DEVELOPMENT OF A RANKING SYSTEM IN FINSWIMMING AS A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL FOR THE COMPARISON OF ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23670/IRJ.2022.119.5.139

РАЗРАБОТКА РАНГОВОЙ СИСТЕМЫ В ПЛАВАНИИ В ЛАСТАХ КАК ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКОЕ СРЕДСТВО СРАВНЕНИЯ СПОРТИВНОГО РЕЗУЛЬТАТА

Научная статья

Богдашкин А.Е.^1, *, Морозов С.Н.², Сауров Е.А.³

¹ ORCID: 0000-0002-7100-633X;

² ORCID: 0000-0002-1825-097X;

³ ORCID: 0000-0002-1825-092X;

^{1, 2, 3} Российский Государственный Университет физической культуры, спорта, молодежи и туризма, Москва, Россия

* Корреспондирующий автор (swim.alex[at]mail.ru)

Аннотация

Разработанная ранговая система позволяет сравнивать результаты на различных дистанциях в плавании в ластах. Формула расчета очков была разработана на основе кубической зависимости и сравнения показанных результатов с мировыми рекордами по состоянию на 31 декабря прошлого года. Эта формула - понятная и удобная для внедрения в протоколы соревнований. Данная система обеспечит дополнительное стимулирование внимания спортсменов и тренеров к своим результатам, создаст базу для сбора дополнительной информации исследователям и повысит эффективность анализа соревновательной деятельности.

Ключевые слова: плавание в ластах, спортивные результаты, спорт высших достижений, таблица очков, ранговая система.

DEVELOPMENT OF A RANKING SYSTEM IN FINSWIMMING AS A PEDAGOGICAL TOOL FOR THE COMPARISON OF ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE

Research article

Bogdashkin A.E.^1, *, Morozov S.N.², Saurov E.A.³

¹ ORCID: 0000-0002-7100-633X;

² ORCID: 0000-0002-1825-097X;

³ ORCID: 0000-0002-1825-092X;

^{1, 2, 3} Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, Youth and Tourism, Moscow, Russia

* Corresponding author (swim.alex[at]mail.ru)

Abstract

Created ranking system evaluates the level of performance across all the competitive disciplines in finswimming. The formula for counting points was created based on a cubic function and the comparison of athletic performance with the current world records as of December 31th 2021. This formula is transparent and convenient that makes it easy to implement it to competition protocols. This ranking system will stimulate athletes and coaches to pay more attention to their results and help researchers to collect more data and to analyse competitive activity more effectively.

Keywords: finswimming, sport, sport results, table points, ranking system.

Introduction

Finswimming is a group of disciplines of the underwater sport [2]. Athletes compete in the pool in different events from 50 to 1500 meters on the surface and under the water using monofin or bifins, snorkel or tank [6], [7]. As of April 2022, 85 sports federations are recognized by the International Olympic Committee, including The World Underwater Federation CMAS [9]. These sports have different rating systems such as subjective, accumulative and adjustive [5], [10]. Some sports don’t have a rating system at all [4].

During this research, protocols of competitive activity in swimming, track and field and skating were analyzed. These sports have different rating systems. It is considered that the most suitable systems are the ones that based on a world record. Systems like that are not perfect because world record performance can be much stronger than the rest of the top athletes. For example, world record at 200 meters freestyle in swimming was set in 2009 (1:42:00, Paul Biedermann, Germany, World championship 2009). Only one athlete was able to get close to this result since then (1:43:14, Yannick Agnel, France, Olympics 2012) [3]. Winners of the other world, European championships and Olympics from 2010 to 2021 showed much slower results and their ranking points are much less compared to athletes in different events.

Even though ranking system based on a world record is not perfect, it is very convenient to use, transparent for all the competition participants and adaptive to all the level results and competitions. It should be considered as a first step to evaluate the level of performance in different events in cyclic sports.

At the moment, there is no official ranking system in finswimming [8]. The modern points system, that competitions officials use, counts only places taken by athletes. This system is not effective and objective because it doesn’t count relativity of the results to the strongest athletes in the world. Thus, those points don’t allow to compare performances across different disciplines and are not useful for athletes, spectators and researchers.

The goal of this study is to create a system that will reliably compare athletes’ performances across all the competition disciplines, will be transparent for competitors and researchers and convenient for use.

Results

A points system that compares athletes results across all the disciplines was created during this research. Since there is no official ranking in finswimming, the base results for calculating points are world records recognized by CMAS as of December 31th previous year. The formula 1 for counting points at every discipline was based on a cubic function [1]:

P – points; B – base result (world record as of December 31th of the last year); T – athlete’s result.

The better the result, the more points an athlete gets. If an athlete swims faster than a previous year world record, his score will be more than 1000 points. Base results at all the distances for 2022 are in the table 1. The points table for men’s surface finswimming (SF) events are in the table 2, for women’s surface finswimming (SF) – in the table 3. Due to the requirements for volume of the paper, only pieces of the tables are given here (1005-990 points).

Table 1 – Base results for calculating points in 2022

Men (s)	Discipline (m)	Women (s)
13,7	50 apnea finswimming (AP)	15,1
15	50 surface finswimming (SF)	16,94
33,87	100 surface finswimming (SF)	38,02
79,54	200 surface finswimming (SF)	85,41
175,54	400 surface finswimming (SF)	192,1
376,24	800 surface finswimming (SF)	406,79
729,74	1500 surface finswimming (SF)	781,48
18,41	50 Bi-Fins (BF)	20,52
41,44	100 Bi-Fins (BF)	45,16
93,31	200 Bi-Fins (BF)	101,42
186,69	400 Bi-Fins (BF)	224,65
31,24	100 immersion finswimming (IM)	34,46
160,4	400 immersion finswimming (IM)	176,48

This table should be updated every year for correct working. If there are no new world records, the numbers in the table should remain.

Table 2 – Points table for 2022. Men, surface finswimming events (SF)

Points	50 SF	100 SF	200 SF	400 SF	800 SF	1500 SF
1005	14,97	33,81	79,4	175,27	375,61	728,52
1004		33,82	79,43	175,33	375,73	728,76
1003	14,98	33,83	79,46	175,39	375,86	729,01
1002		33,84	79,48	175,45	375,98	729,25
1001	14,99	33,85	79,51	175,51	376,11	729,49
1000		33,87	79,54	175,57	376,24	729,74
999	15	33,88	79,56	175,62	376,36	729,98
998		33,89	79,59	175,68	376,49	730,22
997	15,01	33,9	79,61	175,74	376,61	730,47
996		33,91	79,64	175,8	376,74	730,71
995	15,02	33,92	79,67	175,86	376,86	730,96
994		33,93	79,69	175,92	376,99	731,2
993	15,03	33,94	79,72	175,98	377,12	731,45
992		33,96	79,75	176,04	377,24	731,69
991	15,04	33,97	79,78	176,09	377,37	731,94
990		33,98	79,8	176,15	377,5	732,18

 

Table 3 – Points table for 2022. Women, surface finswimming events (SF)

Очки	50 SF	100 SF	200 SF	400 SF	800 SF	1500 SF
1005		37,95	85,26	191,78	406,11	780,18
1004	16,91	37,96	85,29	191,84	406,24	780,44
1003		37,98	85,32	191,9	406,38	780,7
1002	16,92	37,99	85,35	191,97	406,51	780,95
1001	16,93	38	85,38	192,03	406,65	781,21
1000		38,02	85,41	192,1	406,79	781,48
999	16,94	38,03	85,43	192,16	406,92	781,74
998		38,04	85,46	192,22	407,06	782
997	16,95	38,05	85,49	192,29	407,19	782,26
996		38,07	85,52	192,35	407,33	782,52
995	16,96	38,08	85,55	192,42	407,47	782,78
994		38,09	85,58	192,48	407,6	783,04
993	16,97	38,1	85,61	192,55	407,74	783,31
992	16,98	38,12	85,63	192,61	407,88	783,57
991		38,13	85,66	192,67	408,01	783,83
990	16,99	38,14	85,69	192,74	408,15	784,1

All the results in the tables are in seconds. 1000 points is a world record performance as of December 31th of the last year. At 50 meters events it’s possible that the same results close to 1000 points can be equal to two different cells. In this case, the lowest points are taken into account and some cells are empty.

Discussion

Implementation of this system will increase informativity and significance of competitions results at any level. A competition protocol will include the point score for every athlete’s performance (picture 1). If an athlete is disqualified, he gets 0 points.

 

Fig. 1 – Competition protocol with points

At picture 1 we can see that points score fits the competition protocol, complement all the other data very well and allows to understand how strong every performance is.

Conclusion

Finswimming is a modern developing sport that lacks research. Using our ranking system for equal comparison of performance across all the competition disciplines will help the sport to become more popular and will create a significant base for future research in different fields, such as tactics, technique, history, overall performance analytics and others. It is recommended to The World Underwater Federation (CMAS) to start implementing this system to every competition protocol. It will not only additionally stimulate athletes and coaches to pay more attention to their results, but also it will help researchers to collect more data and to analyse competition activity more effective.

Конфликт интересов Не указан.

Conflict of Interest None declared.

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