If you have a video of a race, Race Video Analysis lets you tap along with it to record what happened in each length. Those taps become simple per-length numbers — how long the length took, how long was spent underwater, how long was spent swimming on the surface, how many strokes were taken, and how fast the stroking was. You can then watch it all back in the Race Theater and the Super Chart.
1. What You See When You Open a Race
When you open a race for analysis, you will see the race details alongside your video and anything you have already marked:
- Your official race details: Event name and date, official time, reaction time and splits where the meet recorded them, plus your lane and heat.
- Event setup: Distance, pool length and course, and stroke. Short-course pools use 25m lengths and long-course pools use 50m lengths, so for example a 100m long-course race has 2 lengths to mark and a 200m short-course race has 8.
- Your video: The attached race video with its title, length, and preview image.
- Your progress: Any lengths you have already marked, with their splits, underwater times, stroke counts, and totals.
2. Marking Your Race in 4 Simple Steps
You mark the race while the video plays, using one big action button. On a computer you can use the SPACE bar instead. There are just four moments to learn:
| Step | What To Do | What It Records |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Dive | Press and hold the button as the swimmer dives or pushes off. | The start of the length. |
| Underwater | Let go when the swimmer's head breaks the surface. | The breakout moment. The time in between counts as underwater. |
| Swimming | Tap once for every stroke. On middle lengths, press and hold for a turn instead. | Each stroke, or the end of the length on a turn. |
| Finish | On the very last length, press and hold for 3 seconds on the final touch. | The finish. The race is then complete and saved. |
Helpful Controls While You Mark
- Slow motion: The video starts at 0.75x speed to make tapping easier. You can switch between 0.5x, 0.75x, and 1.0x while marking.
- Zoom in: Pinch or use the zoom buttons (up to 4x) to get a closer look at breakouts and touches. Tap the zoom badge to go back to normal.
- Quick vs. long press: A quick tap records a stroke. Holding for about half a second on a middle length records a turn. Only a full 3-second hold on the last length records the finish — the button fills up so you can see your progress.
- Made a mistake? Press Rewind (or BACKSPACE on a keyboard) to redo the current length or step back through earlier lengths. The video jumps back and gives you a 3-second GET READY countdown.
- Follow the prompts: The box on the video tells you what to do next — READY, UNDERWATER, SWIMMING, FINAL LENGTH, or RACE COMPLETED — along with your lane, which length you are on, and your stroke count.
- While marking: The video timeline is locked so you cannot accidentally skip ahead mid-length.
You Don't Have To Finish In One Go
You can press Save at any point and come back later — the app picks up at the next length from where you stopped. A race is only marked as fully analysed once every length has a finish touch after its start.
Clear All Laps & Restart and Reset & Re-analyze permanently delete the strokes, breakouts, and lengths you recorded for that race, so only use them if you want to start over.
3. Your Numbers, Explained Simply
As you mark each length, the table fills in. Here is what each column means:
| Number | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Split | How long the whole length took, from start to touch. |
| UW (Underwater) | How long was spent underwater, from the start to breaking the surface. |
| Clean | How long was spent swimming on the surface, from breakout to touch. |
| Strokes | How many strokes you tapped in that length. |
| Cadence (SPM) | Strokes per minute — how fast the swimmer was stroking in that length. |
- Race totals: Your total underwater time, total clean-swimming time, total strokes, and average stroking speed for the whole race.
- How stroking speed changes: The app also looks at small groups of strokes to show whether cadence held steady or faded within a length.
- When you finish: You will see a summary of lengths, strokes, and race time, with buttons to Watch in Race Theater or go back to Swim Details.
4. Watching It Back in the Race Theater
The Race Theater is the best place to watch the finished analysis with a swimmer or parent. The video plays on one side and your key moments sit alongside it.
- Live race badge: As the video plays, a small box shows the current length and distance, whether the swimmer is UNDERWATER or swimming on the surface, strokes so far, and current stroking speed. It can be hidden if you just want to watch.
- Jump to key moments: Every length has shortcuts to the Dive / Turn Push, the Breakout, and the Touch or Finish, so you can jump straight to a turn you want to discuss.
- Watch the run-up: Jumps can start a few seconds before the moment (Direct, 2s, 3s, or 5s — 3s is the default), with a small countdown badge on the video.
- Playback: Play/pause, skip back or forward 5 seconds, drag the timeline, and choose 0.5x, 0.75x, 1.0x, or 1.25x speed. You can zoom up to 3.5x and use fullscreen; controls hide themselves after a few seconds and Esc exits fullscreen on a computer.
- Summary panel: Totals for strokes, underwater time, clean-swimming time, and average cadence, with links to Open Super Chart, View Swim Details, or Re-analyze.
5. The Super Chart — Your Whole Race in One Picture
The Super Chart draws the entire race on one timeline: race time along the bottom and stroking speed up the side.
- What you are looking at: A line for stroking speed, shaded bands for underwater phases with their times, dashed lines for turns, dots for each stroke, and labels for each length and split. Any of these layers can be switched on or off.
- Tap to explore: Tapping the line shows the length, race time, stroking speed, and whether that point was underwater or surface swimming.
- Top summary: Race time, official time where available, underwater time and its share of the race, clean-swimming time, total strokes, and average stroking speed.
- Zooming: Start zoomed out to Fit the whole race, then zoom in up to 6x (Fit, 1.5x, 2.5x, 4x shortcuts) with pinch, trackpad, or Ctrl/Cmd plus scroll. Double-tap to reset.
6. Where Your Numbers Show Up
Once a race is analysed, the numbers appear wherever you look at that swim:
- Unofficial splits: If the meet sheet had no official splits, Swim Details shows splits worked out from your video marks, clearly labelled UNOFFICIAL.
- Race Video Telemetry: Totals for strokes, stroking speed, underwater and clean-swimming time, and what share of the race was underwater, with a shortcut to the Super Chart.
- Composition Trend: Compares underwater vs. surface-swimming time across every analysed race, so you can see if underwater work is improving over the season.
7. Who Can See Videos & What the Plan Covers
- Who can use it: The swimmer, their verified parents/guardians, and invited coaches they have given access to. A coach from a club cannot see a swimmer's videos through club membership alone — they must be invited.
- Active plan needed: Watching videos and marking analysis needs an active Pro plan. If the plan lapses, videos and analysis are safely kept and return when the plan is renewed.