Stroke Coach - iPhone Application

[lt.wolf]

Stroke Coach - iPhone Application
Review by Helen Fremont

May 28, 2009


Initial Impressions:


The application is a cinch to download and easy to operate. Oddly enough, it was so eager to offer me a stroke rate, it started providing me with my stroke rate before I even left the house. (Just holding it in my hand while I was seated motionless at my desk, it claimed I was at a stroke rate of 11, but soon recorded me at a 20, though I’d done nothing but stare at it.) After awhile it showed a blank for the SPM “--” but then went back to a 20. Obviously it is not sure what to do with inactivity.

The same was true when I tried to run a Workout while sitting at my desk. It started recording me at a stroke rate of 12, and then reduced me to 11 1/2. Eventually it went blank. At other times, it’s started me at a 20 and 20 1/2. I’m not sure what it’s reading when it shows these numbers, but it’s a tiny glitch, and not of any real concern to me, since I’m confident it’s wrong.


Waterproof Case:

As advised, I bought the waterproof case online from Performance Phones. The case works fine, but it’s a bit on the tight side. I had to remove my iPhone sleeve (a slim plastic protective case) in order to squeeze the iPhone into the waterproof case. Even then, it’s quite tight, especially because there’s the wire and plug for the possibility of sound. I had to use force to get the iPhone into the case, and it makes me wonder why they don’t make a slightly roomier case. I have the feeling the plastic case could easily rip when trying to put the phone in and out of it. I can understand the desire to keep the case as small as possible, but I found this to be a real drawback and inconvenience. I’d recommend a slightly larger case, so that you can slip the iPhone in and out quickly and easily. After all, the iPhone is not going to be used as a Stroke Coach most of the day, so the easier it is to move it to and from the boat, the better.

The attachment strap worked well, though the case itself seemed easily torn. I can imagine a better, more durable attachment system would be important.

Performance - Display:

The display is beautiful, very clear, very legible, especially in the dark. I found it very easy to read before dawn. In full sun, it’s a little less visible, but still fine - certainly as good as (if not better than) my current NK speedcoach screen.

The fact that the screen rotates 180 degrees when the iPhone is turned is a terrific feature.

Workouts:

These are easy to add, but I found it hard to figure out how to add intervals - I thought I was entering custom intervals of time and strokes, but obviously the iPhone thought otherwise. When I ran the workout, it only ran down the first part of the interval I entered, and stopped before running down the “rest” periods I’d entered. In other words, I still haven’t figured out how to enter a series of intervals or a longer, more intricate workout. I’m not sure if this is possible. It appears to me that I need to press a button each time I want to move onto the next series of rest strokes or “on” strokes. If so, this is cumbersome.

I did like the pre-programmed interval workout of 5:00 on, 4:00 rest. (I had been trying to program something like that (see above) without success.) The only thing I noticed about this pre-programmed interval workout is that once it reached the full 5:00, the timer just stopped for about 8-9 seconds, before switching to the 4:00 countdown. It then “caught up with itself,” and began counting down from 3:52 or 3:51, rather than immediately counting down from 4:00 minutes. This is not a big deal, but it was consistently off. I assume the mechanism takes 8-9 seconds to adjust between intervals. Again - this is nothing to be concerned about.

I did like the option of choosing “no countdown” or 15-second countdown or 30 second countdown, and the warning sound was audible and clear.

Accuracy:

The stroke coach seemed to be very accurate with respect to the clock and time (with slight exceptions of interval countdowns, see above). It also seemed pretty accurate in recording my stroke rate (once I was actually rowing) as long as my stroke rate was somewhere between a 17 and 34 or so. (I was unable to get higher than a 34, which is not the stroke coach’s fault, and I didn’t yet try to do a half-slide higher stroke rate.)

But on the lower stroke rates, it just went cuckoo. When I tried to slow my stroke rate to a 14 or 15, it went blank, then went to 11 for a moment, and then up to 57, then back down to 12, then blank for awhile, then up to 34, and so on. It just was completely incapable of coping with a low stroke rate.

Conclusion:

I will continue to fool around with it, and see if I can program some extended custom-designed intervals, which is what I would find most useful. I haven’t yet tried uploading to facebook. (I tried the “Upload Practices” button, but nothing happened. I also tried the “Check Account” button, but nothing happened.)

If the kinks are worked out, I’d probably be very interested in the speed coach version, since I did miss seeing my speed and distance.

[Lwttorque]

Apple had a great idea with this iPhone App but I feel that it still has some bugs to work on. It's trying to be EVERYTHING to everyone which is great and all, but it some times makes the accuracy of each App a little spotty. But all in all I think this is a good device for someone who doesn't already have a Speed/Stroke Coach and doesn't want to buy one because it's expensive. (Although if you are paying for an iPhone and the phone plan, I think you can afford an NK Product... Let’s be serious)

[frisky]

It is not an "Apple" app. It was independently developed. I agree though that it is less useful to someone who already has a stroke or speed coach. I like the fact that functionality can be added to a device like the iphone unless you have to update the hardware all the time (like in a MS Windows environment), this is good news. Here is the link to the app developer: http://www.performancephones.com

[Dan U-A]

This is really pretty cool. There has to be quite a few additional possibilities here, too.

It would seem fairly logical, especially as internet speeds keep increasing, to have some sort of function that lets a coach see you, a la the XL, without actually needing a radio transmission. There is also a lot of talk that there will be video conferencing on the next iphone. It might be a little dodgy now, but, in the future, maybe an IPhone app can not just provide race info for people, but actually a straight on video of them.

[CrewNerd]

As the author of the application, let me see if I can explain some of the "kinks" you reported.

First, the application assumes that your iPhone or iPod is mounted in your rowing shell and ready to go. It does not try to answer the question "Am I mounted in a rowing shell or is someone just holding me?", as this is a very tricky problem. So yes, when you hold the device or try to simulate a rowing motion manually, your results are likely to be sketchy.

For rowing, the application will measure stroke rates between 10 and 60 spm. If the rate falls below 10spm, the display reads "--". The application assumes a reasonably continuous stroke, and a minimum power threshold is required as well - to avoid reporting a stroke when the rower was just making a small adjustment or other extraneous motion. So if you take the rate down by introducing a pause in the stroke, the abrupt stop & start could be interpreted as an "extra" stroke. Cake-cutter drills are very confusing to the application, for example. But for continuous strokes at anything over a light paddle, the rates should be very accurate. Most reviewers are reporting that the application is consistently within 1/2 spm of an NK SpeedCoach or CoxBox when used side-by-side.

Workouts come in four types: single time, time intervals, stroke intervals, and custom intervals. Time and stroke intervals consist of a work period (specified as time or strokes) and an optional rest period (always specified as time). On the workout settings screen you can set both the work period and rest period. Simple intervals will repeat indefinitely and there is no need to press a button between each one. Custom intervals consist of an arbitrary sequence of time- or stroke-based intervals, each one with an optional rest period. Here too, there is no need to press any buttons once the workout is started. This is all described in the user guide that can be found on my web site (http://www.performancephones.com).

At the end of each work period in a workout, the display "freezes" for 8 seconds and shows the summary data for the period (time, stroke count, average stroke rate) to give you a quick view of your performance for the interval. The "frozen" data is shown in yellow so that it's always clear when you are looking at live vs. frozen data. This is also described in the user guide.

On the "Uploads" screen, the "Upload Practices" and "Check Account" buttons are disabled until you sign in to Facebook using the big blue "Connect with Facebook" button in the middle of the display. Once you provide your Facebook login and password, the other buttons will switch from black to blue to indicate (in standard iPhone fashion) that they are enabled. The user guide describes this as well.

Best regards,
Tony Andrews
Performance Phones, LLC