AUGMENTED REALITY SWIMMING GOGGLES

Do you like the idea of tracking your swimming in real time? Would you like to see your swimming statistics during or after a workout or lesson? Well the newly designed AR googles (Augmented Reality) that have recently landed on the market will provide your stats during every workout and take your training to the next level.
 
Augmented reality swimming goggles have been designed to help swimmers track their swim times, distances completed and lap splits (to the hundredth of a second) during any swimming workout. This data will also help your coach and teacher to monitor your performance. These goggles can offer you and your Strictly Swimming London coach immediate feedback when in the pool and we can analyse your data during your lesson.
 
The sport of swimming has lacked behind other sports such as cycling and running in recent times (who have various gadgets at their disposal to monitor their stats for some time now). Whereas swimmers (during training and lessons) haven’t had gadgets to hand where they can use them in the water to record split times swum and monitor distances that have been achieved.
 
Such an invention is exciting for the sport of swimming which remains the number one participation sport in the UK with over 2.5 million people swimming in pools each week, according to figures from Sport England recently. This figure increases more if you include open water swimming.
 
There have been various smartwatches on the market for a while with limited functions. The Apple Watches Series 2 and beyond will calculate how many laps that you've swum or the stroke you've performed. Waterproof MP3 players and SwiMP3 players have provided underwater music. However, that’s really been about the level of functions available until now. These new goggle companies are claiming that they will revolutionize the way swimmers train.

Types of AR Swimming Goggles

The Form Goggles display metrics that you need to see in the moment which allow you to take control of your swimming during training and lessons. Developed in collaboration with top competitive swimmers, these goggles allow you to monitor split times, interval times, rest times, total time swum, stroke rate, stroke count, distance per stroke, pace per 100, pace per 50, distance, length count and calories burned (which is impressive).

The smart display is see through and is built right into the goggles lens, delivering metrics without obstructing your vision  https://www.formswim.com/
The FORM Swim Goggles intelligently detect turns and rest—and give you relevant metrics each step of the way. They even allow you to customise your display and review your stats via their App.
 
SwimAR is a holographic display for swimmers by attaching a lightweight, hydrodynamic and waterproof module to a regular pair of swimming goggles. This device includes an added extra GPS system for finding your way in open water.

This module can be attached to various goggle styles with flexible straps.
https://www.swimar.co.uk/

Overall Opinion

If you want to compare your personal bests through your swim training and lessons, then investing in some Augmented Reality goggles is definitely for you! These state-of-the-art swimming goggles will allow you to adjust your stroke to the pace you need, increase your stroke length if you are starting to shorten through your workout and also allow you to stop guessing your pace. For those swimmers with poor eyesight who cannot see the pace clock on the poolside, then these goggles will be ground-breaking. Using AR goggles seems to eliminate pausing to check your lap times during your workout.

The downfalls are that AR goggles are really meant for serious swimmers and secondly they seem not to be able to monitor kick sets at the moment (although we think the positives hugely out way the negatives).
Be careful if you are swimming competitively as these goggles are designed to be used during training but not at a swim meet as they are not FINA approved (yet)!
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If you would like to use these goggles during your lesson with our London coaches, we will be able to analyse your stats and offer instant feedback on your split times and intensity performed during your swimming set.
The Strictly Swimming London team are excited to see these new AR goggles (even though they are pricey) and really believe that they will be massively motivational to swimmers all over the world.