The Immerse with Autocoach system was inspired and designed in consultation with the world’s best Elite Coaches and athletes including Ian Pope, Matt Welsh and Forbes Carlile.
In this article we explore the contributions from the late Australian Olympic Coach, Forbes Carlile on the swimming industry, training philosophies and how that shaped the Immerse with Autocoach ecosystem.
Forbes was one of the most influential and innovative coaches of his time. He fostered a culture of scientific sport coaching that would make the Australian swimming team world-renowned.
He revolutionised training techniques with the development of interval workouts, pace work and heart-rate monitoring to push performance barriers to another level.
When we commenced, part of our product development process was consulting coaches so we would have a product that met and supported high-level performance.
It’s coaches like Forbes, and leading Olympic and Paralympic coaches who were consulted and influential on the development of the system we have today.
Forbes Carlile famously said
“Our objective is not to produce a champion, but to provide an atmosphere where champions are inevitable.”
Carlile’s philosophy and coaching methods drew on the belief that swimmers should start high-level competition at a young age.
Get them competing young so racing is second nature, develop good habits early and expose them to a training environment there they can thrive.
Much of this was done through sports science to measure and provide feedback on performance, although in those days it was very manual process.
At Palm Beach, Forbes began his scientific approach to swimming, introducing the world’s first pace clock and producing the first of nine world record holders, Olympic Gold medallist John Davies.
Forbes would pioneer heart rate monitoring, interval training, lane ropes and training goggles. He also holds the unique distinction of coaching at an Olympics before competing. In 1948 he coached Australia’s swimming team, in 1952 he competed in the modern pentathlon.
Autocoach’s innovative real-time racing timing system provides an immersive experience and live data insights for swimming organisation, coach and athlete.
We transformed an analogue system into the digital era to create world-class training environments at every level.
The result is a system that combines science and psychology for success.
Another Olympic Coach who was pivotal in the development was Ian Pope. Ian worked with us to create, test and provide feedback from the coaches perspective to ensure our products solved the biggest issues. He helped identify the key measurements and statistics to track, including practical training applications and many of the key functions of the smart autocoach stopwatch.
We have a unique solution that can deliver instantaneous timing, training and racing from the one system suitable for junior to elite levels.
By providing swimmers with regular feedback both in training and competition, they are more motivated to do better next time. The system is also geared for fun teams events which can be important in making everyone feel connected in what is traditionally an individual sport.
The environment that Olympic coaches create in their squads, can be replicated in swim clubs and school squads to help grow engagement and improve performance.
Special Event
Come and watch a club race meet
Olympic Coach, Ian Pope has been instrumental in the system development and uses it both for training and racing at Melbourne Swim Club.
We invite you to an open session race meet to see the race meet system in action and learn more from Ian about the growth of the club from engagement, enjoyment and feedback.
Saturday 17 December in the morning
email enquiries@autocoach.com.au for details
