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Trinidad and Tobago native Mark Rivas is a busy man. In addition to directing his own Team Rivas he is a coach with RWB Aquatic Academy and assistant coach at Hillview College in Tunapuna. In August he was one of four coaches for his country’s Goodwill Swim Team that competed in Suriname.
For the last three years he has embraced the real time, long term tracking benefits of TritonWear’s comprehensive data analytics platform. He has seen substantial improvements from each swimmer by tracking the information revealed in the 13 different metrics based on swimmer motion.
The metrics include splits, stroke rates, index and speed, DPS, time in breakouts, turns and underwater. In short, the data recorded in a small unit placed inside a swimmer’s cap, is transmitted immediately to an iPad. This information gives coach and swimmer the ability to track training, diagnose weaknesses and monitor progress. Additionally, motion analysis software syncs video with the power of acceleration and speed data. The resulting frame by frame output clearly indicates which movements help a swimmer gain or lose speed within their strokes and skills.
Pricing is an annual per athlete subscription, ($188USD, volume discounts available) and includes all TritonWear tools plus one free Triton 2 unit.
TritonWear at Work
Rivas uses TritonWear in virtually every training session. He initially started with younger age group swimmers. He now has most of his team on board with the objective of collecting accurate data to create a formula for each athlete and specific body type. From that he plans targets so that his swimmers can meet individual long and short term goals.
Has it worked so far? Apparently so. Rivas notes that results began to appear as early as six months. On Team Rivas he coaches two of his sons who have enjoyed banner 2018 and 2019 seasons using the TritonWear technology. “The goal for Giovanni was to attain the national records for 9-10 boys in both the long and short course meter backstroke events,” says the father. Mission accomplished. When the dust settled, he had clocked five national records.
In SCM he went:
- 50m Backstroke – 32.74
- 100m Backstroke – 1:10.06
- 100m Butterfly – 1:09.06
In LCM he recorded:
- 50m Backstroke – 33.06
- 100m Backstroke – 1:12.97
Mark Rivas’ son starting an event, Photo Courtesy: Harold Robart Wilson
In 2019 his brother Christiano set his sights on the butterfly events and attained the national LCM record for 9-10 boys going 1:09.26. (He already holds the national SCM 100 fly record for 8 & unders at 1:20.83.)
While Rivas’ swimmers utilized most of the TW features, he relied more on the distance per stroke, stroke rate and speed metrics to help his boys reach the national record goals. He is particularly keen on the the load monitoring feature. “It is fantastic,” he says. “It is a great tool to ensure that you don’t overtrain and lead to injuries or promote pure boredom with the younger aged swimmers.”
“Plain and simply TritonWear brings the science of swimming to your fingertips,” he says. “The benefit to athletes is in the immediacy with which they can see for themselves what was done in terms of the swim. Another plus is that after each workout, all the data is instantly sent to them via email.
“Older athletes appreciate the tool more than the younger ones,” he acknowledges. They tend to get more involved and see the specifics of their progress based on their training. The option/feature allows them to update their meet swims. By doing that they can properly chart their progress and map their results relating workouts and back to preparation for specific meets. I think younger kids are fascinated by the ‘cool’ technology and the fact that the information is instantly at their fingertips via their phone, etc.
RWB Aquatic Academy Athlete during Butterfly, Photo Courtesy: Harold Robart Wilson
From a coach’s perspective “TW simply takes the guesswork out of coaching. There is no need to calculate DPS, stroke rate, etc. because the TritonWear technology immediately sends each swim directly to our devices. As a result the insights gained allow us to help swimmers train smarter and more effectively rather than doing garbage yardage,” he says.
Access to actionable data has been a huge plus for Rivas. “Without a technology like TritonWear it is difficult, or nearly impossible, to communicate with each swimmer during every pool length and provide accurate feedback. TritonWear allows me to be more consistent in tracking specific metrics without having to rely on memory.
“Additionally, there is always that one swim that is perfect. It is that time when a swimmer gets it right. As a coach it is something that you want to capture and replicate to make it permanent. But without the TritonWear technology you may have missed the metrics for that swim, and as a result have missed that opportunity for improvement. With TW we are able to collect the data from each and every swim and that allows us to try and replicate the data for more consistent swims and performances,” he says.
Going forward Rivas plans even greater use of TritonWear.
“We will continue to collect and analyze data to assist each and every swimmer so that they may reach their full potential, whether it be just junior meets, junior worlds or beyond. We will be upgrading to TritonWear2 soon which has even more features and metrics. If we coaches do our jobs, and the swimmers do theirs, with consistent use of the TW and hard work I like their chances of success.”
RWB Aquatic Academy Athlete, Photo Courtesy: Harold Robart Wilson
Amazing actually how the Triton wear improved my swimming.p.s I am his son Giovanni Rivas