Keeping Records
Hi Roy
We are starting a new AA team this year. Everyone has volunteered for a team task. As I am a bit of a computer geek and I like working in Excel, I volunteered to keep records. What should I keep track of? Someone suggested the block times, is that an average? or a best? or worst? Do I measure from break to break, or formation to formation? Have different records for tunnel and sky?
If you would give me a list of useful data to collect and record then that would be really helpful as I can start off on the right foot. Thanks Roy! ☺
Yours
Woody
Hi Woody,
In order to know where you are going, you need to know where you are.
In 1998, Jack Jefferies (of Airspeed), wrote an article Keeping Good Records. In that article, he already answers some of your questions. Because I really like what he wrote, I use parts of it in my reply.
MANAGE SUCCESS
I think that keeping good records is a hallmark of most successful teams. In order to manage success, you must be able to measure success. What this means is that in order to know where you are going, you need to know where you are.
WHAT TO KEEP TRACK OF
There are many different details that we can keep track of, but let’s focus first on the most important ones: block times, exit breaks, which formations we have exited, what kind of training we have done and when, meet scores and averages.
To answer your question ‘if you need to keep track of the average, best, or worst block times’, if you time all your jumps, you automatically get all of them. To avoid that you are spending hours behind the screen timing, I suggest that you do it after every jump, or at least, at the end of each training day. During bad weather days, you always can catch up if necessary.
An overkill of information doesn’t make sense either. Remember, keeping track of records is necessary but do not get hung up only on specific times, they are only a part of the whole picture.
Having consistent fast times, is the key to success!
KEY TO SUCCESS
What many people seem to forget is, it’s not only the time on the stopwatch that matters, but the feeling we have during a block or exit, are just as important! Our goal should be, having always good starts and finishes, so we become consistent… and having consistent fast times, is the key to success!
TIMING
There are different ways of how to time the blocks and exits. Some prefer to time start-to-finish, others start-to-break. Whatever you do, make sure you always do it in the same way. The best thing is having the same person timing the jumps, and with the same stopwatch, so we can minimalize any difference in outcome.
SEPARATE RECORDS
I strongly recommend that you keep separate records for indoor and outdoor because they are not comparable for obvious reasons.
STAY ON TRACK!
Make specific goals around these statistics, what average time or score we are shooting for, and by what date. In this way we can measure our improvements and stay on track!
Good luck!
Roy
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