Team Training Tool

[janette 0]

Lots of teams track their performance on dives throughout the training season, and probably use a range of tools. Last year, my team developed a tool in excel that we think is pretty cool and would like to share with any other teams that are interested. If you find it useful for your team, great. We just ask that if you have any suggestions on how to make it better or find any bugs, let us know.

It allows you to time the dives directly in the tool and then automatically tracks a number of statistics, averages and best times for exits, blocks, random builds. It has a number of graphs and charts and also will 'predict' a score on a dive based on your most recent averages for those blocks/randoms/exits.

You can download it from here.

http://www.cscrhythm.com/tool.html

We've also got a copy there with some data in it, so you can see what it looks like with data.

www.rhythmskydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

Hi Janette - what version of Excel did you guys need? It's not running on my local version (at work, I have '07 at home).

You guys had a good year, congrats. We ended up skipping last year and only doing pickup teams. We have a project for '08 though.

(It looks a LOT like my tracking spreadsheet with most of the harder stuff simplified by macros - only much friendlier to use. Also, stats are collected by your tool directly - I used Jan's dive scoring tool to do that.http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1974383#1974383)

I look forward to moving over to this tool once I get it working. We have a couple tryout dives for next year's team I can prime the pump with.

(It doesn't hurt to have the inter and random average times for Pro teams somewhere in there as a benchmark (in stats, it's called the 'entitlement'. I thought a good set of starter goals was 2x the times of the pros as basis for mid teen type scoring.)


Edit: It's not working and the enable macro's showed an error while loading. I'll play with it this weekend and maybe send a note to Laurent. Thanks though.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[janette 0]

Hmm... I'm still on Excel 2002 and it works for me. Asking the team expert (Laurent).

yeah -- we did time some of the pros and put block/random times in the "Sorting" part, but don't do much benchmarking against it. Thats a good idea.


Thanks -- we had a lot of fun. Good luck with your plans next year!

www.rhythmskydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

the "Sorting" part, but don't do much benchmarking against it. Thats a good idea.

it was good for us to know that some of our slower blocks were nearly as fast as the pros - they just happened to be slow blocks. Not much payoff to train those extra. We needed to get our gains from the faster blocks in fact as we were not in synch and those were the real opportunities. Benchmarking is good to see where proven opportunities lie. I pointed us to practice the fast blocks and random work as the best bang for the buck.

(smooth blocks/calm randoms - we needed to find a way to cash in on faster draws, we did fine on the slow ones.)

I'll pitch to the guys to see about coach sharing with you guys some training weekend or one of the Paraclete camps....kirk is a cool guy

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Gali109 0]

Hello,

Sorry to hear it doesn't work yet for you. It was made with Excel 2003. I don't have yet Excel 2007 so I couldn't test it. If you have time, let me know in details what's the problem. A copy of the screen would be great. I need to make sure it's going to run on newer excel version.

You can drop me an email at laurent@cscrhythm.com

I'd like to hear about what you did too. Any good ideas to make it better is great.

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

I sent an e-mail. Included my old worksheet (inters and transition times are what's important, not just the score). And my issues.

Feel free to call or write.

THANKS

Good luck, you guys will do great.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[AMax 0]

Nerds

Edit to add: your training schedule is very impressive ... good luck in 2008!

[Gali109 0]

Thanks. 2008 should be really exciting!

You put a bench of consultants/engineers together and this is what you get. Some nice charts, some buttons everywhere, stuff nobody really understands or cares about but it looks cool! The difference this time is we don't charge for it

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[AMax 0]

when it comes to numbers, keeping track of training stats during the season is probably the most challenging part

Edit to add:
a fresh article about CSC Rhythm :

http://skyleague.com/pages/news/showArticles.php?story=924

[Peterkn 17]

I downloaded a copy and had the same problem on Office 2007. It turned-out to be the macro security settings (managed via the 'Trust Center' in 2007, or via Tools, Settings, Macro Security in earlier versions). Turning Macro security off solved the problem for me.

Looks like a nice piece of software.

Pete.

[Gali109 0]

Thanks Pete for the feedback. None of us have office 2007 yet so it's great that you find out how to make it works. I will gather all the info I get and add something in the help/description section.

We are starting also to get some feedback on the content too. Bill from Fast FWD had some great features in his tool (summary over several years, see when it's a real meet vs regular training, overview to point out areas for improvement...). With all the good ideas, we can make something clean and really helpful for the teams.

So to anyone trying or using the file, any comments is really appreciated (good and bad ones).

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

Guys - No dice in 2007

I looked up references at AltF11 and I don't have any. Where can I download that stuff?

some macros won't run because "objects not available on this machine" But it seems to function anyway.

But I can time jumps, and run the summaries, so that's a win in my book.

I do have one issue, It doesn't register the 2nd point and I have to click twice. Else the rest of the dive will record offset one point after that. The rest is good. I figured it out after I saved my first dive. So I need to figure out now how to delete that dive and reenter it. (after saving).

I'd rather push a key for exit and point like Jan's tool than click the mouse. It seems more reliable. But that's just a preference.

Edit: It's that time the first key thing. I think I'll just not add that option. It's forcing me to enter the dive wrong.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Gali109 0]

Looks like some people have issues with the references (libraries where the functions used in the macros are defined).
The program only uses some basic ones (3 references - see attached screen shot) . I'm preparing a file to try to take care of this (probably this week-end). If there is a line showing "missing" , uncheck them and restarts excel.
If none are selected or none show "missing", there should be somewhere in the list of references (alphabetical order unless they are checked or missing). Selecting them might solve the issue.

When you say: "It's forcing me to enter the dive wrong", what do you mean?

Starting the timer with a key is a good idea. Thanks. I'll make the change this week-end to have both options (exit and point)

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

When you say: "It's forcing me to enter the dive wrong", what do you mean?

I mean it's operator error in understanding the whole time to first key option ("operator" would be me ), that function looks perfect in retrospect.

It's coming along. I loaded two jumps from this summer for examples. Maybe at some point we'll talk on it directly. I'm not too bright...... So far, it'll time the dive and run the analysis. The summaries have some wacky numbers so I'm still learning it.

example:

It shows us having a 21.5 average - those two jumps are really a 12.5 but I like these scores better.

all summary data is Hill, no flat data "N/A"

My best of season times for 3 of 5 of my random builds are all over 40,750 seconds but the blocks are seem to show realistic times as do the other 2 randoms.

I really like splitting out top of block builds and the inter times, I did the same in my old tool and it's good data

Thanks for all the help. I'm pretty excited about it once I start using it correctly. I'm sure it's all me not being smart about it and also missing those loads. Also, If I had more than 2 dives, I suspect it would load up better too.

You'll be able to sell this at some point. You already have a free skydive when we meet.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[rehmwa 2]

Quote

My best of season times for 3 of 5 of my random builds are all over 40,750 seconds

Info - sorry for clarification, it was 2 of the 5, and those were both the launch points.

I hope it helps. Good Luck.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Gali109 0]

If you don't mind, send me the file where you get the unexpected data and I can see what's wrong. I tried to cover most errors users can make I can think of, but maybe I forgot something than I can fix. Or maybe it's a bug that I need to fix.

Edit: I'm wondering if it's because you have some issues with the references. The timer might not work properly so you may get weird times. You can see that in the "Data" sheet.

Thanks

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

I'll send it to you.

I'm sure it's the references. I go to AltF11 and then tools like you say and the "references" selection is grayed out. I'm sure I just need to load a datapack from somewhere. I bet I figure it out before the seasons starts.

later

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Gali109 0]

I just realized that you can't access the references with the tool because the code is protected. I'm preparing an unprotected file with some codes doing nothing but require the same references. With this one, you will be able to see what's going on with this.

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

Edit Edit: I went to the raw data page and unlocked the raw data and took those times to first point and just changed them to 0.5 seconds (which is about right) and now it all works fine except for a couple macros that aren't needed really (like the calendar one). Great news. Once I figure out how to get that first point identified correctly while timing the dives, then it's all good.

Edit: Don't bother sending the file, I can just open a blank workbook and take a look. (I feel pretty stupid). I have the libraries versions 12.0 and no 'forms' pack. I think that's fine.



That's the message I get on one screen "have the encrption removed or .....something something......"

I have to stay home with the wife and daughter and make the daughter pull out her loose tooth.

That's why I'm home on a Saturday night.

What's your excuse?

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Gali109 0]

Here is the file (see attached). There is just an empty form and a basic macro. With this one you will be able to access the references. Once corrected with this one, it should work for the other one. If it works, I'll make it available on our site too with the downloads and some explanations. Thanks for helping me out clearing this issue.

Well, no good reasons for me to stay home. Boring week-end. Simply no plans but that's not a bad thing for my finances to prepare the next season!

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[rehmwa 2]

And that fixes the last bit - when scoring a dive, time to first point is now like .5 to 1.5 seconds rather than 45800 or so..... I think it's good to go and I'll restart the blank and see if it makes good sense now. You are the man.

sweet and thanks for all the help.

Is there a special way to clear the worksheet completely to start over, or can I just delete all the rows in the raw data page?

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[Gali109 0]

Awesome! That sounds more like it. I can make a file that does it automatically but security features need to be changed in addition to the normal "allow macro to run" stuff. Thanks for clearing that up with me.

Edit: To clear the data, simply unlock the data and delete the rows (3 rows by jump). Delete them completely, not just empty cells.

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com

[Gali109 0]

For Info, as Bill suggested, I added shortcut keys to time jumps: "s" for Exit and [Space] for Point which should make it easier than with the mouse. I also fixed a bug I found in the Prediction page. The new version is now available. I also added an item in the FAQ page to explain how to transfer the data in case you already added some in the original version. Let me know if it's not clear enough.

Laurent - www.RhythmSkydiving.com