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!
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Former Member
An earlier question was whether we could replicate the SwimInfo calculator for converting times between SCY, SCM and LCM. Clearly yes, Swiminfo even posted on their web site the ratios they used to construct the calculator (by event, gender and of course the size of the pool), so you could fat-finger it with a calculator if you wanted.
The more interesting question is what data did they use to get those ratios, and is it valid? Someone else asked whether a calculator based on data from older, Masters swimmers (instead of college kids) would be more accurate for us. These are all terrific questions to ask, and I think they illustrate the inescapable subjective fudge-factor of any calculator. If you doubt me, search the web and find several calculators available of various reputable swimming web sites. Plug in a time, and watch them generate different results for the same conversion. Not wildly different, but not trivial either. Which one feels about right for you? I actually like the SwimInfo, NCAA based calculator because it seems about right for my times. However, I question whether a tool built with data from folks who tend to be a whole lot faster than I am is the best way to go. I have a sense they may make up for that by simply having a relatively larger pool of data than the other tools, but I don't know this for a fact.
Tools are great; tools are fun. Some clearly have more thought put into them than others. But, none of them have the mathematical validity of 2.54 cm = 1 inch. Some of the tools, like the age adjusted calculator (1:05 at 19 is comparable to 1:11 at 43), are purely for bar-stool debates. Clearly a lot of fun, but clearly not scientific either.
Hey, if someone wants to put that together and make it available on this site, I think that would be a nice feature and I would thank them for their effort.
Matt
An earlier question was whether we could replicate the SwimInfo calculator for converting times between SCY, SCM and LCM. Clearly yes, Swiminfo even posted on their web site the ratios they used to construct the calculator (by event, gender and of course the size of the pool), so you could fat-finger it with a calculator if you wanted.
The more interesting question is what data did they use to get those ratios, and is it valid? Someone else asked whether a calculator based on data from older, Masters swimmers (instead of college kids) would be more accurate for us. These are all terrific questions to ask, and I think they illustrate the inescapable subjective fudge-factor of any calculator. If you doubt me, search the web and find several calculators available of various reputable swimming web sites. Plug in a time, and watch them generate different results for the same conversion. Not wildly different, but not trivial either. Which one feels about right for you? I actually like the SwimInfo, NCAA based calculator because it seems about right for my times. However, I question whether a tool built with data from folks who tend to be a whole lot faster than I am is the best way to go. I have a sense they may make up for that by simply having a relatively larger pool of data than the other tools, but I don't know this for a fact.
Tools are great; tools are fun. Some clearly have more thought put into them than others. But, none of them have the mathematical validity of 2.54 cm = 1 inch. Some of the tools, like the age adjusted calculator (1:05 at 19 is comparable to 1:11 at 43), are purely for bar-stool debates. Clearly a lot of fun, but clearly not scientific either.
Hey, if someone wants to put that together and make it available on this site, I think that would be a nice feature and I would thank them for their effort.
Matt
