Version 1.0
February 1998
Coaches in many sports are becoming "more scientific" in their approach to training and swimming is no exception. There are three parameters which can be measured which characterize any swimming stroke - stroke length or distance (referred to by some authors as SL), stroke turnover or rate (referrred to by some authors as SR, and also called "cycling rate" because it refers to a complete stroke cycle), and overall swim speed or velocity, which is a product of the distance covered by each stroke multiplied by the number of strokes per unit of time. In order to measure and compute these parameters, you need both a stopwatch and a calculator. SwimCoach (tm) from Stevens Creek Software provides both of these functions is one easy to use software package, designed for the PalmPilot (tm) handheld computer from 3Com (or its equivalent, the IBM WorkPad). The unit can be held in one or two hands at poolside, and operated by a swimming coach or by a friend of the swimmer, to conveniently measure these important parameters.
Two excellent books on current swimming theory are Total Immersion, by Terry Laughlin, and Swimming Into the 21st Century, by Cecil Colwin (both available online at The Athlete's Bookstore). Here's what Laughlin says about the subject:
"Virtually every swimmer I see already has all the SR [stroke rate] they'll ever need; it's the SL [stroke length] they're lacking. They always make their most dramatic improvements when they give up a bit of their SR in order to gain a lot of SL."
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"The best...of the world's elite swimmers...establish SL first, then try to gradually increase SR, giving up the least possible SL in return."
And here's Colwin:
"Researchers agree...that stroke length rather than stroke frequency is the determining factor in a swimmer's average speed."
For a discussion of the technique used by SwimCoach to measure SR and SL, you can see the ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) news, Volume 1997-9, p. 12.
Whether you downloaded the software from our Web site or received it in the mail, you should have a file called SwimCoach.prc on your computer or floppy disk. Here's how to install it on your Pilot:
Run the program InstallApp. Click on the Select button, set the List Files of Type to All Files, locate and select the file SwimCoach.prc, and click Open. Now click on the Install button. The next time you HotSync your Pilot, the program will be downloaded.
Run the program INSTAPP.EXE, which is located in the C:/PILOT folder. Click on the Browse button, locate and select the SwimCoach.prc file, and click Open. Now click on the Install button. The next time you HotSync your Pilot, the program will be downloaded.
From the Applications window on your Pilot, look for the icon labelled SwimCoach which looks like this:
When you start the application, you'll see this screen:
Tap on the "License" button, and you'll see this screen:
Use Graffiti (or the on-screen keyboard) to enter your serial number (supplied to you by Stevens Creek Software); when you're done, tap on the OK button. If you enter an incorrect number, the software will let you know. If necessary, tap on the Cancel button to dismiss the Enter Serial Number screen.
If you run into a problem, this probably means that when you provided your Pilot
name to Stevens Creek Software, you did so incorrectly. To find the name, tap on
the Applications icon in the lower left of your Pilot, then tap on HotSync.
Look at the top line of the screen and it will read, "Welcome, XXX". Read
the name which follows the word Welcome, and write it down exactly (including case,
i.e., whether the letters are upper-case letters like THIS or lower-case letters
like this) and email it to Stevens
Creek Software technical support and wait for a new serial number to be provided
to you.
When you start SwimCoach, you'll see the main screen of the program which looks like this:
SwimCoach is used to time two different events. First, you are timing the amount of time it takes to swim a single fixed length. This is configured on the top line of the program, which in the screen above reads "Lap Time per 50 meters." The length of each lap is a simple number, which you enter in your PalmPilot in the usual way. You'll usually want 25 or 50 in that field, but of course you can enter any number at all. At the end of that line, a pop-up menu lets you choose the units for the length, choosing between meters and yards.
The second event timed is the amount of time it takes to swim a fixed number of complete cycles (the time to perform a complete stroke cycle). Articles in the literature have used 4 cycles as a convenient number, but you can time any number of cycles you choose; just enter the number in the field where it reads "Stroke Time per 4 cycles" in the screen above.
All of these configuration parameters (the length and units of each lap, and the number of stroke cycles to measure), are saved, so that you will only need to enter these the first time you use SwimCoach (of course you can change them if the circumstances change).
The remaining configurability of the program is found in three more pop-up menus in the lower right of the screen. The speed (velocity) of the swim can be displayed in a variety of units - minutes per mile or kilometer, miles or kilometers per hour, or minutes per hundred meters or yards. The stroke rate (SR or "SRate" in the SwimCoach display) can be read out in cycles per minute or second, as you prefer, and the stroke length or distance (sometimes called SL and labelled "SDist" in SwimCoach) can be displayed in meters or yards. You can change these units at any time, and the displayed numbers will change accordingly.
Referring again to the main screen, you'll see that the screen is divided into two areas - Lap Time and Stroke Time - and has three buttons, which are labelled here Start, Stop, and Start.
When the lap is started, press the Lap Time Start button. Once you do, you'll see that the label on the button changes to read Split, and of course you'll see the time start to count on the "stopwatch" counter to the right of that button.
Now when a stroke cycle starts (e.g., the right hand enters the water in a freestyle stroke), press the Stroke Time Start button. The stroke timer will now start, and the label on that button will now change to read Stop. After the completion of the desired number of stroke cycles, press the Stroke Time Stop button and the time for that number of cycles will be frozen. The stroke rate (SR) will be immediately calculated and displayed below.
When the lap finishes, you have two choices. If you want to measure another lap, press the Lap Time Split button which will stop the time for the lap just completed and start the time for the next lap. At the appropriate time, measure the stroke time again using those buttons. Repeat this process as often as you like. When you don't want to measure another lap, press the Lap Time Stop button to stop the whole process.
Whenever a set of measurements (lap time and stroke time) are complete, the complete set of results are displayed on the bottom of the screen in two columns. Last displays the results and calculations of the last lap (the one just completed), while Prev. (Previous) displays the results from the previous lap for comparison. The lap time, speed, stroke rate (cycling rate), and stroke distance (or length) are displayed. If you change the units of any of the items, the numbers are recalculated and redisplayed.
When you want to reset the timer for the next swimmer, press the Reset button (actually you don't really need to; if the timer is stopped and you re-start it, the time starts from zero anyway).
If you just want to measure lap times (and hence speed or velocity), you can do that just by starting and stopping the lap timer, without using the stroke timer at all. Likewise, if you just want to measure cycling rate (stroke rate), without measuring speed or stroke length, you can just start and stop the stroke timer, wtihout using the lap timer. In general, of course, you'll use them both.
Using on-screen buttons with the PalmPilot's stylus may be
somewhat difficult for you, because you want to have your eyes focussed on the swimmer
in order to start and stop the timer at the right time. Because of that, SwimCoach
is configured to also use the up and down scroll buttons, located in the center of
the bottom of your PalmPilot, in order to start and stop the two timers.
The buttons are configured like this - the Up button operates all functions except the final Lap Time Stop function. In other words, if both timers are stopped, first press the Up button and the Lap timer will start. Now press the Up button again and the Stroke timer will start. Now press the Up button yet again and the Stroke timer will stop. The only choice occurs at the end of the lap. If you want to take a split, in order to measure another lap, you press the Up button yet again. Only if you want to stop both timers, because it is the last (or only) lap, should you press the Down scroll button.
If you forget the proper sequence of operations, tap on the "Information Icon" in the upper right of the screen, and you'll see onscreen instructions which will remind you of what you have read here.
Whenever you take a split (or stop) the main lap timer, the results for that lap, and any stroke time that was taken during that lap, are automatically saved. To review all the stored splits, tap on the Review button (you can do this with the timer running if you want to). You'll see this screen:
In the Lap# column is the number of the lap. The first lap you record each time you use the program is numbered #1, and is preceded on-screen with the month and day as shown, for identification purposes. The Time column shows the time for the lap. SR and SL show the stroke rate and stroke length, respectively. The units for V, SR, and SL are as shown on the main screen, and if you return to the main screen and change those units of measurement, when you return to the review screen, the numbers will change to reflect the new units.
The third column can show two different things. If V is highlighted (bold font), then column 3 shows the velocity of the swim in the chosen units. If TT is highlighted, column 3 shows the total (cumulative) time for the swim (obviously, this only applies to multi-lap swims). To toggle between the two modes, just tap on the letter "V" or "TT"; the one you tap on becomes the display mode that you'll see, and SwimCoach will remember your preference until you change it.
If there are more splits than fit on one screen, you'll see up and down scroll arrows in the lower right which let you scroll through the recorded times. If you want to erase all the times, tap on the Clear button, or tap on the Menu button and select Erase from the menu. You'll be given a chance (two, actually) to verify that you really want to do that.
The Done button returns you to the main screen.
The i icon in the upper right of the screen displays on-screen help which reminds you about the meaning of the different columns, and how to change the display in column three.
If you tap on the Menu button in the review screen, you'll see this menu:
The Erase function has already been discussed above. The other three menu items all allow you to transfer the recorded times somewhere else. Transfer to Memo Pad automatically creates a new memo in your Memo Pad, labelled "SwimCoach times" (if there are more recorded times than can fit into a single memo, additional memos are created).
The Print and Transmit menu items will print the recorded times directly to a printer attached to your PalmPilot, or transmit the recorded times to another computer connected to your PalmPilot via the serial port (bypassing the usual HotSync procedure, and allowing you to transfer data even to a computer which does not have HotSync software installed). Both of these features require that you have a copy of PalmPrint (tm) software installed on your PalmPilot; if you do not, you'll get a simple error message if you try to use them.
Data are transferred to the Memo Pad, or transferred to another computer, in a tab-delimited columnar format, to make it easy for you to insert the information into, for example, a database program.
Please be advised that a PalmPilot is not waterproof. You should take care not to get it wet. If you are at all worried about the unit, you might consider getting a clear plastic ziplock bag and enclosing the PalmPilot within it. You'll find that you can read the screen, and operate the buttons, perfectly well in this way. Alternatively, just stay away from the edge of the pool!
If you have any problems using SwimCoach, you can contact Stevens Creek Software in one of the following ways:
By email: | pilotsupport@stevenscreek.com |
By phone: | 1-408-725-0424 |
Copyright 1998 by Stevens Creek Software
All Rights Reserved