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.
Generally LCM is harder to TT in than SCM.SCY is the hardest because it is the most swum course in the US.I still think LCM is the truer test of swimming(vs turning.)
LCM meets are definitely less popular than SCY. This makes the Top 10 times slightly less impressive, and the motivational times a little easier.
SCM is also less popular, though. I'm not sure that LCM times are much, if any, easier than SCM.
Hi, David, not sure how much of this thread you have looked at, but I highly recommend checking out Chris Stevenson's formula for age-grading swims in the different courses. www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
Chris (I think it was Chris, though it might have been another mathematically inclined US swimming god) also told me at one point that in England, it's not uncommon to use this sort of calculation at masters meets so that the oldsters can compete in a sense with the youngsters.
I just did a review of my own swimming times for the past 12 years and posted my amateur analysis of the effect of different suits and training volumes on a decidely less than swimming god-like shlub (Meditations on a Swimming Bubble) here forums.usms.org/blog.php
Good luck with your efforts! It's nice to know that Australians visit this forum. Say hi to Ian Thorpe for us, and wish him good luck on his diet.
David, I was just joking around. I know that Australia is a big place. Our regular poster here, Chicken of the Sea, is from the Sydney area, and she tells me that there is quite a bit of consternation in your country these days since Russia issued a ban on kangaroo meat importation.
You have my sympathy!
If you do happen to run into Ian Thorpe, could you run a money-making idea by him? I would like to license his feet, take molds of these, and then produce a line of latex Ian Thorpe replica feet-fins.
The average swimmer, such as myself, could order anywhere from a size 6 to a size 12 Ian Thorpe latex pair of feet fins, then see what it would be like to be able to race with such large feet. I suspect my times would definitely improve. Perhaps I could then license some Jason Lezak hand paddles.
Tell Ian I might be willing to pay up to 1 cent US for every pair of Ian Thorpedo Fins I can sell.
In the meantime, best of luck with the Australian masters movement!
Just wondering are those times based on world standards or USA standards? I'm from Australia and was wondering what the percentiles you're basing the grade off are. I'd like to create a similiar chart for Australian masters.
Also I've always found it odd comparing times at my age group, 25-29 because most of the great swimmers my age are in elite competition. Would it likely be that hard to make tables that incorporate the elite times in? Thanks,
David
Just wondering are those times based on world standards or USA standards? I'm from Australia and was wondering what the percentiles you're basing the grade off are. I'd like to create a similiar chart for Australian masters.
Also I've always found it odd comparing times at my age group, 25-29 because most of the great swimmers my age are in elite competition. Would it likely be that hard to make tables that incorporate the elite times in?
These are based on USMS Top 10 times. (USA, not world) I did this to mimic the USA Swimming (non-Masters) time standards, which are based on their list of Top 16 times.
All you need to generate a similar table is an Australian "Top N" list. I have no idea whether it exists -- either for masters or elites.
All you need to generate a similar table is an Australian "Top N" list. I have no idea whether it exists -- either for masters or elites.
Yep there is. So the ranks are just based on a spread across the top 10? Thanks,
David
Hi, David, not sure how much of this thread you have looked at, but I highly recommend checking out Chris Stevenson's formula for age-grading swims in the different courses. www.vaswim.org/.../rcalc.cgi
Good luck with your efforts! It's nice to know that Australians visit this forum. Say hi to Ian Thorpe for us, and wish him good luck on his diet.
I did see that, thanks. I don't know Ian Thorpe personally, Australia is a largish place. I do swim at the same pool as much of the Australian olympic team though(Ken Wood's pool), so occasionally bump into some of our great swimmers.
I've been recently made Club Captain of our club and have been working since then to try and bring a bit more competitiveness to Australian masters swimming, it just doesn't seem quite as organised as you have it over there. Thanks,
David
