The British Age Group Points system

Introduction

In order to support the new approach to age group competition for the younger competitors, it is necessary to introduce a new point scoring system into British swimming.

The system comprises two elements:

·         British Comparative Performance Tables

·         British Age Group Correction Factors

Comparative Performance Points Systems

Comparative Performance Points Tables have been used in the UK since the 1970's in order to compare swimming times across the standard range of strokes and distances. British swimming has used LEN (The European Governing Body), and more recently, FINA (The World Governing Body) tables. Both of these are based on world performances and reflect the parity between events at the top level of the sport. These tables have been used for scoring major open team competitions, such as the GB Club Team and are accepted by the swimming community as provision of a fair comparison across the range of events.

Unfortunately, when these tables are applied to age group swimming, especially at the younger ages, the value of the comparisons across events becomes less valid. This is a direct consequence of the way in which the human physical systems develop (See The Physiological Development of Young Swimmers)

In the light of these findings it is clear that a mechanism is required to establish a fair comparison across the sexes and the events and the ages and to satisfy the needs of the CDC proposals the requirements are for:

·         A mechanism for comparing performances across the range of events

·         A method that reflects the different achievement levels as a consequence of age-related physical development

·         A method related to world standards

·         A method that recognises the achievement levels at the younger ages in British swimming

In order to provide the sport with total ownership of the stability and availability of quality comparative performance tables it has been necessary to develop our own British system. This arises as a consequence of the shortcomings in both the LEN and FINA systems.

LEN points are based on the World long course records only - and as a result are perceived to be biased in those events where the record was set by an exceptionally talented swimmer (for example - Mary T Meagher's 200m butterfly record set in 1981). In addition, because they are based on Long Course (50m) records there is an additional difficulty as the majority of swims in the UK are made in Short Course (25m) pools. Using LEN tables therefore requires converting times for pool length - an additional process which the swimming community prefer to avoid.

FINA tables are considered to have a much more acceptable basis than LEN as they are published in both Long and Short Course versions and are based on a more equitable datum - the average of the eight World All Time Best swims. The major problem with the FINA tables is that the underlying mathematical equations are not known and, perhaps most detrimentally, the relationships between times and points can change significantly between annual revisions. Because such changes have not been known in advance they have produced considerable confusion within the user community.

British Comparative Performance Tables

These will have exactly the same starting point as that used for the FINA tables, (i.e. 1000 points corresponds to the average of the world all-time top eight performances). The essential difference is that the lower end of the tables extends to appropriately defined slower times in order to cater for the youngest age groups and development ability levels.

In fact the underlying mathematics for these new British tables was developed in 1961/62 due to the vision of Bert Kinnear, the coach to the 1960 Great Britain Olympic Team. This was long before LEN and FINA tables existed - We have just been a little slow in the implementation process!

British Age Group Correction Factors

Everyone recognises that some events are relatively more difficult for the younger swimmers. This observation is proven by statistical analysis of the relative achievement levels of British age group swimmers since 1995. For the 11 year girls age group, analysis of the top ten all time best British swimmers shows that the 200m butterfly scores only 483 points, compared with 659 points for the 400m freestyle.

In order to relate the performance of two different events within a single year age group a simple age correction factor has been determined between events within each single sex and age group.

These factors are based totally on observations of British swimming performance levels. For each age group the reference times used are the average of the ten all time top British performances in each event. The factors are then determined by establishing the ratio between the number of points for the highest scoring event and each of the other events in each single year age group.

It is important to note that the age correction factor applies only within each one-year band and it is not intended to relate performances between different ages and sex.

The age correction factors have been based on the GB Ranking Database, which covers the period 1995 to 1999. As more swimmers participate in the traditionally less swum events the variation between correction factors will relate more closely to just the physiological differences. The correction factors for use during 2001 will be determined in September 2000 and will be made available in October. New self-adhesive tables with the revised factors will be available free of charge from ASA Customer Services department

Support Materials

In order to support the use of these points systems, the following is available for use by the swimming community:

·         A printed version of the British Comparative Performance Tables (GB points), along with the British Age Correction factors for each sex/event/age, for both Long and Short Course pools.
These tables are be available from ASA Merchandising (Tel: 0800 220292)

·         A computer program to display straight GB points and BAG points for a given swim. This will be free of charge, available on request from ASA Merchandising with the printed version or from ASA Customer Services Department
e-mail:cserv@asagb.org.uk

The ASA has adopted SPORTSYSTEMS as a preferred supplier of software for Meet Organisation. Planned enhancements to be made to these systems include:

·         Uncorrected British Points - GB points

·         British Age Group corrected points - BAGPoints

Total BAG Points scores by age category comprising a number of event groups