Rankings (or rating yourself) --RANT--

I know that I have seen others talk about "how good am I if I swim the 200 in this time", or "if my mile is 17min". and then the responses are typically, look at results from previous meets, or last years top 10 time. But does anyone try to take into account how many actually swim that event/distance? Is one a good swimmer merely because only 12 people swim the 400 IM. I looked at the 2007 top 10 SCM for Men 30-34. for *** and IM I would have been top 10 in 3 of 6 events/distances. 50 br 33.37 outside of top 10 100br 1:14.08 (10) 200br 2:42.20 (7) 400 IM 5:19.71 (7) but how many 30-34 competed in those events in 2007? I would guess that more people competed in 2006 at the World Championships in Cali. In Sweden I have top 10 times in nearly everything but 50-100 free, but that is only because it's not too often that there are more than 10-12 swimmers in my age grupp. I know of 4-6 swimmers that will be 35-39 in 2010 and all of them are significanly faster than me, just not sure swimming at the Worlds is something they plan on doing. I recently looked at a German time standard, since they had one for every year 11-18 and then an open I used the open table. The table was scaled to 1-20. 20 being the fastest. something simliar to the US AAAA standards but with more divisions. I was at best 6 of a possible 20 in Breaststroke. and not even 1 in Back and Fly. and between 1-2 for Free and IM. to me that seems more like a realistic measurement of my ability.
Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    You can choose to believe what you want. If you don't think this can be done, then don't believe it--it really doesn't matter that much to me in the grand scheme of things. Someone was just looking at rankings and trying to find where they were relative to others. I only caution that these rankings are incomplete and that there are other swimmers out there that still have record-breaking speed. How about giving us *any* data so that we can determine the real question - how *incomplete* are they. I agree in that rankings are NOT the end all, be all. I'm sure you clearly remember these record breaking swims in practice. How about describing them without the names. Coaches reaction; time; swimmers' reactions; event; conditions; etc. At this point, you've given us nothing. I think it would be fascinating to see what percentage of people are out there who are not swimming meets and who break national records in practice. (I feel it's few if any.) However, we can't determine this TO ANY EXTENT as we are not being given even the events; number of swims you witnessed; god forbid we ask for names (although if I brought this topic up, I would certainly obtain permission from said unofficial record breaker to be mentioned on this board; okay, I'd just spout out the name if it were me). However, no data is being given. Just blanket statements. I call crock. Triathletes?! :rofl:I swim with the #1 in the nation and world ranked triathletes including professional tris some of who are my personal friends (all distances including Ironmen distance). They are not setting national records in meets much less practice.
Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    You can choose to believe what you want. If you don't think this can be done, then don't believe it--it really doesn't matter that much to me in the grand scheme of things. Someone was just looking at rankings and trying to find where they were relative to others. I only caution that these rankings are incomplete and that there are other swimmers out there that still have record-breaking speed. How about giving us *any* data so that we can determine the real question - how *incomplete* are they. I agree in that rankings are NOT the end all, be all. I'm sure you clearly remember these record breaking swims in practice. How about describing them without the names. Coaches reaction; time; swimmers' reactions; event; conditions; etc. At this point, you've given us nothing. I think it would be fascinating to see what percentage of people are out there who are not swimming meets and who break national records in practice. (I feel it's few if any.) However, we can't determine this TO ANY EXTENT as we are not being given even the events; number of swims you witnessed; god forbid we ask for names (although if I brought this topic up, I would certainly obtain permission from said unofficial record breaker to be mentioned on this board; okay, I'd just spout out the name if it were me). However, no data is being given. Just blanket statements. I call crock. Triathletes?! :rofl:I swim with the #1 in the nation and world ranked triathletes including professional tris some of who are my personal friends (all distances including Ironmen distance). They are not setting national records in meets much less practice.
Children
No Data