When I started swimming masters a few years ago, I soon found myself wanting some time standards to compare myself against. Sure, tracking my own PRs is motivating, but I also wanted some sort of objective mark to measure myself against.
There is the Top 10 list, of course, but I'm not close enough to those times for them to serve as realistic motivation. Nationals qualifying times provide a slightly lower bar, but these are still out of many masters' reach. It seems like there should be some sort of time standards that are more widely applicable -- like the A, AA, ... motivational times in kids' age group swimming.
I did use those USA Swimming motivational times for a while, but I got tired of comparing myself to 12-year-olds. Eventually I decided to create my own masters' motivational time standards, using the same method that is used for the kids.
I have really enjoyed using these motivational times over the past couple of years, and I'm guessing they might be useful to others as well. Especially for those, like me, who are competitive enough to be motivated by a quantitative benchmark, but not fast enough to aspire to the Top 10 list.
I have just updated the SCY list, and figured I would post it here for others to use.
Please enjoy. I'd also love to hear any feedback.
Checking out the the 60-64 Mens division the 50 100 and 200 free times look about right, but there must be an error re the 500, 1000 and 1650????
Yeah, there definitely seems to be a mistake somewhere. For example, the 55-59 men 500 free BB time is 7:07.09 while the corresponding 60-64 time is 5:18.79.
Yes, there was definitely a mistake in the M60-64 500/1000/1650. Sorry about that. I have revised the attachment in the original post.
If anyone spots more errors, please let me know.
Checking out the the 60-64 Mens division the 50 100 and 200 free times look about right, but there must be an error re the 500, 1000 and 1650????
Yeah, there definitely seems to be a mistake somewhere. For example, the 55-59 men 500 free BB time is 7:07.09 while the corresponding 60-64 time is 5:18.79.
Yes, there was definitely a mistake in the M60-64 500/1000/1650. Sorry about that. I have revised the attachment in the original post.
If anyone spots more errors, please let me know.
