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.
I've never come across "motivational times" but it scares me that there might be an officially sanctioned version of this for younger swimmers, as it flies in the face of evidence about motivation and related emotional and behavioural impacts on the athlete.
Since I remember these standards from my age-group days, they have been around in the US for at least 40 years though they haven't always been called "motivational" standards, I'm not exactly sure when that name started. I would say that they have always been used for both organization (so that meets wouldn't get too big, for example) and motivation. I still remember the patches and stars that kids in my area wore on their sweats to indicate A/AA times that they've achieved (five stars total, one for each stroke + IM, different color stars for A and AA times).
Despite your statement, I would say that my experience as a swimmer and swimmer parent has been positive about their value as motivation. My father probably still remembers fondly when I got my first A-time as a 7 year old, he would probably still say that it ranks as his fondest memory of my childhood swimming days simply because of my stunned (and joyful) reaction.
I've never come across "motivational times" but it scares me that there might be an officially sanctioned version of this for younger swimmers, as it flies in the face of evidence about motivation and related emotional and behavioural impacts on the athlete.
Since I remember these standards from my age-group days, they have been around in the US for at least 40 years though they haven't always been called "motivational" standards, I'm not exactly sure when that name started. I would say that they have always been used for both organization (so that meets wouldn't get too big, for example) and motivation. I still remember the patches and stars that kids in my area wore on their sweats to indicate A/AA times that they've achieved (five stars total, one for each stroke + IM, different color stars for A and AA times).
Despite your statement, I would say that my experience as a swimmer and swimmer parent has been positive about their value as motivation. My father probably still remembers fondly when I got my first A-time as a 7 year old, he would probably still say that it ranks as his fondest memory of my childhood swimming days simply because of my stunned (and joyful) reaction.
