Spatial-temporal variables for swimming coaches: A comparison study between video and TritonWear sensor

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and the reliability of a swimming sensor to assess swimming performance and spatial-temporal variables. Six international male open-water swimmers completed a protocol which consisted of two training sets: a 6×100m individual medley and a continuous 800 m set in freestyle. Swimmers were equipped with a wearable sensor, the TritonWear to collect automatically spatial-temporal variables: speed, lap time, stroke count (SC), stroke length (SL), stroke rate (SR), and stroke index (SI). Video recordings were added as a “gold-standard” and used to assess the validity and the reliability of the TritonWear sensor. The results show that the sensor provides accurate results in comparison with video recording measurements. A very high accuracy was observed for lap time with a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) under 5% for each stroke (2.2, 3.2, 3.4, 4.1% for butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle respectively) but high error ranges indicate a dependence on swimming technique. Stroke count accuracy was higher for symmetric strokes than for alternate strokes (MAPE: 0, 2.4, 7.1 & 4.9% for butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke & freestyle respectively). The other variables (SL, SR & SI) derived from the SC and the lap time also show good accuracy in all strokes. The wearable sensor provides an accurate real time feedback of spatial-temporal variables in six international open-water swimmers during classical training sets (at low to moderate intensities), which could be a useful tool for coaches, allowing them to monitor training load with no effort.