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.
Hi, David, not sure how much of this thread you have looked at, but I highly recommend checking out Chris Stevenson's formula for age-grading swims in the different courses. www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
Good luck with your efforts! It's nice to know that Australians visit this forum. Say hi to Ian Thorpe for us, and wish him good luck on his diet.
I did see that, thanks. I don't know Ian Thorpe personally, Australia is a largish place. I do swim at the same pool as much of the Australian olympic team though(Ken Wood's pool), so occasionally bump into some of our great swimmers.
I've been recently made Club Captain of our club and have been working since then to try and bring a bit more competitiveness to Australian masters swimming, it just doesn't seem quite as organised as you have it over there. Thanks,
David
Hi, David, not sure how much of this thread you have looked at, but I highly recommend checking out Chris Stevenson's formula for age-grading swims in the different courses. www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
Good luck with your efforts! It's nice to know that Australians visit this forum. Say hi to Ian Thorpe for us, and wish him good luck on his diet.
I did see that, thanks. I don't know Ian Thorpe personally, Australia is a largish place. I do swim at the same pool as much of the Australian olympic team though(Ken Wood's pool), so occasionally bump into some of our great swimmers.
I've been recently made Club Captain of our club and have been working since then to try and bring a bit more competitiveness to Australian masters swimming, it just doesn't seem quite as organised as you have it over there. Thanks,
David
