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.
Whether kids or adults, one thing that I'd always advocate, and the research supports, is the use of self-referenced goals. That is - whether I'm fast compared to others or not, what can I do to become faster?
That said, I also think the opposite of Sunruh - that kids should be actively discouraged from using this sort of thing as their athletic and other identities are still being formed, while as adults the horse has already bolted!
Whether kids or adults, one thing that I'd always advocate, and the research supports, is the use of self-referenced goals. That is - whether I'm fast compared to others or not, what can I do to become faster?
That said, I also think the opposite of Sunruh - that kids should be actively discouraged from using this sort of thing as their athletic and other identities are still being formed, while as adults the horse has already bolted!
