someone with some computer savvy could recreate this very useful utility for us masters, then post it in an area of the USMS web site where we could access it for free.
The 100 pace calculation is trivial. (As you might guess, I'm the one who likes to calculate relay splits during the meet.) I found that the times-as-you-age converter was way off what I did in HS and college (but that's just me).
The swiminfo calculator was made using info from a NCAA championship meet, right? There is nothing to stop us from doing the same, maybe with the USMS championship results from the last few years. (It would be interesting if Masters conversions are different than Div I college.)
The only question is, what would be the best method for conversion? You could take the best finishers, or take an average of the best heat. Maybe take the "average" swimmer. Average across age groups? Keep it simple, use NQTs? My point is, the calculation is simple, the only difficult part is what criteria to use to decide which swims go into the calculation?
Originally posted by jim thornton
I am wondering if someone with some computer savvy could recreate this very useful utility for us masters, then post it in an area of the USMS web site where we could access it for free.
The 100 pace calculation is trivial. (As you might guess, I'm the one who likes to calculate relay splits during the meet.) I found that the times-as-you-age converter was way off what I did in HS and college (but that's just me).
The swiminfo calculator was made using info from a NCAA championship meet, right? There is nothing to stop us from doing the same, maybe with the USMS championship results from the last few years. (It would be interesting if Masters conversions are different than Div I college.)
The only question is, what would be the best method for conversion? You could take the best finishers, or take an average of the best heat. Maybe take the "average" swimmer. Average across age groups? Keep it simple, use NQTs? My point is, the calculation is simple, the only difficult part is what criteria to use to decide which swims go into the calculation?
