Guides for U.S. Masters swimmers

Plain-language guides to swimming course types, USMS standards, and how to read your swimming analytics.

• SCY vs SCM vs LCM: Swimming Course Types Explained — What SCY, SCM, and LCM mean in swimming: Short Course Yards, Short Course Meters, and Long Course Meters. Why the same swimmer posts a different time in each, and how to compare times across courses.
• Masters Swimming Analytics: How to Understand Your Times, Percentiles & Rankings — How to make sense of your Masters swimming results — Personal Best trends, USMS motivational-time tiers, percentile rankings, and Top 10 context. A plain guide to the numbers that tell you whether you are improving and how you compare.
• USMS Motivational Times Explained: Tiers, Age Groups & How to Read Them — A plain explanation of USMS Motivational Times: the six tiers (B, BB, A, AA, AAA, AAAA), how U.S. Masters age groups work, how to read the standards tables, and how to use them to set goals.