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.
Yes, these times are based on 3 years when tech suits were becoming more and more common. As the tech suit times roll off the list and get replaced with non-tech suit times, the times should get a little slower.
Guess I'm doing better than I thought since I kinda drug my feet about getting a tech suit, and have just raced in legskins and jammers. I see that I need more endurance since I'm at or just below the AAAA times in my 50s, but am in the AAA times for 100s. Also noticed that I fair better in scm than in scy, which I suspected, although I'm not sure why that is. Neat tool, I appreciate the time put into doing this.
:bliss:
I too think it's a great idea. I am curious how you come up with the numbers, however. What is the methodology?
Would someone with a AAAA time have a shot at a Top 10 time?
Yes, the next step above AAAA is Top 10.
Each category is some percentage slower than the bottom five times in the Top 10, averaged over 3 years. AAAA = 5%, AAA = 10%, ... BB = 40%.
It will be interesting to see what will happen when the tech suits are banned what kinds of adjustments will have to be made.
Yes, these times are based on 3 years when tech suits were becoming more and more common. As the tech suit times roll off the list and get replaced with non-tech suit times, the times should get a little slower.
Checking out the the 60-64 Mens division the 50 100 and 200 free times look about right, but there must be an error re the 500, 1000 and 1650????
Yeah, there definitely seems to be a mistake somewhere. For example, the 55-59 men 500 free BB time is 7:07.09 while the corresponding 60-64 time is 5:18.79.
Yes, there was definitely a mistake in the M60-64 500/1000/1650. Sorry about that. I have revised the attachment in the original post.
If anyone spots more errors, please let me know.
Kind of motivates me to take up another sport. I hate to be negative, but my personal lifetime goal would only make your table if you ran it out through about the letter 'G'.
Please don't take it personally, as it is not anything you have done, it is just my frustration. I find a lot of advice on this forum for people a whole lot faster than me and a whole lot of people at my pool who are slower than me. I had hoped your very meticulously constructed table would address that gap. Maybe next time.
Hey notsofast,
The motivational times are percentage based, not percentile based, so your comment that you wouldn't show up until G is actually fine, going from G to F would be a very reasonable goal, and there is no reason that the table can't be built like the A table so there is F, GGG, GG and G times increasing the rate of progression.
Here are rough estimates of A - M for the 25-30 100 Free:
A: 58.16
B: 1:07.85
C: 1:17.55
D: 1:27.24
E: 1:36.93
F: 1:46.63
G: 1:56.32
H: 2:06.01
I: 2:15.71
J: 2:25.40
K: 2:35.09
L: 2:44.79
M: 2:54.48
Now if you have a H time, what does that tell you about how you rank compared to other swimmers? It doesn't, that isn't the point of the motivational times. The motivational times give you a ladder to climb if you want to, and the top of the ladder is a top 10 time, but each rung is arbitrary competition wise.
Hopefully the concept is not still demotivational.
I'm impressed with this, nicely done. I think it is probably as close to acccurate as you can get with us old folks. I swim with a few top 10 guys and the are all AAAA plus, so, to me, your calculations and designations are very accurate.
Excellent work!
Looked at the USA-S lists for years with my kids so it's fun to have an equivalent for Masters.
USMS really should just take this over and maintain it. They should create a Hy-tek file for use by Hy-tek's Team Manager and Meet Manager software so meet results could tag the times in result listings.
Thanks, I have been looking for something like this for a long time. Much appreciated from across the pond.
Saw the SCY version, grabbed a calculator and then saw the SCM version.
Nice work!!!
