How to read Race Analysis report.

The evaluation of race strategy beyond basic split times has been of interest to coaches for as long as athletes have been swimming. However, it really wasn’t until the early 1970’s that researchers and coaches really expanded their analysis to include more variables than split times. Many techniques have been developed to offer coaches and sports scientists a method for comparing swimmers' performances.

“Race Analysis” is the system developed by Alex Nikitin (Parametrix Research) in partnership with USA Swimming to assess race strategy and has been one of the core projects and services of the National Team Technical Support program since the US Open in 1999. The primary objectives in the continued development of the Race Analysis (RA) system are the collection of information that coaches and swimmers use every day to evaluate and improve performance, the creation of an accurate and easy to use measurement tool, the organization of information for long term athlete comparison (meet to meet, or year to year).

Race Analysis report is broken into seven categories:

Breakout time: (seconds) - The time from starting tone (start) or feet leaving the wall (turns), to head breaking the surface.

Breakout Distance: The distance from the wall that a swimmer’s head breaks the surface, in meters (rounded to the nearest .25 meters)

Split: Official subtractive split time for the length measured.

Drop-off: The difference in seconds between the length measured and the preceding length.

This is a measure of speed consistency during a race. The best races are normally achieved with a relatively small drop-off variation. (Individual Medley events don't count, because strokes are different from each other.) Positive values indicate slower time in comparison to the previous split, negative - faster time. Swimmers should aim for the best consistency in these numbers.
A big drop-off from the first split to the second, and consecutive positive drop-off values indicates that a swimmer started racing too fast and "died" at the end.
Big negative drop-off at the last split means that swimmer saved too much energy during the race.

Cycle count: Number of stroke cycles during the length (one cycle= one arm stroke for Fly and Breast and one cycle=2 arm strokes for Back and Free. This number is computed using stroke rate and actual free swimming time.

Time: Official cumulative time in the race.

Tempo/Rate: Frequency of swimming cycles during the length measured. Expressed in both cycles per minute, and seconds per cycle. (If you use single arm stroke for Free/Back divide cycle rate by 2 to get stroke rate). (seconds per cycle) or Tempo, (cycles per minute).

This parameter can be used to evaluate swimming efficiency. Extremely high Tempo (Cycle Rate) and average performance times can indicate that swimming technique is not efficient. However, a very low Tempo (Cycle Rate) and average performance is not good either.

DPC: "Distance per cycle" - distance covered during one stroke cycle during length measured.

DPC is an ultimate measure of swimming stroke efficiency. Swimmers and coaches should always look for ways to improve this parameter in their races. High values of D.P.C. indicate available reserves for future improvements, an "untapped" potential.

Turn Time: Time in seconds to execute the turn at the end of the length measured. Free and Backstroke begins with hand entry on the final arm stroke and concludes with feet contacting the wall. Fly and Breast begin with hand touch and conclude with foot contact on the wall.

15 M Start: Time in seconds from starting tone to the 15-meter mark.

15 M Velocity: Average velocity over first 15 meters of race.

7.5M Finish: Time in seconds from 7.5 meters remaining in race to finish. This split shows whether a swimmer is accelerating or decelerating at the end of the race.

7.5M Velocity: Average velocity over last 7.5 meters of the race.