StrokeWatch Mobile™

Why you want one:

StrokeWatch™ is a simple timer application for the rowing community. What does it do? It simply reports back the stroke rate for the shell. Why would you want to know that? Because rowing is a really boring spectator sport and really hard to make any informed comments about a race when you are just standing on the shore watching the shells for the brief minutes that they pass.

With StrokeWatch™ you can make some intelligent comments. For example, if two boats are side by side, trading places, and boat A has a stroke rate of 35 strokes per minute and boat B has a stroke rate of 30 strokes per minute, I would put my money on boat B to win because they are under-stroking the other boat and probably has plenty of gas left in their tanks for the sprint to the finish.

Or, if you are watching from the shore and the shell is just doing a steady row at 20 strokes per minute, then a couple minutes later, they are up to 22 strokes per minute, then a couple of minutes later they are up to 24, you know that their coach has directed them to do some type of pyramid workout for endurance.

Or, if you are watching a start, you can see how high a particular boat settles at, which occurs after the first 10 frantic strokes or so. This speaks to race strategy. Some crews will row the first part of the race at an unsustainably high rate and just hope they have enough juice to hang on to the finish. This is the “fly and die” strategy.

Or, you can let your buddies know that they won while under stroking their competitor. That will make them feel really good. You can say that without the credibility of having a StrokeWatch™!

Without a stroke watch, you will never know what is happening on the water.

StrokeWatch™ is better than dedicated stroke watches because most will lock you into a set number of strokes in order to give you a rate. For example, if it is a three (3) stroke rating, it means you click the start button on the first stroke, and click it again on the fourth stroke. If you don't know, a stroke is where you decide to measure it. Most people measure it based on the "catch", when the rowers put the blade (oar) into the water. The stroke rate is essentially the average of a strokes.

With StrokeWatch™, you can set the number of strokes per reading from 1 to 6. It works on a continuous cycle after the initial click, meaning if you are on a three (3) stroke rating, the first click starts the timer, clicking on the fourth stroke will give you the first rating, clicking on the seventh (7) stroke gives you the second rating, the 10th stroke gives you the third rating, etc. After the first click, every three (3) strokes updates the rating. Ditto for a four (4) stroke rating, after the first click, every fourth (4th) stroke updates the rating.

For the single stroke rating, after the first click, clicking on each stroke gives you a continuous update.

How it works:

Fig 1: Basic Screen

Fig 2: Stroke Selection

Fig 3: Application Menu

Fig 4: License Dialog

StrokeWatch Mobile™ is an application enabling mobile phones to compute the stroke rate for shells. Crew is one of the few sports that measure speed based on time splits over a certain distance and also instantaneous power based on a rate of output. Most timer applications provide the time splits over a give distance, this application computes the rate of output as strokes per minute. Fig 1.

Application Features:

Provides average stroke rate based on a user definable number of strokes.
Provides an average stoke rate on each click based on the number of strokes.
User definable (from 1-6) number of strokes. Fig 2.

Description:

The application has a default setting of 3 strokes, meaning that the timer is started when the blade enters the water (at the catch) on the first stroke and stops when the blade enters the water again on the fourth stroke.

Similarly if the Strokes per cycle were changed to 6, the the first stroke Starts the time and the seventh stroke computes the stroke rate.

The StrokeWatch operates continuously, meaning if the the default stroke count setting is three (3), once initiated, clicking on every third stroke will give an average rate.

The License menu selection (accessible from the Application menu, Fig 3), enables input of the registration license key or view of the device id. This enables users to transfer their license from one device to another compatible device in the event the phone (device) is replaced. StrokeWatch is free for four stroke counts and greater. There is a small registration fee to used StrokeWatch with a 3 or less stroke rating.

Press the Close item from the Application menu (Fig 4) to exit the application!