Are SpeedCoach Mobile and StrokeCoach Mobile legal to use in competition?
It depends. In events governed by the FISA rules of racing, the answer appears to be yes. In the FISA 2009 rules of racing, rule 74 states: “It is prohibited to give any instructions, advice or directions to rowers or crews that are racing with any electric, electronic or other technical device, either directly or indirectly.” So possession of an iPhone or iPod touch appears to be legal as long as the device isn’t used for prohibited communication.
In Canada, the answers also appears to be yes, as the Rowing Canada rules of racing use the same language in this area as FISA.
In the United States, the US Rowing rules of racing currently have a broad restriction on the possession of communication devices of any kind while racing. Even simple GPS receivers appear to be prohibited under the current rules. Hopefully, US Rowing will move toward the FISA model soon with regard to electronics.
Are trial versions of either application available?
The iPhone app store isn’t currently structured to support this. Some game applications provide a free “lite” version and a full paid version, with the free version being limited in some way (e.g. available game levels or other game features). With SpeedCoach Mobile and StrokeCoach Mobile there didn’t appear to be a subset of functionality that would be useful enough for evaluation, while still providing enough incentive to purchase the complete application.
How can I share my practice data with my coach?
Let’s assume that you’re successfully uploading your practice data and that you can see the data in your practice log. To share your data with a coach (or coaches), go to the “Privacy” tab of the SpeedCoach Log application and enter your coach’s name(s) in the area labelled “My coaches”. Then, turn on the checkbox below to turn on sharing with “My coaches” and click “Update settings”.
Your coach can then add the SpeedCoach Log application to their Facebook account. On the “Team” tab, they’ll see a list of all athletes who identified them as a coach, along with a link to each athlete’s practice log.
Why does the speed reading respond slowly when I speed up or slow down?
GPS-based systems, by their nature, are more accurate when measuring long distances than short distances. When trying to measure speed with GPS, the relative inaccuracy of short distance measurements causes the calculated speed to fluctuate considerably. To get around this problem, GPS-based systems generally provide a “smoothing” function that measures speed over a somewhat longer distance or time – the longer the interval, the lower the fluctuation. However, this also means that a true change in speed cannot be detected as quickly.
This tradeoff between responsiveness to speed changes and stability of the calculated speed is inherent in all GPS systems, but for relatively slow-moving systems (like boats and runners, for example) the problem is particularly acute.
SpeedCoach Mobile uses an approach that tries to strike a good balance for rowing and paddling. Based on our testing over the last several months, this seems to produce a speed reading that is reasonably stable but that will start responding to speed changes within a few strokes.
The current version of SpeedCoach Mobile allows you to adjust the size of the smoothing window (in the “Advanced Settings” area).
How can I improve my battery life?
For most users, the iPhone battery will easily last through a practice that lasts 2-3 hours when starting with a full charge. To get the best possible battery life, there are a few steps you can take:
- Use the lowest screen brightness that you can without sacrificing readability.
- Enable “auto-brightness” to let the iPhone adapt automatically to changing light conditions.
- Turn off WiFi.
- Don’t use “push” mode to get your email, and either fetch email manually or on an hourly basis.
How can I avoid incoming phone calls and other interruptions during my workouts?
With the iPhone, some interruptions can be disabled while others cannot. To avoid incoming phone calls, set call forwarding to another number or to your voice mail. To find the number of your voice mail system you’ll need to contact an AT&T customer service representative. Once you have your voice mail number, you can forward calls to that number which will route all incoming calls directly to voice mail.
Avoid calendar entries with alerts that occur during practice times. Use the iPhone settings application to disable sounds for new mail, voice mail, and calendar alerts.
Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to disable incoming text messages. If a text message arrives while SpeedCoach Mobile is running, the application will continue to run but the display will be obscured by the text message alert. To continue with your workout, you’ll need to dismiss the alert message.
I’m not getting speed or distance readings – what could be wrong?
There could be several reasons for this. The GPS signal strength indicator that appears in the speed/pace data area can be of some help here. If the signal strength indicator is yellow, then your iPhone is successfully receiving a GPS signal, but it can’t locate enough satellites to get a reading that’s accurate enough to perform speed & distance calculations. This is mostly likely due to heavy cloud cover or precipitation. When the signal strength shows four or more bars, the color will change to green to indicate that the GPS signal is acceptably accurate and SpeedCoach Mobile will report speed and distance.
If the signal strength indicator is red, this could mean that SpeedCoach Mobile was unable to communicate with the GPS receiver at all. This could also be caused by extreme weather conditions or cloud cover, but may also be caused (in rare cases) by internal problems in the iPhone. If this happens and the signal strength doesn’t improve, try turning off your iPhone completely by holding down the power button for several seconds until the “slide to power off” message appears. Power off the iPhone, restart it, and then try launching SpeedCoach Mobile again.
I’m not getting stroke rate readings – what could be wrong?
Erratic stroke rate readings are normally caused by a problem in the way the iPhone is mounted in the boat. Be sure that the iPhone is reasonably well attached to the boat. If the iPhone’s case were to hang freely from a lanyard, for example, it would be impossible to detect the acceleration of the boat and detect its stroke rate.
It’s also important that the iPhone be facing fairly directly toward the bow or stern. For example, the iPhone cannot be mounted against the gunwale facing the interior of the boat. The iPhone can be tilted backward at any angle that you wish, to make the screen most visible to you, and SpeedCoach Mobile will automatically adapt to the angle that you choose. But if the iPhone is swiveled too far to the left or right, the acceleration signal is weakened and the stroke rate readings can become less reliable.
Why are SpeedCoach Mobile and StrokeCoach Mobile more expensive than most iPhone applications?
Development of the SpeedCoach Mobile application began in April, 2007 as the first cell phones with built-in accelerometers began to appear. A version was developed for the Nokia 5500 Sport phone, and a second version for Java-based phones with accelerometers was in beta testing when the iPhone 3G was announced. The iPhone version is the first one to be publicly released, but it builds on work that began over two years ago. A significant amount of development has also gone into the web-based features of the application.
The amount of work that has gone into this application and the relatively small size of the rowing & paddling market mean that a sustainable business model can only be achieved by setting the price of the applications somewhat higher than most other iPhone apps. It is our goal to continue to add features to these applications, and to develop other new rowing & paddling applications as well. This will only be possible if the income generated by the applications is sufficient to justify this ongoing investment.
Why do I need a Facebook account to access my data online?
We chose Facebook as a platform for the online application for several reasons. Many users already have Facebook accounts, so building on Facebook means that users don’t need yet another account name and password to use our application. And because rowing & paddling are often social activities, we can take advantage of the tagging features and friend relationships in Facebook to make it easy to share data with your teammates. The security features of Facebook also make it possible to control who has access to your practice data in flexible ways.