Quick answer
You do not need a spreadsheet to know if your swimmer is getting faster. The official meet results already exist; the job is putting them in one place and reading them the right way: same event, same pool type, over time. Track four things: best times, the season trend, the gap to the next standard, and splits. Gophin (free) pulls the official results in automatically.
I used to track Rafa's progress in a spreadsheet: pulling times from different websites, converting between short course and long course, realizing I had missed an entire meet. One night, staring at a mess of tabs and half-entered data, I thought: "There has to be a better way." That frustration is the reason Gophin exists.
Your child just swam a 1:12.34 in the 100 backstroke. Is that good? Is it better than last month? How far is it from the provincial or LSC championship cut? If you do not know, it is not because you do not care. The information is scattered across half a dozen places.
The Problem: Times Are Everywhere and Nowhere
A typical swim parent's data looks like this: meet results on one website, the club's team app, splits the coach mentioned once, photos of the scoreboard on your phone, and a crumpled heat sheet with a best time circled in pen.
None of these sources talk to each other. When your child asks "Am I getting faster?", you end up scrolling through old messages to find out.
Why Tracking Matters
Tracking is not about obsessing over hundredths. It helps in three concrete ways.
Motivation. A chart showing steady progress over six months is more convincing than any pep talk. Kids are visual: the trendline turns abstract effort into evidence.
Seeing strengths and weak spots. Maybe your child drops time steadily in freestyle but has stalled in backstroke. You cannot see that without organized data, and it makes the conversation with the coach much more useful.
Keeping plateaus in perspective. Progress naturally slows as swimmers get older. A large study of age group backstroke results found yearly improvement of close to 10% at ages 8 to 10, about 5% at 11 to 14, and only 1 to 2% at 15 to 18 (Alshdokhi et al., 2020). When you track consistently, a flat stretch looks like what it usually is, a normal phase, instead of a crisis. More on that in why swimming plateaus are normal.
What Should You Actually Track?
Whether you go manual or digital, these are the numbers that matter:
| What | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Best times | The baseline for everything else, per event and per pool type |
| Season trend | Are times dropping, flat or creeping up compared with the same point last season? |
| Gap to the next standard | Clear, motivating milestones, and help choosing meets |
| Splits | How the race was swum: out too fast and faded, or strong at the finish |
| Event breadth | Young swimmers develop across strokes; a hidden strength often shows up here |
The Spreadsheet Route
Some dedicated parents keep meticulous records: date, meet, event, time, splits, their own charts. It works, if you have the time and discipline.
The limits show up fast. You have to find the results after every meet and enter them without mistakes. One busy month and you are three meets behind. And a spreadsheet only shows numbers: relating them to standards, pool types and last season is extra work that most parents do not have time for.
Letting the Official Results Do the Work
The alternative is a tool that pulls your child's times from official results, so nothing has to be typed. That is what Gophin does:
- Automatic results. After a meet, the times appear once the official results are published. It is not instant on the pool deck, but it is automatic.
- Best Times. A current personal best for every event, in each pool type, with an evolution chart per event.
- Meets. Every competition with every swim, placements and World Aquatics points.
- Comparisons. This season against last (Seasons), your swimmer against 60+ official standards from the US, Canada and Brazil (Standards), or against another swimmer (Swimmers).
- Times â Splits. Each race broken into its official splits.
All of it is free for everyone, with no paid tier.
Open your swimmer's Best Times in Gophin
To get started, see how to follow your child's swim times or the getting started guide.
Reading the Numbers Without Adding Pressure
Tracking is about clarity, not pressure. A few habits keep it healthy:
- Look once, at home, after the official results are posted. Not from the stands.
- Compare like with like. Same event, same pool type, same point in the season.
- Let your swimmer lead. Share the chart when they want to see it.
It matters for staying in the sport, too. USA Swimming's 2024 membership report shows athlete retention of 66.9% overall, dipping at 14 (66.2%) and 17 (63.0%), the ages when progress naturally slows (membership report, p. 13). When a family can see the long-term trend, a bad race is a data point, not a disaster.
The Bottom Line
Your child works hard in the pool. They deserve to see that work clearly, not buried in scattered results and forgotten spreadsheets.
After the next meet's results are up, compare this season with the last one in Gophin. Free, no spreadsheet.
Sources
- Alshdokhi, K., Petersen, C. & Clarke, J. (2020). Improvement and Variability of Adolescent Backstroke Swimming Performance by Age. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2:46. doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.00046
- USA Swimming (2025). 2024 Membership Demographics Report (PDF), p. 13.
