Bruno Langlois, former Canadian National Team member and current coach at the Bergens Svømme Club in Norway, began using TritonWear with his swimmers at the end of last year. Thanks to the simplicity of the technology, he found it very easy to integrate with his team. “It took one day.”
While Bruno had a lot of positive feedback to give TritonWear over the phone, his favourite thing about the technology is its simplicity. “I like the way it’s easy to use. You don’t need to set up anything on the deck.”
The devices are totally mobile, easy to transport, and will produce the same data regardless of which pool they’re used in – a real asset for teams that train in multiple facilities. The amount of preparation required before beginning a practice is minimal. “It’s easy. Swimmers put it in their swim cap or around their goggles and they jump in the water. Then you look at the app and you get the data.”
Bruno explained that he uses the TritonWear systems with a core group of national medallists (which includes national team members) almost every day, and that swimmers wear the systems for the entire practice. When asked if he has found the technology useful, he had this to say: “It gives us another tool to give feedback… I think we need to use it. We, the coaches, could calculate the metrics, but it would take so much time to calculate everything for all the swimmers. It makes our jobs so much easier to get the data in live time.”
One of the clearest benefits of using TritonWear is receiving the data in real time. Bruno leaves his iPad open on a table during practice and checks it every time he walks past. With two coaches on pool deck, one is able to watch the swimmers while the other watches the app and relays information. That way, they’re able to give immediate feedback to swimmers.
Bruno explained, “We check to see how swimmers are doing during the main set. If we have a main set that is three repetitions, then after the first one we see if there are things that they could be more careful of, like if they are losing efficiency in their stroke. If, for example, we have 8 x 50 and in the first six a swimmer is really good, but then in the last two they take four more strokes going 0.2 seconds faster, then could they do it in the same amount of strokes? We challenge the swimmers that way.”
Bruno pointed out that he especially liked using TritonWear during taper. “We did some broken swims, and we could really give better feedback. We had more time so we could show the swimmers their data right after they swam.” The graphs on the app make the data easy to absorb, so that swimmers can visually identify their weaknesses.
Bruno gives quick feedback based on the data: “See you’re going a little bit slower there, you have a lot more strokes, your time underwater is a little bit shorter, so be aware of that.” He also added that the data is accurate during test sets. “Every time we do something specific, the data is good.”
In addition to the benefit of real-time feedback during practice, TritonWear is a useful tool in follow-up conversations afterward. Bruno leaves his iPad on the pool deck after training to give swimmers a chance to see how they did. If they have any questions or notice anything unusual about any of their performance metrics, he is there to talk. “The swimmers like it… It makes them more aware.”
Bruno is confident that those athletes who want to improve are more engaged in their training when using TritonWear, both inside and outside the pool – when they go home after practice, they can access their own data through their online profile. “Sometimes I have swimmers who come back with feedback on their own strokes.” By consistently uploading data after practice Bruno is able to analyze progress over time with his swimmers.
Another feature of TritonWear that Bruno is very pleased with is the customer support. His frequent contact with TritonWear makes the experience more personal; staff is always open to listening to suggestions to improve the technology. “I like having a personal connection – it’s not just writing to a support forum. It gives us more confidence. I know I can write to TritonWear and it’s a person; I can almost put a face on the app.”
Bruno has already recommended TritonWear to other coaches at the Norwegian Championships, and he plans to continue using the technology with more swimmers on his team next season. His satisfaction with TritonWear is clear: “I’m happy with it – I think it’s a great tool.”