SwimCoach 1.1

Dialup	(56k)	-	17 s
ISDN	(128k)	-	08 s
DSL	(512k)	-	02 s
Cable	(1024k)	-	01 s
T1	(1484k)	-	01 s

SwimCoach (tm) for the Palm Computing platform is a combination dual stopwatch and calculator, designed for use by swim coaches in measuring the performance of their swimmers. Stroke rate (cycling rate), stroke length (distance per stroke), and lap times (speed) are all of keen interest to swim coaches. Two excellent books on current swimming theory, Total Immersion, by Terry Laughlin, and Swimming Into the 21st Century, by Cecil Colwin (both available online at The Athletes Bookstore), have this to say about stroke rate and stroke length: Laughlin: "Virtually every swimmer I see already has all the SR [stroke rate] theyll ever need, its the SL [stroke length] theyre 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." "The best...of the worlds elite swimmers...establish SL first, then try to gradually increase SR, giving up the least possible SL in return." Colwin: "Researchers agree...that stroke length rather than stroke frequency is the determining factor in a swimmers average speed." The technique for measuring SR and SL was described in a recent issue of the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) News (Vol. 1997-9, p. 12). SwimCoach implements that technique using a PalmPilot (or IBM WorkPad, which is equivalent), by far the worlds most popular and successful handheld computer. If you want to quantitatively measure SR and SL in order to improve the swimming of people you are coaching, SwimCoach is the tool for the job.