I'm coming up on my first meet since I was in middle school (now 26). Is there a site that has age adjusted percentiles for various events? It's hard to compare myself to high schoolers/collegiate athletes!
Thanks!
I'm coming up on my first meet since I was in middle school (now 26). Is there a site that has age adjusted percentiles for various events? It's hard to compare myself to high schoolers/collegiate athletes!
Thanks!
www.vaswim.org
This seems to be the best combination of easy to use and accurate that I can find. Click the 'Rating Calculator' on the left side.
Paul
To clarify, to do age adjustments takes two steps (we are working on a one-step web tool).
1. Calculate the rating of a given swim at a given age.
2. Input the rating and change the age to calculate the age-adjusted time.
PM me if you have questions (or ask here).
Another way of doing it is the Finnish formula as used by the British Masters Decathlon rankings:
asaftp.sportcentric.net/.../
The guide to how it works is here:
asaftp.sportcentric.net/.../British Swimming Masters Decathlon Competition 2007.pdf
You can see it in action most easily if you look at the age adjusted rankings for a particular event, e.g. mens 100m free:
asaftp.sportcentric.net/.../
The formula doesn't work so well when people get really old, hence a 94 year old being top, but basically anyone who is high up in that list is a very good swimmer. Bear in mind there are SCM and LCM times mingled in together in the rankings, that is why some slower adjusted times rank more highly than slightly faster times if the slower time was LCM and the faster time SCM.
At 26 you shouldn't need a formula to compare your times to other swimmers. Yeah, if you're just getting back into the pool you're obviously not going to be as fast, but it's not because of your age.
We had a huge discussion about this in years gone past, and the great Phil Arcuni created a one stop calculator that allows you to enter your time and age and it cranks out an "equivalent" time at other ages. Phil's uses some American system plus the so-called Finnish Formula, which is even more generous to us old people!
Check it out.
http://n3times.com/swimtimes/
Note: this is pretty much just for fun, and there are all kinds of complicating factors, but it's still more or less what I think you are looking for. Paul is right, however: assuming you have trained continuously, there should be no major drop off till age 40 or so. Hell, Dara has the American record for the 50 m at age 41.
Thanks for the recommendations. I haven't trained continuously (swam sporadically for recreation and general fitness here and there in college) and just returned to the pool about a year and half ago. However, even then I was just getting back into swimming shape after being a runner and am just now working on improving speed and trying to shave down the times. But I'm by no means old yet! (unless I tried to become a gymnast maybe :oldman:)
I appreciate your suggestions!
