How to use the Lancashire Pathway Planner
I created this dashboard to help our athletes, parents and coaches understand progress, make better-informed race choices and have clearer conversations. It is not intended to turn every session or competition into a chase for a qualifying time. The aim is to support long-term development, good technique, broad racing experience and confident decision-making.
Technique is king. Listen carefully to your coaches, apply the detail they give you and give your absolute best in every session. Qualification comes from consistent, purposeful work over time; progress is rarely linear.
Dashboard
The dashboard gives a quick club-wide view of qualification and near-qualification.
- Qualified athletes
- Unique athletes with at least one valid in-window performance at or faster than the applicable 2027 consideration time.
- Confirmed qualifiers
- Athlete-event combinations, so one athlete may contribute several qualifying events.
- Within threshold
- Recorded athlete-event combinations outside the standard but within the selected percentage slider.
- Closest confirmed targets
- Actual recorded swims, ordered by percentage gap to the standard. These are not predictions.
- Qualification funnel
- Shows how the club moves from recorded events towards closer targets and confirmed qualifications.
- Qualification change log
- Used after a future data refresh to show newly qualified events, improved event PBs and newly recorded events. The current published version is the baseline.
Athlete Explorer
Select an athlete to review every championship event against the correct age category at 31 December 2027.
- Best in qualification window
- The fastest converted short-course performance achieved from 9 February 2026 to 13 January 2027. This is the only performance used for qualification.
- Best outside window
- The fastest historical result outside the qualification window. It provides context but cannot establish 2027 qualification.
- Gap to standard
- The difference between the athlete's valid best and the 2027 consideration time. Percentage gaps allow fairer comparison between events of different lengths.
- PB progression
- Compares the fastest pre-window PB with the fastest eligible in-window result. Dates are shown so the comparison can be checked.
- Window progression
- Compares the first eligible swim in the window with the best eligible swim. A slower recent race does not remove an earlier PB.
- Current form
- Uses the latest three eligible swims only. Labels are cautious: improving, plateauing near PB, broadly stable, variable form or limited evidence.
- Performance timeline
- Plots all matching historical swims. Lower is faster. Use stroke, distance, period and course controls to explore progression.
- Performance evidence
- The underlying race history, including date, event, source time, converted SC time, meet and whether the swim falls inside the qualification window.
Club Analysis
This page looks beyond a filtered results list and shows where the club has strength, depth and gaps.
- Qualification heat maps
- Unique qualified athletes by stroke, distance and 2027 age group. A number represents athletes, not qualifying events.
- Event depth
- For each event, separates unique qualified athletes, athletes within the selected threshold and athletes with a recorded valid time.
- Next qualification targets
- Actual recorded performances closest to the standard, ranked by percentage gap.
- Qualification and target depth
- Summarises unique athletes by stroke while showing event totals separately, avoiding claims such as “six athletes qualified” when two athletes qualified across six events.
- Age-group pipeline
- Shows the number of athletes with recorded evidence, close targets and qualifications in each age group.
- Participation coverage
- Shows how widely each stroke is being raced, independent of qualification.
- Event coverage gaps
- Counts athletes without a valid in-window performance in events up to 200m. A gap is a prompt for coaching judgement, not an instruction to enter every athlete.
- Detailed results
- The underlying athlete-event records used by the analysis and filters.
2027 Lancashire Times Analysis
This section compares the published 2026 and 2027 consideration times.
- Faster / harder
- The 2027 standard is faster than the 2026 standard. Red indicates that qualification has become more demanding.
- Slower / easier
- The 2027 standard is slower. Green indicates that the standard has relaxed.
- Unchanged
- The standard is identical.
- Change in seconds and percentage
- Seconds show the absolute movement; percentage change gives better context across different race lengths.
- Detailed table, matrix and grouped summary
- Different ways to inspect the same standards data. Filters should always apply to the figures and rows shown.
A harder standard does not mean an athlete has gone backwards. It means the benchmark has changed.
Meet Planner — Beta
The planner is experimental guidance only and must never replace coach advice. It uses recorded performances, progression and event foundations; it does not predict future times.
- Recommended for the next meet: narrowly qualified events and genuine near-qualification targets.
- Development priorities: improving events, missing 50m coverage and suitable adjacent distances.
- Secure events: comfortably qualified events remain visible without crowding out development priorities.
- Progressive distance: 400m and longer events are suggested only where endurance evidence supports them.
The progression pathway is deliberately conservative. Athletes generally establish broad 50m skills, then move first to 100m freestyle. Backstroke and breaststroke 100s follow when the 50m foundation is sufficiently competitive or improving. Butterfly progression is stricter because technical quality and the ability to sustain legal, efficient butterfly are essential. A weak 50m butterfly must not trigger a 100m butterfly recommendation.
A missing 200m stroke event requires a valid and sufficiently strong or improving 100m foundation. The 200m IM requires broad competence across several 100m strokes. The 400m IM and distance freestyle events require clear endurance evidence.
Early specialisation is discouraged. Stroke strengths frequently change as young athletes grow and develop, so broad skill and race experience remain a priority.
Time Checker
Enter a category, age, event and time to compare it directly with the 2027 standard.
- Improvement needed
- The exact time and percentage required to reach the standard.
- Monthly and weekly guide
- A simple division of the required improvement across the remaining time. It is a planning prompt only; swimming improvement is not linear.
- Club context
- An approximate position among recorded Fleetwood Mako's athletes in the same category and event. It is not a Lancashire ranking.
- Practical target plan
- Training and race-skill prompts to discuss with the athlete's coach.
Technique is king. Listen to your coaches and give your absolute best every session. A Lancashire consideration time requires at least four purposeful sessions per week. Development Squad athletes should attend all core sessions: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and the invite-only Saturday morning session. Four sessions is the absolute minimum for Performance Squad athletes, and Saturday morning technique and skills is strongly encouraged.
Race-pace efficiency, planned breathing patterns, starts, turns, underwater speed, nutrition, recovery, stretching and appropriate strength and conditioning all matter. Athletes must own the process: keep a swim log, record splits and stroke counts, ask for feedback and set SMART goals with their coach.
Data, qualification rules and privacy
- Qualification window
- 9 February 2026 to 13 January 2027.
- Age
- The athlete's age at 31 December 2027 determines the applicable standard.
- Course handling
- Long-course swims use the converted short-course time supplied in the SportsEngine report.
- Missing event
- No valid performance is listed for that athlete and event within the qualification window.
- Historical swims
- Used for context, progression and charts only. They never establish qualification for 2027.
- Privacy
- Exact dates of birth are used only during preparation to calculate the correct age category. They are not displayed or stored in the shared app. Only age at 31 December 2027 is shown.
All recommendations are aids to conversation. Technical readiness, health, confidence, meet schedules and individual development can only be judged properly by the coaching team.
Why this tool exists
This dashboard was created to give Fleetwood Mako's athletes, parents and coaches a clearer understanding of Lancashire qualification, progression and event planning. It should encourage evidence-based decisions without losing sight of what matters most: excellent technique, consistent training, broad skill development, enjoyment and long-term progress.
Use the information to ask better questions, celebrate progress and agree the next sensible step with your coach.
