We live in a technology-friendly era where tech can help you meet your goals in any number of areas, and helping you achieve your goals in the pool is no exception. There are plenty of tools at various price points that can help you improve and track your swim workouts. There are also lots of apps that you can use on your phone to help you track and improve your stroke technique. These are both simple and helpful ways of tracking your progress, plus they’re pretty easy to access.
I have two main apps I’m using regularly for season training for me and for my swimmers.
Coach’s Eye
Unlike when I was growing up, filming (both in and out of the water) has become a vital part of stroke analysis.
Athletes really do enjoy it because they actually see themselves swimming, and once they have a visual of themselves they understand the changes they need to make to see improvement.
Another great part of this is that it allows you to critique the footage afterward with visual aids. So, for example, you can literally draw a line or angle on the frames where the swimmer is rotating her body to emphasize the importance of correct body position. Reviewing what is actually the correct body position and comparing that to a swimmer’s form really helps swimmers to visualize how they want their body to move in the water. This isn’t just a great application for swimming, coaches of all sports can use it. The best part is that it costs only $5.99. There are things you can add to it to make it fancier, but what you can do with the baseline value of $5.99 has already impressed me!
Check it out here: www.coachseye.com
Swim.com App
The second app I recently started using is from Swim.com. The app is literally used for tracking your progress in the pool. And if you forget a workout, they provide you with one, so the stress of creating a workout is already taken care of and all you need to do is get to the pool. Something that is also pretty cool is you can see what other swimmers have been up to, and how you compare–they have a leaderboard that shows how many yards swimmers around the world have totaled. It can be a great source of motivation to connect with swimmers near and far. Another highlight of this app, if you have access to a smartwatch, is that you can connect the two and it can track your workouts as you swim. Otherwise, you can just add your workout by hand. This app is free, so that’s pretty awesome.
Check it out here: www.swim.com
If you’re looking to step up your game, there are a variety of smartwatches out there. I’ve heard that Garmins, along with Apple Watches, do a great job of tracking your workout. There are also a variety of Fitbits and other brands that track your workouts as well. Because I’m so old school I usually just keep track of my workout by writing it down with a pen and paper. Some of these tech tools are expensive, and some of these are more moderate in price. I would suggest looking into what you want to buy before you purchase, but there are plenty of options out there so there is bound to be one that is in your budget and meets what you need it to do. Also ask around if anyone has a version close to what you’re looking at, so they can tell you what they think about its usefulness.
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