Motivational time standards

Originally posted by Old Flyer Do you know what the categories AAAA, AAA, AA, etc mean? I didn't see an explanation of how the letter based numbers were derived, only the "top 16 based" label. Perhaps it is based on the top 16 times at various levels? Just guessing. I think I prefer the percentile based times anyway. As I understand it USMS has a large database of times from meets that could be used to help derive percentiles. I think providing external standards to shoot for could be a valuable motivational tool and would be useful for people who don't compete, as well as encouraging people to compete. It would be particularly useful for those of us who came to swimming late and have not yet worked up to speeds where records and top 10 rankings are useful motivational tools. In that regard, it would probably be more motivating if I didn't have to compare myself to ten year olds, especially as the comparison is not favorable :-) Although it would be more difficult to produce it would be very nice if it were possible to provide standards that included a factor for how long one has been swimming, so that people with no competitive background wouldn't be comparing against people who have swum competitively since they were six. This might encourage newcomers to the sport.

Originally posted by Old Flyer Do you know what the categories AAAA, AAA, AA, etc mean? I didn't see an explanation of how the letter based numbers were derived, only the "top 16 based" label. Perhaps it is based on the top 16 times at various levels? Just guessing. I think I prefer the percentile based times anyway. As I understand it USMS has a large database of times from meets that could be used to help derive percentiles. I think providing external standards to shoot for could be a valuable motivational tool and would be useful for people who don't compete, as well as encouraging people to compete. It would be particularly useful for those of us who came to swimming late and have not yet worked up to speeds where records and top 10 rankings are useful motivational tools. In that regard, it would probably be more motivating if I didn't have to compare myself to ten year olds, especially as the comparison is not favorable :-) Although it would be more difficult to produce it would be very nice if it were possible to provide standards that included a factor for how long one has been swimming, so that people with no competitive background wouldn't be comparing against people who have swum competitively since they were six. This might encourage newcomers to the sport.