Speed Coach iPhone Application Review

[lt.wolf]

iPhone Speed Coach Application review .



Hey all – I just wanted to post a review on the iphone Speed Coach application , this piece was written by Skip Dise , one of the lightweight candidates out of the USA Training Center. I also thought it might be good to have a response to it from Tony the developer of the application – Sean Wolf



I just finished testing out the new Performance Phones iPhone Speed Coach Application. I loaded the full Speed Coach application on my 8GB iPhone and then purchased the suggested waterproof pouch from the Performance Phones website. The thought of taking my iPhone in a boat with me was a little daunting, but after receiving and inspecting the waterproof pouch (which is actually sold by NK for $40 online), I felt more confident that I'd be returning to the dock with my iPhone still dry and not at the bottom of the lake. This morning we were doing 20k total distance, with 12k at "hard steady state" ranging from 20-26 spm in a straight four. My initial impression was that I would find the device hard to use, compounded also by the fact that I've never been a rower that focuses a lot on "gadgets" or lots of different forms of electronic feedback. I'm pretty content with a simple NK stroke coach magnet wired into the boat, though recently I've liked having speed feedback in the form of a non-rowing specific GPS unit (brand which I won't name, but use as a benchmark comparison).

Anyways, the four had wing riggers, which made it easy to mount the pouch and it's velcro band just above the feet on the wing. The pouch has a transparent window which allows you to navigate through the iPhone interface quite easily. That was one of my initial concerns, that trying to set up the iPhone Speed Coach app would be difficult through the plastic window, however, the pouch window didn't prevent seamless navigation at all; it was just like using the iPhone outside of the pouch. The app adjusts for the orientation of the phone mounted on the rigger and it produces the same information output in both the horizontal and vertical position. The Speed Coach app has similar functionality to other stroke and speed electronic devices and easily goes from the "stop" to "go" mode with the touch of one button. Resetting the strokes is a separate one touch button too so you don't have to go through complicated combinations of holding/pressing alternating buttons. Prior to testing the Speed Coach app, I was curious to see how the app would work regarding two issues: GPS accuracy and stroke rate feedback. In using the iPhone map application, I've noticed that at times the small blue location indicator isn't always accurate (i.e. when driving, it often places my location completely off the road), so I was unsure how it would handle smaller changes in position. To my surprise, the GPS speed was quite precise, relative to readings obtained from a non-rowing specific GPS unit also in the boat. One nice feature of the iPhone app is that it gives both an instant and average /500 meter split, just like the C2 model D erg monitors. This feature provides better feedback when building into a piece compared to other GPS units that I've used, since other units tend to take 15-20 strokes until the average speed readout reflects your speed in a piece. The stroke rate feedback functionality also proved to work surprisingly well. With other accelerometer based (not the seat magnet type) stroke rate devices, I've noticed that there's also a lag time of about 10-15 strokes until the meter gives a relatively accurate stroke rate. This was more evident in faster shells like an eight, where the speed of the boat doesn't decrease as much as in a smaller boat, such as a pair. In the four this morning at the prescribed rates, the stroke rate meter went right to rate (equal to the seat-magnet type model). Other nice features of the device were that it saved all your workouts and allowed you to program in your own workouts and run them. Lastly, you can upload data from your workout to your computer using the normal iPhone-computer interface. To summarize, here are my overall thoughts on the Performance Phones iPhone Speed Coach app:

Pros:
-Comparable stroke coach functionality to the traditional seat-magnet type devices, better than other accelerometer based ones.
-Comparable GPS speed data to other non-rowing specific GPS models.
-Easy to use user interface, programmable and downloadable workout history with software that you already have, if you have an iPhone or have ever downloading anything from iTunes.
-If you already have an iPhone, it's cheaper ($50 for the app, $40 for the waterproof case) than purchasing separate GPS or seat-magnet type devices.

Cons:
-The pouch provides safeguards against water and loss, however, if you damage or lose it, you're out more than just a speed coach and GPS (more expensive for all pieces included).
-The pouch window is difficult to see through in the rain (it was raining this morning), since it's not permanently pressed up against the iPhone screen. I could also imagine this might be a problem in bright light.
-Unsure of where to mount the pouch if you don't have a boat with a wing rigger. The velcro strap on the pouch looked like it was basically designed to go around a person's arm.
-The battery drain was significant, about 1/4 to 1/3 of my battery was used. If you're rowing in the morning before work and can't charge your iPhone, you may run out of juice before the end of the day, depending on how much you use the iPhone for other stuff.
-If you turn the phone on airplane mode to block out calls, the GPS doesn't work, thus if someone calls you during a workout, it interrupts the display and your workout. The best I could think of was to turn the phone on vibrate. There may be another way to remedy this problem, but I wasn't able to figure it out.
-Last and probably most importantly: you can't RACE with your iPhone in the boat. It's my understanding that both college and FISA prohibit two-way communication devices in the boats during racing and I'm pretty sure no one will believe that your iPhone isn't a phone. (Maybe Performance Phones has thought of this problem, please let me know if they have, as I was overall pretty happy with the app and will continue to use it)

So, there you have my thoughts on the new Performance Phones iPhone Speed Coach app. I'd say, it's great for training if you already have an iPhone and want to save money on speed and stroke rate functionality (compared to the other options out there). Just remember, you can't race with it in the boat, so you may just be better off having all the other devices if you want that type of feedback come race day.


Thanks for the heads-up. Overall, this looks like a thoughtful and well-written review. I can address some of the concerns raised at the end of the review.

1. Additional mounting hardware will be available soon from NK. The plan is to have two additional options to aid in mounting. One is an adapter that will attach to an existing SpeedCoach-style mount with an upward-extending "finger" onto which the waterproof case can slide (using the sleeve on the back of the case). That will orient the phone in landscape mode which is generally better for viewing. The other item is planned to be a spring-loaded clamp that will attach to a footplate or gunwale with a SpeedCoach-style mount at the other end. This will help for boats that have no SpeedCoach mount already installed.

2. Incoming calls can be prevented during a practice by forwarding calls directly to voice mail. There's more information about this on the FAQ page of my web site (http://www.performancephones.com/Perfor ... /FAQs.html).

3. The FISA rules have changed in 2009, and the new wording (see rule 74) appears to prohibit the undesired behavior (coaching during a race) rather than specific kinds of electronics. My reading of this is that the iPhone (and any other device) should be legal as long as it isn't used to facilitate the prohibited behavior. I'm actually hoping for a clarification on this from FISA. At the recent World Cup regatta in Banyoles, Spain, one of the UK rowers (Anna Bebington) was using my application. She used it in two heats, but was then questioned about it while launching for her 2x final. After some discussion and a call to the head official, she wasn't allowed to use the iPhone. But she is following up with FISA now for an official ruling on this. I think it may just be a matter of the officials not being familiar with the rule change in this area. My FAQ page talks about this as well, and has a link to the 2009 FISA rules.

In the US, the wording hasn't changed in this area and the iPhone does appear to be off-limited for USRowing-sanctioned regattas.

Thanks,
Tony Andrews
Performance Phones, LLC

[Dan U-A]

Can you listen to music at the same time as this is going if you put a waterproof speaker in the boat?

[skibum925]

Dan, to you answer your question about listening to music and using the Speed Coach app, YES! I just tested to see if both worked simultaneously, and indeed the music kept playing when I opened the Speed Coach app. If you have the waterproof case that NK sells, there's an internal headphones jack you can plug into your iPhone, which is connected to a waterproof headphones jack outside the case. If you have a waterproof speaker with a headphones-size jack, you can totally listen to music and use the app at once!

[suckedin]

Is there a way (or will there be a way) to use the accelerometer to monitor check?

[Dan U-A]

Thanks, Skibum!

[mlw43]

Can you listen to music at the same time as this is going if you put a waterproof speaker in the boat?

Even if you, rowing with music is a massive distraction. Especially if you use head phones. I'd strongly recommend against this as it would prevent you from heading the warnings of other crews/boaters

[CrewNerd]

I recently added a feature to report "check" as well as "bounce". Both of these are now available as additional data fields on the main screen. Bounce is easy to understand - it's just a measure of vertical movement during the stroke. I average this over the last 5 strokes so that the number doesn't fluctuate dramatically with a single "good" or "bad" stroke, but rather tracks longer-term trends & habits. This measurement can detect problems with blade depth or with the hands & hips at the release.

Check is much trickier to measure in a helpful way. I experimented with several techniques and the one that seemed to work the best (so far, at least) is to look at the variance of the hull's acceleration during the recovery. Basically, it rewards you for smoothly decelerating during the recovery as opposed to rapidly changing your deceleration. This seemed to detect common problems like rushing the slide or driving with the legs before the blades are in the water.

These measurements are available both on the iPhone (SpeedCoach Mobile) and the iPod Touch (StrokeCoach Mobile).

Tony