GoSwim launches app designed to provide video feedback

GoSwim launches app to provide data-driven video feedback to swimmers

For nearly two decades, GoSwim has provided videos designed to help swimmers improve, featuring world-class swimmers demonstrating skills and drills for a wide audience, and other learn-to-swim content. Now with a content library of about 3,500, co-founder and 1980 U.S. Olympian Glenn’s Mills unveiled his next innovative idea: a smartphone app that aims to provide specific, personalized feedback to swimmers of all skill levels.

Every weekend at swim meets around the world, parents film their kids swimming on their phones. It may seem harmless, but those videos can be shown to a swimmer once and then lost forever in the depths of a parent’s phone. With the new GoSwim app, coaches can loop back in, and even poor-quality videos, marred by obstacles like lifeguard posts and passersby, can become effective and powerful tools for long-term teaching.

The race video can be recorded using the app or another smartphone camera and then imported. While filming (if using the app) or later, the swimmer or coach will mark the swim route by clicking the “style” button on each stroke, the “turn” button at the end of each lap and the “finish” button at the end of the race. The user can then click the clipboard icon in the lower right corner to see a large collection of data, including stroke splits, stroke distance, underwater speed, stroke length, stroke rate, distance per stroke, 15-meter splits, turn time and lap time.

“Throughout the race, you can see what happens with the length of the jump or the length of the jump when someone gets tired,” Mills said. “If they get a negative split in the race, you can see how they do that.”

If the swim is recorded directly through the app, the videographer can categorize the race by stroke, distance, and course. If a parent is filming the race, the video can be shared with the swimmer or coach through the app, and after the swimmer warms up, the coach can show the race video on the iPad while discussing with the swimmer. The coach can add verbal commentary to the video and use the annotation tool to point out areas for reinforcement and improvement.

The coach can then view the list of athletes and click on the appropriate name, instantly sharing the video with the swimmer.

“We tried to create technology where coaches don’t have to learn and they don’t have to spend time uploading or downloading,” Mills said. “It’s all automatic. We have full tagging capabilities so you can add comments and critiques to the video.”

Mills hopes that using this new feedback app will help normalize the use of data in swimming and engage swimmers in aspects that can be key to improvement. The app will be used this season by Northwestern’s swimming program, which Rachel Stratton-MillsGlenn’s wife, is the second-year head coach. Stratton-Mills swimmers will receive videos of their races via the app, then individually add data on their stroke and turn.

“It increases their involvement in the process,” Mills said. “When swimmers add data, they’re rewatching the race. Now they’re involved in their stroke rate, stroke length, exit point, underwater speed, topside speed.”

And athletes well beyond the Division I level can benefit. Mills believes swimmers as young as 10 and 11 can benefit from adding their data and engaging in the race analysis process. With the app, coaches can gamify the feedback process.

“If you want to teach someone a new language, when is the best time to do it? When are they young or old? We teach the language of tempo, length, starting point,” Mills said. “By the time those 11-year-olds become 14-year-olds, they’re going to know so much that when a coach talks to them, they’re going to know why they have to do certain things.”

In developing the app, Mills and GoSwim took extensive precautions to ensure the privacy and protection of underage swimmers whose video likenesses would be shared using the system. Mills met with multiple agencies, including USA Swimming Safe Sport, and worked with privacy attorneys to ensure the app complied with all laws, regulations and compliance issues.

To receive race videos, each swimmer must have their own GoSwim account to ensure that another adult (i.e., a parent) is involved in the upload, as required by law. The GoSwim system stores a temporary copy of the video content on the phone, but the app offers one-click deletion of all synced videos from the device. However, the videos are still available forever thanks to unlimited storage provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“We had to design our technology as if the worst person in the world was trying to use it,” Mills said. “So the parent had to be involved. Every time it was released, the parent got a copy of it.”

Coaches can purchase GoSwim accounts for $124.99 per year, and once purchased, they can invite swimmers to join free accounts and share videos from the GoSwim library. To use the video feedback tool and receive shared videos, swimmers must upgrade to paid accounts costing $99.99 per year. GoSwim offers significant discounts to teams and coaches it partners with.

Some teams required purchase of the GoSwim app with team registration but insisted that families make the purchase themselves, and GoSwim required a credit card on file to ensure that a non-minor family member was included in coach-swimmer communications. In another case, a masters coach did not require swimmers to purchase the GoSwim app but offered to film and send video of the race to anyone who did.

The app development process took years and faced significant hurdles, but now that the app is out in the market, Mills believes it has the potential to help swimmers everywhere, and the app will likely continue to improve as his team irons out any teething problems users encounter.

“It took us a long time to get to this point and it was a lot of work. I’m not a huge fan of the things I do. I’m proud of it. I’m really proud of it and I think we did a good job,” Mills said. “I’m very critical of myself. I’ve always been very critical. It made me a good swimmer. You’re always trying to do better and you’re very rarely happy with what you’ve done. I’m very proud of that.”