What I think of the Swimovate Pool-Mate - 06-05-2010
Q What is it? 
Essentially it’s a stop watch but with lots more features – the key ones for the overall session being Laps, Distance, Calories and Average Strokes. For sets you can scroll through Set time, Laps, Distance, Strokes per lap, Speed (the average time in seconds per 100m) and Efficiency Index (based on Golf method of number of strokes plus the time taken to swim 25m). The watch comes in 3 colours, Black, Grey or Pink.
Q How does it work?
Motion sensors that detect the motion of your arm.
Q How much is it?
It retails at £69.99 but if any of the 7Oaks Tri Club members wish to purchase one then Bat & Ball Sports in Otford will sell it for £65. I haven’t found it that cheap anywhere on the web.
Q Is it any good?
• It does what it says on the tin.
• Fairly easy to get started with.
• I’m confident that it’s accurate (based on the recall stats being what I am expecting).
• It’s not too big or chunky.
• Brings a bit of interest to a swim session by analysing what you’ve done, so the equivalent of your bike speedometer, HR monitor, etc.
• Provides a useful tool to monitor progress (or lack of!).
Q Are there any downsides?
My real complaint is that when doing a set and you push ‘pause’ for your recovery the display shows your recovery time, but not the time of the swim you’ve just done so you have no idea if your pacing is good or you are slowing etc. (This can all be retrieved after the season but I like to know this information during a session). Also because of this limitation if for example, you are swimming a set of 100ms on 2 mins you have no way of knowing when the 2 mins are up. You’d need to use the big wall clock as well.
Q What data do you record from a swim set?
Tuesday 4 May session the main set was a 750m, 400m and 200m so my strokes were 10 going to 11 on the 200m (this is the number of strokes taken by the arm you wear the watch on). Speed (the average time in seconds per 100m) was 97, improving to 96 on the 200m. Efficiency was 34, which they class as Very Good! :-). Times were 12:09, 6:29 and 3:13.
Q Anything else I ought to know?
• The pool-mate doesn’t work in open water as it’s designed for lap swimming in a pool.
• It doesn’t work when doing kicking or drilling.
• The buttons are not designed to be operated underwater! (Although I do and it’s still working).
• You can’t dive in wearing the Pool-Mate so takes away the fun of, “Will or won’t my goggles stay on this time?”
Q What did the 200 Triathlon Magazine review have to say?
They gave it a 9 out of 10: Using motion-sensors, the Pool-Mate records your entire swim session, storing information about how many lengths you’ve done (invaluable if you often lose count), your pace per 100m, stroke rate, calorie-burn and efficiency, without you needing to press any buttons during your swim. You only need to hit ‘Start’ at the beginning and ‘Stop’ at the end to use the basic mode. Thanks to those motion sensors, the unit automatically knows when you turn at the end of a length, and it can cope with all four strokes. If you choose to, you can pause the watch during rest intervals, kick sets or drills. It’s all very simple to use, with the only tinkering needed when you set the pool’s length, your weight and which hand you wear the watch on. It can also be used for biking and running, and would be a great option for brick sessions or races. Sadly the Pool-Mate won’t work in open-water, but it’s spot on for the pool.
Q Would you recommend it?
I think this depends on how you want to use it. The lack of instant feedback is annoying for me, but I do like downloading all the info after a session and noting it in my training diary. So I will continue to use it. The downsides listed above may not be that important to you.
Author: Claire HitchingsComments
more blog posts...
I have one too! Not used it much as you can guess with my love for swimming!! The idea was for it to help me with counting lengths, get a bit dizzy after 2 lengths of front crawl! Well done at the Europeans x
Deb O'Neill - 29th July 2010 at 9:45pm