From the Drivers Perspective-Boat Times Analysis

Written by Jerry Bautsch, Chair AWSA Drivers Committee, SCR Drivers Committee Representative

What does it all mean?

It all started when a record performance request was submitted for review. This led to an intensive detailed analysis of all tournaments from 2006 that had recorded times in the WSTIMS scoring program. The results of this analysis have been quite interesting and open to interpretation except for some extreme examples.

At this point, I would like to preface the rest of this article with the comment that this is my opinion and interpretation as a Senior Boat Driver and skier. The Drivers Committee has not been involved in any of the discussion and/or analysis at this time. My only knowledge and involvement of this has been as one of your SCR Directors. I will also say that my back ground and position as a boat driver, has provided some different interpretations and opinions of the data as it has been analyzed and presented.

Up until now, as a Senior Driver, I had paid attention to boat paths using end course video and software for analysis but I had not fully utilized nor understood all of the information I could get from the reports generated from WSTIMS regarding slalom times. There is a lot that one can learn from looking at all this statistical data. Besides understanding what all the categories of data mean, one must analyze ALL the data to get the big picture. The more I have looked at the data, the stronger I feel that we, as drivers, can study and use this data to improve our driving skills.

In addition to the statistical data, WSTIMS will generate a plot of the times from an event. This report shows the scattering of the times that gives a visual picture of what the statistical analysis is telling you.

One other category of data breaks the times into 1 of 3 “buckets”. They are listed as fast, ideal, and slow. Ideal is a 0.05 second spread (+/- 0.02 off actual). Some think that there should be an even distribution of times among the three buckets. This would put the average close to actual. This would also give a low Z value.

My opinion of what I would “ideally” like to see would be a majority of times in the ideal bucket. The balance of times would be distributed between the fast and slow buckets. The other goal would be to have the spread of times to be low, less than 5.0. This would result in a low Z value. One could also have a low Z value but have a much wider spread of times. In my mind this would be less fair for the skiers and indicate that the driver was struggling with the times eventhough the average was close to 0 with a low Z value. There would also be a larger percentage of times in the fast and slow buckets.

As a Driver, I would strive for actual. The first pass of a skier may result in the largest variation from actual if you are not familiar with the skier or he/she gives you incorrect skier weight. Adjustments to the rpm’s should be made to correct this as well as take into account any changing conditions. The goal is to strive for actual but stay within the “ideal bucket”. When the times are tightly clustered, everyone is getting the same pull.

Understanding how to access and look at all this data will help make us better drivers. Just as studying end course video for boat path, analyzing the timing data will improve our driving skills. The Drivers Committee will be incorporating this into our clinics.

One of the main reasons to address this now is that we will be changing our Nationals qualification format from ratings based to a rankings based system. There will be NO weighting of scores based on the type tournament the score is achieved in. All tournaments will be the same. As a result of this, it will now be required to record times in all tournaments. It is also important to be aware of and follow rules 1.12 and 8.10 b & c. It is imperative that we, as Drivers, understand the rules and comply with them. We need to get out of the mindset that slower is better and that using the range of speed tolerances to do this is ok. We need to try to keep our times as close to actual as possible.

I encourage all of you to pay more attention to your driving and times. Look at the available reports in WSTIMS. Review your boat path. Not only will it make you a better driver but the skiers will like skiing behind you.