Data Dive: Proving the Improvement with FORM
At FORM, we’re driven by helping swimmers get better, faster. So we dove into the data to see just how much of a difference our features—like Guided Workouts, Training Plans, and HeadCoach™—can really make.
Led by our Head of Data Science, Dr. Erica Buckeridge, the study below compares swimmers who train with our real-time guidance to those who just wing their swims, making up their sessions as they go. The results? A clear win for structured training!
Objective
To evaluate the impact of FORM’s Premium subscription offerings - such as Guided Workouts, HeadCoach™ Plans, and TrainingPeaks integrations - on measurable swim performance, we modelled how freestyle pace (per 100m) changed with accumulated training volume throughout 2024. We compared swimmers who consistently used Guided Workouts to those who swam in Free Swim unstructured sessions.
Cohort Selection
To ensure robust and representative analysis, we focused on swimmers who demonstrated consistent training behaviour and sufficient data volume. Inclusion criteria required:
- A minimum of 50 recorded swim sessions in 2024
- At least 500 meters of freestyle per session
Swimmers were then segmented into two groups based on their usage of Guided Workouts:
- Guided Workout group: More than 80% of their swim sessions were guided
- Free Swim group: Fewer than 20% of their swim sessions were guided
After applying these filters, the final dataset included:
- 4,068 swimmers
- 625,443 swim sessions
- Over 1.25 billion meters of freestyle swimming analyzed
How We Measured Improvement
To understand how swimmers improved over time, we built a statistical model to track changes in freestyle pace (per 100 meters) in relation to training volume.
The model considered:
- Total swim volume (in meters)
- Whether swimmers used guided workouts (Guided Workouts vs. Free Swim)
- Whether guided workouts influenced progress as training volume increased
We also accounted for individual differences, such as each swimmer’s starting pace and typical rate of improvement, by allowing the model to adapt to each person.
This approach allowed us to estimate:
- The average rate of improvement in freestyle pace
- Whether improvement rates differed between the Guided Workouts group and the Free Swim group
- How much faster a swimmer is likely to get based on their training volume
Results
The data revealed a significant difference in how swimmers improved their freestyle pace based on their use of guided workouts.
Shown on the graph below, swimmers in the Free Swim group required about 40,000 meters of swimming to improve their pace by 1 second per 100 meters. In contrast, swimmers in the Guided Workout group achieved the same improvement after just under 27,000 meters, indicating more efficient progress with guided training.
To better understand training efficiency, we examined the swim volume needed for the Guided Workout group to achieve a 5% improvement in freestyle pace, starting from a baseline of 2:00 per 100 meters. The Guided Workout group required approximately 165,000 meters to reduce their pace to 1:54 per 100 meters. Applying the same training volume (165,000 meters) to the Free Swim group, their estimated improvement was 3.5%, with pace dropping from 2:00 to 1:56.8 per 100 meters.
This means that for the same amount of training, the Guided Workout group achieved 1.4 times greater gains in performance.
Interpretation
These results show that FORM’s workout features, including Guided Workouts, HeadCoach™ Plans, and integrations with TrainingPeaks, are associated with faster and more consistent improvement in swim performance. Even when swimmers completed the same total distance, those using Guided Workouts saw larger gains in pace.
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