AvidaMetrics, the revolutionary swimming telemetry system developed by Avidasports, was featured in a story in The New York Times. Back in February, I blogged about the announcement that the University of Michigan teams would be the first to use the system. Now, five months later, Michigan is still the only one in the pool.
The New York Times article sheds some light on to why coaches might be hesitant to dive in. In favor of the system, Bob Bowman said that having measurable parameters in a system like this, and being able to give feedback to the athlete is “really powerful.” Although, it was noted that Bowman has not used the system for himself. Mike Bottom, the Michigan men
2 Comments:
I think the reluctancy is that coaches have a certain cockiness to them. To be a good coach, you must have this quality. And to have a machine that can basically surplant a lot of what the coach does with his eyes can be a bit unnerving, maybe subconciously.
If you get a monofin, or a fulcrum, or whatever, the equipment is basically an extension of you. It’s helping the swimmers to understand what you already know and are trying to teach them. This system, however, is taking information from the swimmers and basically telling the coach what they need to relay to their swimmers. In some sense, it reduces a lot of coaching to the ability to read a computer. Obviously there’s still more to it than that, but I feel like this is where the hesitation is. Coaches are nervous that they’re going to get too caught up in the numbers, when clearly there’s more than one way for a successful swimmer to swim their stroke.
Plus, it seems like any electronic swimming gadget ever invented has so many problems that it makes you want to pull your hair out. See Timing boards and touch pads.
I personally am a stats freak, so I would love a system like this. I’m just trying to play Devil’s advocate and surmise why a coach might be reluctant. This would be especially awesome with younger swimmers, or to prove your point to a stubborn swimmer. “See, what I’m telling you is right. The numbers don’t lie!”
From a diving point of view, it reminds me of the TiVo revolution – when dive wells around the country started using video delay systems for instant playback of each dive.
Previously, I’d say up to HALF of a coach’s time was devoted to describing or acting out the dive to show a diver what they just did. Adding a TiVo or other playback system let’s the diver see for themselves – but it still can’t give corrections.
So this system, like a TiVo for divers, can really help you see what is really going on – but it still doesn’t give tips or corrections, it just reports the facts.
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