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.
If you compared the previous (2009) SCM times and the new (2010) SCM times, chances are you noticed that the times got a little faster in your age group.
The benchmark top-ten times are averaged over 3 years, so the 2006 times have rolled off the list, and been replaced with 2009 times. The 2009 times are faster than the 2006 times in most (but not all) age groups and events.
One obvious difference between 2006 and 2009 times is tech suits. But there are other differences, too, like increased participation. I'll leave it to others to discuss the reasons for the changes. But here are a few observations:
If you're a woman between 45 and 59, times are getting tougher. Benchmarks improved in all or all but one of the SCM events in your age group.
This competitive age range is even broader for men. For the five age groups from 45 through 69, times got faster in either 17 or 18 of the 18 SCM events.
The pace of progress is slowest in the oldest age groups, which have the least participation. Times got faster barely more than half of the events in W75-79, W80-84, M70-74 and M80-84. In these age groups, there are few enough swimmers that it probably makes a big difference who ages up, or swims which events.
The oddball age group is M35-39. That's the only age group where more times got slower than got faster. 8 of 18 times improved, but 9 of 18 got worse. (One stayed the same.)
What about events? In general, the sprinters improved most consistently. 25 of 26 age groups got faster in the 50 and 100 free, for example. All events got faster in at least half of the age groups, but the least popular events were also the most inconsistent. Only about 2/3 of the age groups improved in the 1500 free, 200 fly, and 400 IM.
If you compared the previous (2009) SCM times and the new (2010) SCM times, chances are you noticed that the times got a little faster in your age group.
The benchmark top-ten times are averaged over 3 years, so the 2006 times have rolled off the list, and been replaced with 2009 times. The 2009 times are faster than the 2006 times in most (but not all) age groups and events.
One obvious difference between 2006 and 2009 times is tech suits. But there are other differences, too, like increased participation. I'll leave it to others to discuss the reasons for the changes. But here are a few observations:
If you're a woman between 45 and 59, times are getting tougher. Benchmarks improved in all or all but one of the SCM events in your age group.
This competitive age range is even broader for men. For the five age groups from 45 through 69, times got faster in either 17 or 18 of the 18 SCM events.
The pace of progress is slowest in the oldest age groups, which have the least participation. Times got faster barely more than half of the events in W75-79, W80-84, M70-74 and M80-84. In these age groups, there are few enough swimmers that it probably makes a big difference who ages up, or swims which events.
The oddball age group is M35-39. That's the only age group where more times got slower than got faster. 8 of 18 times improved, but 9 of 18 got worse. (One stayed the same.)
What about events? In general, the sprinters improved most consistently. 25 of 26 age groups got faster in the 50 and 100 free, for example. All events got faster in at least half of the age groups, but the least popular events were also the most inconsistent. Only about 2/3 of the age groups improved in the 1500 free, 200 fly, and 400 IM.
