Gadget to measure swimmers’ progress

The SWIMTAG system, exclusive to Places for People leisure centres, calculates a user’s swim in different areas such as speed, lengths completed and total time, uploading the final data onto the individual’s personal account. All the user has to do is wear a lightweight wristband in the water.

The scheme has been successful nationwide, gaining attention and praise on social media sites such as Twitter. Users have seen many benefits to using the SWIMTAG system, including an ease of calculating their performance without the need for them to manually count their pool lengths.

Swimmers can track their progress on their own account, identifying areas they wish to improve on. SWIMTAG also offers the chance to enter into bigger challenges such as swim the length of the English Channel (or even the Atlantic Ocean!), and enter into national league tables in different strokes and distances.

The interactivity of the system is something that hasn’t been developed before. SWIMTAG is unique in that it can identify a user’s chosen stroke without being pre-set or calibrated; a swimmer can change stroke halfway through their workout and the wristband will adjust accordingly. Another interesting feature is SWIMTAG’s sharing capabilities, a system that many exercise based schemes haven’t been able to nurture.

SWIMTAG, at the user’s request, can upload and share the data with Facebook and Twitter, encouraging others to engage in the scheme and produce healthy competition.

The simplicity of the SWIMTAG system can be seen at The Pavilions in the Park. The user picks up a wristband from the reception desk, wears it in the water and then returns it to the docking station afterwards.

SWIMTAG automatically uploads the data to the swimmer’s account, where they can access it through their smartphone, computer or other web-enabled device. It really is that simple!

The Pavilions in the Park already has the SWIMTAG system in operation, with Steyning Leisure Centre and Billingshurst Leisure Centre launching the scheme at the end of this year. For more information on how SWIMTAG works, visit www.swimtag.net