![]() ![]() Let’s go over each of these results to see if they make sense. The other thing that stands out is that both genders share the same ranking of conversion rates by stroke: from highest to lowest are backstroke, breaststroke, IM, freestyle, butterfly, and distance free. What jumps out right away is the huge difference in conversion rates for different strokes: from a high of 5.8% for men’s backstroke to a low of 1.5% for women’s distance freestyle. The columns are the conversion rate averages for the appropriate records across all 5 jurisdictions used above. The next chart breaks down the conversion rates by stroke, with distance freestyle (8)separated from the shorter distances due to their minimal underwater component. If so, men would benefit more from SC, as there is more underwater than in LC.īut let’s dig a little deeper into the data. This gender difference is most easily accounted for if the speed differential between men and women for underwater kicking is larger than the speed differential of their swimming. While the data doesn’t explain why there is this gender difference, we can speculate. The Men’s rate averages 3.6% across all jurisdictions, while the women’s averages 2.6%, and variation between jurisdictions for each gender is minimal. Right away we can see a big disparity between the conversion rates for men and women. The charts below show the SC-LC conversion rate based on records for five jurisdictions, including World, American, Canadian, European and Australian records: For qualification into specific competition, each course has a time standard derived from a specific formula or philosophy.”īut other swim governing bodies do not want to calculate independent sets of time standards for each course, and so they just use a single conversion rate to handle everything. Each course (long course meter, short course meters and short course yards) is unique. “USA Swimming does not formally endorse any conversion factors between different courses. USA Swimming and Swimming Canada steadfastly maintain that there is no need to use any conversion rate at all. ![]() In fact, a look at the World Records in both courses shows that only 10 of the 34 individual events has the same person holding both SC and LC World Records (5 male and 5 female). So its not surprising that different swimmers often excel at one or the other. With 2 underwater phases for every 50 m instead of one, SC swimming is all about the underwater kicking. The discovery that underwater kicking was the fastest form of swimming changed all of that. Or when a swimmer has a great race, but doesn’t meet their converted time and thinks they did poorly.īefore the discovery of underwater kicking, conversion rates were typically 2.5%, and once the swimmer’s body adjusted to long course season it was reasonably accurate. But the process is frustrating when an inaccurate conversion rate makes a LC qualifying time so much harder to achieve than the SC time. Unless the governing body is willing to publish separate LC and SC time standards for individual meets to use, a conversion rate becomes necessary to allow swimmers with only SC times into a LC meet. As most North American teams do not have ready access to a 50m pool, most meets are SC, but championship meets are usually LC. Using course conversion rates is often necessary for qualifying or seeding in meets. ![]() Long Course Time = Short Course Time x (1 + Conversion Rate%) Finally, any swim governing body that uses a single, artificially low conversion rate is doing a great disservice to its members.Ī course conversion rate is used to take a time done in either a short course (25 m) pool or a long course (50 m) pool, and change it into a reasonably accurate time for the other pool. Existing one-size-fits-all course conversion rates are not remotely accurate, especially for backstroke, and there exists a sizable difference in accurate conversion rates between men and women. ![]()
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