Besides the different parameters we keep track of during your workout, Swimtraxx One has way more to offer! Today we discuss how comfort became part of the Swimtraxx One design.

From the beginning, it was clear that we did not want to interfere with the swimmer’s propulsive surfaces. Therefore, we tested different prototypes: starting with positioning the device on the swimmer’s back. We then did some testing to position it on the hips and finally concluded that the head was the most optimal position to measure the parameters and that in a comfortable way. Extensive research taught us that from a biomechanical perspective the head was the most interesting place to position our device. Here we could measure multiple parameters like nowhere else. A lot of interesting information can be obtained by placing it here: think for example of the tracking of your breathing patterns.

Swimtraxx Ambassador Pieter Timmers wearing Swimtraxx One during a training session.

To come to the current design of Swimtraxx One, we have built multiple prototypes, organised multiple tests moments with elite swimmers and we have taken their feedback to heart and implemented it. From a practical point of view, we know that not all swimmers were wearing a cap during practice but did wear a pair of swimming goggles. As a result, we opted for a system that could be added to the strap of your favorite pair of goggles. The full symmetric design of the device allows you to wear Swimtraxx One both on the left- and righthand side of your goggles strap. Besides that, the device is so compact that it is integrated seamlessly with your goggles while swimming. Feedback from elite swimmers such as Femke Heemskerk and Pieter Timmers taught us that you do not even feel that you are wearing Swimtraxx One. According to all swimmers, the biggest benefit in terms of usage is the compatibility with a wide range of goggles available on the market.

To conclude, we can claim that Swimtraxx One is not only the smartest swim specific tracker ever, but also by far the most comfortable.

We all know that one coach who is trying his best to note down split times, stroke counts, etc. during workouts: armed with a stopwatch and a piece of paper doomed to get wet. In many cases the notes get lost – bye-bye data. With some luck the notes make it to the coach’s desk. And in the best case they are inputted into a spreadsheet – “for later analyses.” We all know that analyses will never happen. So why even make the effort?

Many swimmers wonder why their coach is standing by the pool, only to take notes and lose precious coaching time. They would love to get more attention and feedback on their technique. Same story for the coaches: they are focused on their stopwatch and a piece of paper. They cannot spend time on real coaching and once everything has been written down, time needs to be spent processing those almost unreadable notes. Swimtraxx One is a true gamechanger and offers a solution to all these problems and frustrations!

With Swimtraxx One you can track all your workouts from a to z. The device registers tons of data while swimming, streaming them in real time to the coach’s iPad. Both you and your coach can follow your workout in the most efficient way possible. Swimtraxx One registers your complete workout: your sets, lap times, strokes, turn speed, heart rate, stoke rate, stroke efficiency, etc. We keep track of how many workouts, hours, and kilometers you have swum in a certain week, month, or year. The 2016 Rio Olympic 100m freestyle silver medalist, Pieter Timmers said in an interview lately that Swimtraxx One is his second coach. Do we need to say more?

Through customizable dashboards in the Swimtraxx Team App different parameters for each swimmer can be watched. In this way we offer coaches the possibility to focus on different parameters for different swimmers. A lot of time can be transferred from taking notes to e.g., improving the technique of your swimmers. Each swimmer can improve at the points where they need the most work to be done.

We warmly invite you to test Swimtraxx Team for iPad. This app is, next to Swimtraxx One and Swimtraxx Mobile, the third keystone of the Swimtraxx system. As we have said previously and repeatedly, we value your feedback a lot. No need to say that we are looking forward to your remarks.

Swimtraxx is a system that helps both the swimmer and the coach. To wrap this blog up: “Goodbye writing down times, hello coaching!”

Unfortunately, the coronavirus is still present in the world. It seems like something we cannot control, but that is not entirely true. Instead of focusing on things you cannot control, it helps focus on the things you can control. In this blogpost we will discuss some things you have control over.

The most important thing of all is that you can choose how you react to a situation. This is something you have in your own hands. Instead of reacting sadly and angrily to the virus, you could look at it from a different angle. The situation has given us a lot of extra time that you would not have had otherwise. You can do something useful with that extra time. For example, you could start to become the best and fittest version of yourself as you still have control over your own body. Luckily, the swimming pools are open again in quite some countries! It is the ideal time to fully focus on swimming. The coronavirus is a good excuse to spend some more time in the pool.

As an earlier blog post mentioned, movement is also good to make you resilient against the virus. Exercise ensures a better immune system which protects you against various diseases. In addition, it is also good for your mental health, something we can certainly use in this period. Exercise releases feel-good substances in your brain and that is of great benefit to our well-being! Keeping your body moving is the main message here!

In addition, more time has been freed up for healthy cooking. You could try out some new recipes or motivate yourself to eat healthy and tasty food. What you put in your body, you also radiate. And of course, a healthy lifestyle with a lot of vitamins also gives you more resistance against viruses! Furthermore, following a healthy diet will also improve your performance in the pool. Healthy, balanced nutrition supplies more energy and better recovery.

It is already a challenging time, do not make it too difficult for yourself. Focus on what you can control and make the best of it. Who knows, you come out of this crisis fitter than ever before, you may feel better than ever before and you may be thankful that you have that time to work on yourself!

Working at the office has not been a possibility lately. But this doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to deliver quality at Swimtraxx. We made a successful switch from the office to the cloud. This way we, as a company, don’t stand on hold.

Wondering how do we remotely continue to deliver quality at Swimtraxx? Well, this blog post will take a closer look at how things are going at our company today. There is a lot of good to say about remote working and we are continuing to transition towards a remote-first organization.

For us, office life has moved to the cloud environment. Online office life offers multiple advantages. No more commute to the office. You get up, eat your breakfast, pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit behind your desk. No traffic jams, harsh weather, noisy passengers or anything that disturbs your mood. Quite a good start of the day!

Although we used to take relaxing breaks at the office and play a game of billiard, this is no longer the case. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have relaxing moments together anymore. Now we have moved the relaxation to the virtual world. Together we take a coffee break online and play games like Skribbl. Maybe this is even more relaxing than before? Cozy from home, maybe with your sweatpants on or a blanket over your shoulders. We do however miss the social contact with each other a bit.

The Swimtraxx One continues to evolve positively during this time. We continue to improve the algorithms, stay in online contact with the suppliers and the production samples get sent back and forth. Delivering the best swim tracker ever stays our top priority, also from home. The Swimtraxx team contributes as much as we can to this. To create a good final product, we measure the output of the team, not the hours we can see each other sitting in the office!

So, the Swimtraxx team continues! The new coronavirus restrictions do not stop us from doing qualitative work. As David Heinemeier Hansson once said: “Culture doesn’t grow because of an unblinking gaze by a manager with direct line of sight over his underlings. Quite the contrary.”

Finally! We are back in the pool. This meant that we could continue to test Swimtraxx One to the fullest. Two weeks ago, we went to the Olympic training facility in Antwerp to get some fresh data for the first time since the lockdown. Our hardware engineering lead (Tom) and signal engineering lead (Zoë) will tell you how those days went.

Zoë

“Our testing days went according to plan and the results are great. Basically, what we are doing during testing days is collecting new data to further improve our algorithms. This means that we sync up the recordings with video data . With the data that we have collected we can see how the algorithms inside Swimtraxx One are performing and where we can improve them. This way we make sure the device can measure your workout as accurate as possible!”

Tom

“As Zoë mentioned, the main goal of the testing days was to improve our current algorithm. Another thing we always test thoroughly is the real-time communication between the device and the app. Because we want coaches to be able to get live insights from their swimmers’ performance, we make sure that the communication runs smoothly. Apart from the communication protocol we also had the opportunity to collect feedback from the swimmers on the mechanical design. With this feedback we are able to reaffirm the great comfort of the tracker during swimming.”

To give you a better idea of how a testing day usually goes, we created a short video!

Last week we were invited by FINA to host a webinar on their learning platform
(https://learning.fina.org/live-session-replay-jeroen-lecoutere/). The topic of the webinar was “data collection in swimming”. In this blog we have summarised the key messages of the presentation and we have a highlight video at the end of the blog if you don’t feel like watching the whole stream.

What data should you be collecting?

Swimming is a very data-rich sport. First, there are 4 stroke types (6 if you count kicking and sculling) which are all measured differently. To have a good insight of how you are performing, you need to count quite a few parameters. You want to count your strokes per lap and the amount of times you breath per lap. You also want to measure your stroke rate and record your lap time, underwater time and turn time. Finally, you would also like to keep track of your heart rate during your workouts.

How can coaches combine data collection with motivation?

A coach is there to coach. Their job is to motivate their swimmers and push them to their limits. Coaches typically spend most of their time collecting data. The reason to why this is so time consuming is the fact that it is all manual work. Measuring laps with a stopwatch and jotting the times down on a piece of paper or inserting them in a spreadsheet is what makes all this work so cumbersome. Swimtraxx was invented to offer a solution to this problem.

How do you start collecting data to improve your workouts?

At Swimtraxx, we have always believed that wearability is the key to a great swimming tracker. Thanks to our sleek design and accurate sensors we can collect tons of data during a workout. This data is then translated into easily readable insights on our Swimtraxx app. As a coach you will be able to see the collected data in real time to give the perfect feedback after each lap or set. As a swimmer this means that you can start to fully concentrate on your technique rather than your own lap times.

We have compiled a 10-minute highlight video and if you would like to watch the full stream you can do so via the link at the end!

Global society is going through unprecedented times. Never has society been shaken up more drastically in the course of our generation. A worldwide lockdown has restricted countless people to do what they love.

For our sport specifically, pools have been closing all over the world. Competitions were cancelled or postponed. Plans were disrupted. Our beloved sport has been put on hold and we all needed to be creative to cope.

But next to worries, hardship and struggle, crisis also brings opportunity. The opportunity to reflect, the opportunity to change, the opportunity to grow.

Never before has health been so central. We have learned what really matters: leading happy and healthy lifestyles.

Now society is coming out of the lockdown, it is time to look forward. Take those learnings of the past months and implement them into our future life.

Pools are reopening worldwide, and a new season is coming up. Things won’t be the same as before, but we will be back in the pool, back where we belong.

That’s why we have launched our #BackInThePool campaign, to support swimming all over the world.

Jeroen Lecoutere
#teamSwimtraxx

Get to know our embedded engineer: Michiel. He explained to us what he does on a daily basis, how he thinks Swimtraxx One will have a major impact and why he sometimes wears a swimming cap and goggles to work.

Michiel went to Group T to get his degree in industrial sciences. His interest in sport translates from his work into his hobbies as well. Michiel is an avid runner and enjoys long distance runs and even marathons. Apart from running in races he likes to go on few runs with his dogs as well. Time to let him do the talking!

Hi Michiel. To get started, why don’t you tell us what it is you do at Swimtraxx on a daily basis?

I spend most of my time writing the code that runs on our device. Basically, I provide the bridge between the raw data that is gathered by our hardware and feed it to the Algorithms. I also provide the communication between our device and our mobile applications. Apart from that, I also get involved in the hardware design and evaluation process and certain aspects of our apps. This is what makes it fun to work at Swimtraxx, everybody gets to chip in on everything and we work together as a multidisciplinary team to achieve a shared goal.

What made you want to work for Swimtraxx?

One day the company contacted me with the message that they were looking for a talented embedded engineer. When our founder explained his vision for Swimtraxx and we talked a bit about sports technology it was clear to me that it would be an awesome opportunity to work on cool technology with likeminded people. My first actual interview felt more like a conversation about things like performance tracking and training principles than an actual job interview, so I knew right away that I wanted to work here.

The Swimtraxx One is coming out soon. What would you say, from your point of view, makes this device special?

I believe that in general having solid data significantly adds value to your performance analysis. It will give coaches an extra tool to monitor and log the performance of their athletes. I hope that athletes who don’t have access to a coach or that prefer to train alone will now be able train more effectively. Thanks to Swimtraxx One, they now have access to data that just wasn’t available to them.

“Solid data significantly adds value to your performance analysis.”

What is it you like doing the most on a project like this?

I really enjoy the “data geek” way of training myself so working on a device like Swimtraxx and helping to build it up from square one with a cool team has been a great experience. You really get a front row seat to what goes in to making a device like this which is way more than what I could imagine

To give us a good look into life at the office. Could you tell us a fun anecdote from the time you have been at Swimtraxx?

We create wearable sports technology. It’s quite common that someone in the office is suddenly wearing a swim cap and goggles while making strange head movements. At times, people start running around the building trying to get their heartrate up to test the sensors. Needless to say, this gets some weird looks from other people in the office.

Meet Zoë, who leads our signal engineering. We asked her about what it’s like to work for Swimtraxx, her opinion on Swimtraxx One and more.

Zoë has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from KU Leuven. Apart from working at Swimtraxx, she enjoys doing sports herself like hiking, yoga and fitness. Let’s find out what she had to say.

Hi Zoë. Could you tell our readers what it is you do within the company to start things off?

As a signal engineer, I develop the algorithms which extract different swimming parameters (e.g. stroke rate, turn time,..) from the raw data recorded by the sensors of Swimtraxx One. The algorithm is based on techniques within the fields of data processing and machine learning. For that, accuracy is key and we further improve our algorithms every day.

Why did you decide to join the Swimtraxx team?

I was looking for an opportunity where I could challenge my knowledge of data science to help develop an innovative product. You could argue that the kinds of opportunities I just described are situated in a broad field. But what really excited me about Swimtraxx is that I can work with human movement data.

Moreover, I really love the company culture. At Swimtraxx, we heavily invest in an open culture where multi-directional feedback is at the core. In this way, we can grow to become the best version of ourselves as individuals and as a team, which impacts on its turn the quality of the product.

What part of working on a project like this do you enjoy the most?

One of the nicest things of working in a start-up is that you see the process of the product development from close by. Even though I work on the algorithm development, I am still up to date with what happens on the development of the other technical aspects of Swimtraxx One.

“Swimtraxx innovates with cutting edge algorithms
running straight on chip.”

Swimtraxx One is on the way. Can you tell us what’s special about this device and the biggest innovations from your point of view?

One of the biggest innovations from my point of view is that our cutting edge algorithms are running straight on chip. This means that the data is processed by Swimtraxx One itself in real time. In other words, the parameters are much faster available than in applications where the raw data would be sent to the cloud first and processed afterwards.

To end on a fun note, what is the funniest thing to ever happen in the workplace?

I think the funniest moments happen during our billiard tournament. We almost daily play a game. Some of us can get their energy out during the game (which at times results in balls jumping off the table), while others need to handle some trash talk because they lost the game.

With the release of Swimtraxx’ demo of its mobile app in in the App Store as well as on Google Play, it’s time for a quick tour around the app! The app is completely free to download and has a variety of built-in features you can explore. Our developers talk you through our app and explain the app’s features.

Getting started.

Once you have downloaded the app and fired it up you can create an account or sign in with Google, Facebook or Apple if you use an iOS device. Once you are logged in, you can change certain features on your profile menu. Tap your name if you would like to change your username and add a picture to complete your Swimtraxx profile. On the profile menu you are able to access messages and connect with coaches or you can contact us to leave your feedback on the app.

Adding sample data.

We added a set of sample data to the app to showcase how in depth you will be able to track and analyze your workouts. To load this sample data, simply go to the profile menu and tap the ⚙️-icon. There, you’ll see the option to load sample workouts. After you tapped the button, it is time to explore the other tabs in the app.

My workouts.

There are 2 ways to view your workouts. First, you get a quick overview of your workouts on the app’s home dashboard. You can filter your workouts per week, month and year. To get a more in-depth overview of your workouts, you can go to the workouts tab. Here you can select the workout you want to analyze from the list or the calendar view. After having selected a workout, you get an overview of all the sets within the workout. If you select one of the sets, you can get a full breakdown of all the metrics that Swimtraxx One provides.

Comments.

You and your coach also can leave comments for each workout. Tap the 💬 icon at the top right in an open workout. These comments are searchable in the workout overview, so you can use this feature to tag workouts or test sets. You can also use the feature to keep track of how the workout felt or you can use in any way you see suitable.

Our user interface.

We matched every tracked metric with a compatible icon to make it easy to see how you performed in different aspects of your workout. You can check your lap time, breath count, heart rate, stroke index, etc. We made a quick and easy guide for you to get an overview of what each icon represents!

	Heart Rate		Breath Count
	Stroke Index		Stroke Count
	Lap Time		Stroke Type
	Stroke Rate		Stroke Length
	Underwater Time		Turn Time

Connect with your coach.

If you go to your Profile tab, you can press the “Coaches” button. From there you can invite someone to become your coach and give them access to all your workouts. Just enter the email address with which they signed up. We are also finalizing the iPad team application, which we will be demonstrating soon. Stay tuned!

Built-in FAQ and feedback functionality.

You can get in touch or access the FAQ-section from within the app. Simply go to your profile and tap the “Get in touch” button. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the app or Swimtraxx One!