The Dolphins, the Australian national swim team, use the Apple Watch and iPad to monitor their overall performance and win more medals.
A new article by Apple details how its powerful eco-system delivers enables Australian coaches to real-time data and analysis with dynamic feedback for the trainers to use for communication with athletes in the pool. The Apple Watch tracks both open water and the pool which allows athletes to watch during training sessions.
Elite Australian swimmers use the Apple Watch’s metrics to monitor their performance in the pool and the ocean
Gold medalist and world record swimmer Zac Stubblety Cook depends on his Apple Watch to get instant feedback to boost his performance and manage his training load with efficiency, throughout the day. Stubblety Cook said;
“As an elite athlete, it’s important for me to access heart rate and activity data in real-time so I can make quick adjustments and avoid overtraining. Being able to accurately measure my heart rate in between sets has been a really valuable data point for me and my coach to understand how well I’m responding to training.”
Swimming Australia’s performance solutions manager, Jess Corones said that Apple’s smartwatch tech has allowed them to design programs for their swimmers to enhance their performance and bring in more medals.
“Ultimately, this technology gives us the tools to design performance programs that help our athletes swim faster in the pool so they can win more medals.
Before using the Apple Watch, Marathon swimmer and bronze medalist, Kareena Lee had to guess her distance in the ocean. Now, her smartwatch measures the distance swam for her. More importantly, it helped her recover from an injury.
“I started wearing Apple Watch to measure my distance, route, and splits when I was swimming in the ocean,” says Lee. “There are no clocks or defined distances in the ocean and before Apple Watch, I was just guessing. Following an injury, my physiotherapist and coach used my Apple Watch data to monitor my training load to ensure it was consistent so I could keep training.”
The Australian swim coaches say that the Locker app on iPad helps them take productive decisions. Integrated with Apple Watch, the app features like playback race footage and analytical data enable the coaches to provide instant feedback. They can also observe the overall activity of athletes and refine their performances to win other swimming competitions.
Swimmers can expect more specialized metrics in the new pool swim workouts coming in the watchOS 9 release this fall like kickboard detection as a stroke type. The sensor fusion will automatically detect when swimmers are using kickboard on Apple Watch models and will classify the stroke type in the workout summary and distance swam.
Furthermore, the new SWOLF score which combines stroke count and time in seconds will enable swimmers to track their efficiency better by showing the time it took for them to swim one length of the pool. More detailed metrics will be helpful in identifying areas in need of targeted training.
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