It’s summer swim team. Most are probably neighborhood pools and it’s meant to be fun. It’s not worth the time to even care how most improved is picked. Just let it be fun.

I think that your post is coming across like it does because you are focused on a small award in the realm of NVSL. Asking other teams what they do won’t help. For example, I’d your kid dropped the most time in B meets, and another teams says they include that data in determining who wins, you’ll latch on to that. The only thing that matters is what your team does AND explaining to your kid that sometimes it’s you and sometimes it’s not you. That you don’t know how it’s calculated but it doesn’t take away from what a great summer he had.

Most of the software will now calculate this for you. Our team uses the number of time drops as opposed to the overall percentage time drop since it reflects a more consistent and steady improvement over the course of the season. A swimmer who shows up at maybe time trials and one other meet might have just one or two events in the system but reflect an overall huge percentage time drop simply because if you're only showing up rarely then the time drops are each likely to be bigger overall.

Our team wants to recognize those who are persistent, showing up and doing the hard work and consistently working to improve.

It's summer swim, don't overthink it.

Our team uses the Swimtopia software for just about everything, including the most improved report to determine how to award the most improved award for each age group.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We give out a most improved award and it is done by a formula. It is all strokes swam in all meets (time trials being the start point) and the improvement percentage in time factored in.

Most of the swim team software that teams now use will actually run the computations for you. We just have a formula that is used pulling from all times/events/swims for the season.

Wow. You guys really care about this that much?

I don't understand. This is math, it is not a huge secret or a conspiracy and it is certainly not playing favorites. I have been a team rep for two different teams and the formula is virtually the same. Swim is literally numbers and it is easy to not play favorites because there are formulas that compute it for you. I am an accountant in real life, so it works with my brain.

OP here. I use advanced math every day at work, so don't need condescension on this. But our team's picks for these awards are frequently counterintuitive, compared with observed time drops during the season. So curious about how this should work, if coaches are doing this the right way.

OP, are you one of those parents who actually analyzes this stuff? Wow. When our kids were on NVSL, we'd go to the award show, and when a kid won something we'd think "nice, good for her" and that's it. We never went back and compared metrics to see if the award was deserved. This is NVSL, not the Olympics, and you are the poster child for why I was so glad to put NVSL behind us.

Ours is by improvement across strokes, nothing to do with A meets. Usually it is a 10&U, but not always. Agree with the PP that mastering IM is one that helps a LOT.

we do this- but it is just one boy and one girl, not one for each age group. The coaches look at the data, but then they pick. It's not a strict formula. They are looking for improvement in most strokes, and getting into an A meet- e.g. the kid who swam a 50 free in 2:00 at time trials, and then swam it in 1:15 seconds at a b meet is probably not going to win the most improved, although one way of looking at it would be that a 45 second drop was indeed 'most improved.'

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We give out a most improved award and it is done by a formula. It is all strokes swam in all meets (time trials being the start point) and the improvement percentage in time factored in.

Most of the swim team software that teams now use will actually run the computations for you. We just have a formula that is used pulling from all times/events/swims for the season.

Wow. You guys really care about this that much?

I don't understand. This is math, it is not a huge secret or a conspiracy and it is certainly not playing favorites. I have been a team rep for two different teams and the formula is virtually the same. Swim is literally numbers and it is easy to not play favorites because there are formulas that compute it for you. I am an accountant in real life, so it works with my brain.

OP here. I use advanced math every day at work, so don't need condescension on this. But our team's picks for these awards are frequently counterintuitive, compared with observed time drops during the season. So curious about how this should work, if coaches are doing this the right way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We give out a most improved award and it is done by a formula. It is all strokes swam in all meets (time trials being the start point) and the improvement percentage in time factored in.

Most of the swim team software that teams now use will actually run the computations for you. We just have a formula that is used pulling from all times/events/swims for the season.

Wow. You guys really care about this that much?

I don't understand. This is math, it is not a huge secret or a conspiracy and it is certainly not playing favorites. I have been a team rep for two different teams and the formula is virtually the same. Swim is literally numbers and it is easy to not play favorites because there are formulas that compute it for you. I am an accountant in real life, so it works with my brain.

The OP thinks it's a conspiracy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We give out a most improved award and it is done by a formula. It is all strokes swam in all meets (time trials being the start point) and the improvement percentage in time factored in.

Most of the swim team software that teams now use will actually run the computations for you. We just have a formula that is used pulling from all times/events/swims for the season.

Wow. You guys really care about this that much?

I don't understand. This is math, it is not a huge secret or a conspiracy and it is certainly not playing favorites. I have been a team rep for two different teams and the formula is virtually the same. Swim is literally numbers and it is easy to not play favorites because there are formulas that compute it for you. I am an accountant in real life, so it works with my brain.

Anonymous wrote:We give out a most improved award and it is done by a formula. It is all strokes swam in all meets (time trials being the start point) and the improvement percentage in time factored in.

Most of the swim team software that teams now use will actually run the computations for you. We just have a formula that is used pulling from all times/events/swims for the season.

Wow. You guys really care about this that much?

Our pool's formula is most time dropped across all strokes Every year the kid who does an IM and has to get clapped across, but doesn't DQ, and then learns how to swim and drops minutes wins.

We give out a most improved award and it is done by a formula. It is all strokes swam in all meets (time trials being the start point) and the improvement percentage in time factored in.

Most of the swim team software that teams now use will actually run the computations for you. We just have a formula that is used pulling from all times/events/swims for the season.

You are in serious need of therapy if you are spending more than a nanosecond thinking about something as petty as this. Get a life.

Our NVSL team gives out "most improved" trophies to a swimmer in each age group at the end-of-season banquet but there is no transparency about how this is calculated. And without this, in some cases it looks like the coach is using inconsistent metrics and playing favorites in giving these out.

Does your team do this? If so, are there clear rules on these awards are determined? A meet times only or also B meets and time trials? All strokes factored in? IM times too? Would be interested to hear if other teams give these out too and if they are similarly confusing.