The Wetronome Mk2

A revolutionary tool - take control of your swimming technique

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The Wetronome is an amazing little tool with the power to transform your swimming by improving your stroke technique and improving your pacing skills. The Wetronome is doing to swimming what heart rate monitors did to running in the 80s and power meters are now doing to cycling: NOTHING SHORT OF REVOLUTION!

We can't think of any other piece of equipment that gives you so much benefit for the money, for example:

Approximate Olympic Distance Triathlon Time Saving:
Bike:	Aero Helmet	$150+	30 seconds
Bike:	Aero Wheels	$1000+	1-3 minutes
Run:	Racing Flats	$100+	10-20 seconds
Swim:	Wetronome Mk2	$85	Improved Rhythm & Timing: 1-3 minutes* Better Pacing Skills: 1-3 minutes* Fitness Gains From Improved Training Quality: 1-2 mins*
*typical times saved after training consistently with a Wetronome Mk 2

What's more, this little tool isn't a one-hit gain, it will give you ongoing speed benefits to your swimming for years to come.

What Does A Wetronome Do Exactly?

The Wetronome is a match box sized timing device which you wear under your swim cap or goggle strap whilst swimming. The Wetronome beeps either:

In Stroke Rate mode, simply time your strokes to the beep.

Every stroke so you can control your stroke rate accurately. Do this to improve your stroke technique by removing deadspots and pauses from your stroke or to help you lengthen out.

Every lap (or half lap) so you can swim with perfect pacing. Think you already have good pacing? Think again! Most swimmer start out much too fast and then fade - this ruins their race performances and decreases the benefit they get from their training.

Let's find out more:

Mode 1. Lap Interval Mode - Improve Your Pacing Skills and Training Quality

The Wetronome is set using by tapping it with the accompanying magnetic 'wand'.

In Lap Interval Mode you set the Wetronome to a target lap time e.g. an interval of 25 seconds per length. Then you simply pace you swim so that you are at the end of a lap on every beep. The Wetronome is the only way you can comfortably and accurately pace your swimming like this.

The Lap Interval Mode teaches you how to pace your swimming better - which is a key technique to setting your best swimming times, especially over longer distances like 400m, 1500m and 3.8K.

In a race nearly all swimmers and triathletes start much too fast and then fade, swimming slower times overall. If you're used to doing this it feels completely normal; it looks right too because all the other swimmers around you are doing the same thing! Fix this problem straight away by improving your pacing technique using a Wetronome - you will take big chunks off your race times. If you're a triathlete you'll start the bike feeling fresher too!

In swimming, when we talk about technique we tend to mean 'stroke mechanics' but pacing skills are a critical form of technique too. Most normal swimmers don't appreciate that elite distance swimmers have fantastic pacing skills! If you want to improve your swimming, remember this: pacing skills are just as important as stroke technique.

In addition to not fading badly in races, there's another benefit to improved pacing in training - it improves your fitness. This is because pacing your swim sets accurately improves the quality of your training. Don't underestimate this, it can have a major effect.

Watch this example of typical swimmers' pacing, is this how you swim? :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRlKxiNUFqM

By observing our squads in Perth, Australia, we've seen swimmers achieve significant fitness gains in just a few weeks after switching to Wetronomes to pace their key training sets.

Mode 2. Stroke Rate Mode - Improve Your Rhythm & Timing

Set the Wetronome to a given strokes per minute and it beeps perfect stroke timing to you on every stroke. Swim with it under your goggle strap or swim cap and simply focus on timing your strokes to the beeps. You can set your timing against any part of your stroke. We suggest you start off by timing your hand entering the water in front of your head.

(this is the original mode from the Wetronome Mk1)

There are three basic ways to use the Stroke Rate function of the Wetronome:

1) Set it to your current Stroke Rate. This is useful to keep a consistent stroke rate over a longer swim or help even out a lop-sided stroke. It also highlights if you have a poor catch whilst breathing as you'll get ahead of the beep whenever you breathe - fix this common problem right away and swim more economically.

2) Speed up your Stroke Rate slightly. This is useful if you have an overly long stroke - which often happens if you have been focusing on technique only for a while and have hit a plateau. In this situation you are likely to have introduced dead-spots and pauses into your stroke. By raising your stroke rate slightly you can start to remove them. This improves your economy so you can swim faster at the same effort.

3) Slow down your Stroke Rate slightly. This is useful if you have a short slightly scrappy stroke and need to lengthen things out and develop more body roll. Many swimmers struggle to co-ordinate this by themselves. Swimming to the beep of a Wetronome gives you a reference to work to as the slightly slower stroke rate gives you time to lengthen out your stroke technique. If you know you need to lengthen out more but struggle to do it, a Wetronome will work wonders for you.

For more details about developing your stroke technique using stroke rate, check out the full Swim Smooth article - Swimming With Stroke Rate Control.

Wetronome Video Demonstrations of Stroke Rate Control

Getting Ready For Open Water Races And Triathlon

Many swimmers find the Wetronome is of great benefit to develop a more continuous propulsion between the arms. The Wetronome helps you develop this by raising stroke rate slightly in a controlled manner. The reason this is beneficial in open water is that chop, waves and knocks from other swimmers can stall you during pauses in your stroke technique. A slightly shorter, more continuous stroke in open water helps overcome this stalling effect.

This need for more continuous stroke power is the reason why many of the world's best open water swimmers and triathletes have higher stroke rates than pool swimmers.

Other Changes In The Mk2 Version

As well as the lap interval function, the automatic-switch off time has been extended from 1hr to 2hrs 15 minutes. Some Wetronome users fed back to us that they wanted to use the Wetronome in swimming events over an hour.

Like To Test This Out on your waterproof MP3 Player?

If you own a waterproof MP3 player you can now extensively test the benefits of Stroke Rate and Lap Interval training at a very low price using our special MP3 audio tracks. What's more, if you go on to buy a Wetronome we'll discount it by the cost of the MP3 tracks! Find out more here.

Wetronome Frequently Asked Questions

A Wetronome Is Suitable For

All Swim Smooth products come with our 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Any intermediate or advanced swimmer. Use it to improve your pacing, develop your stroke technique, improve your rhythm and timing and prepare for open water racing.

A Wetronome Is Not Suitable For

Complete beginners still learning the stroke.

Our Guarantee

All Swim Smooth products carry our money-back guarantee. We're so confident that a Wetronome will greatly benefit your swimming technique that if you are not entirely satisfied with your Wetronome, return it to us and we will refund you. Simple as that.