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 also have this in spreadsheet form. It is slightly too large to upload to these forums (seriously, a 400K limit?) but here is a link that I think should work to download it to your computer (there are no macros in the file):
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/.../RatingCalculator.xlsx
Also more user effort but there are some examples already loaded.
The 2nd sheet (Swim Converter) is a way to compare events directly. Or even to account for the effects of aging on a given event; for example if you haven't swum an event in four years and want a comparable time for a meet entry. Note that I added fitted curves from a more recent database of records (2012) as an option for conversions/ratings so if you use those fits you'll get different results from the web page.
More generally, responses on this page mostly match the reactions of the R&T committee towards the concept: some liked it, some indifferent. But some members thought it might discourage people if publicized anything like USA-S does with their standards.
Thanks for the additional information. It's ashame that your system is not used for the NQTs, it would be more equitable than the current system. For example - Men 25-29 1500 23:56 (your rating 68.6), 50 br. 35.92 (rating 79.3), Men 60-64 1500 23:25 (rating 79.7), 50 br. 42.19 (rating 80.8). Even a history major would have to be oblivious to the fact that the men's 1500 25-29 is an obvious outlier. Your system reveals this error.
" But some members thought it might discourage people if publicized anything like USA-S does with their standards. " :laugh2::laugh2::laugh2::laugh2::laugh2:
I also have this in spreadsheet form. It is slightly too large to upload to these forums (seriously, a 400K limit?) but here is a link that I think should work to download it to your computer (there are no macros in the file):
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/.../RatingCalculator.xlsx
Also more user effort but there are some examples already loaded.
The 2nd sheet (Swim Converter) is a way to compare events directly. Or even to account for the effects of aging on a given event; for example if you haven't swum an event in four years and want a comparable time for a meet entry. Note that I added fitted curves from a more recent database of records (2012) as an option for conversions/ratings so if you use those fits you'll get different results from the web page.
More generally, responses on this page mostly match the reactions of the R&T committee towards the concept: some liked it, some indifferent. But some members thought it might discourage people if publicized anything like USA-S does with their standards.
Thanks for the additional information. It's ashame that your system is not used for the NQTs, it would be more equitable than the current system. For example - Men 25-29 1500 23:56 (your rating 68.6), 50 br. 35.92 (rating 79.3), Men 60-64 1500 23:25 (rating 79.7), 50 br. 42.19 (rating 80.8). Even a history major would have to be oblivious to the fact that the men's 1500 25-29 is an obvious outlier. Your system reveals this error.
" But some members thought it might discourage people if publicized anything like USA-S does with their standards. " :laugh2::laugh2::laugh2::laugh2::laugh2:
