How FORM’s smart goggles changed swim training forever

Ask any triathlete which part of their training they find the most mentally challenging and most will say pool swimming.

The indoor environment, the staring at the black line, the need to keep your mind occupied without visual stimulation or communication with others – it’s a challenge, right?

It’s a challenge, however, that sparked the imagination of a young mechanical engineering student and led him on a journey that would ultimately, via a few twists and turns, lead to the goggles you see in front of you.

Enter Dan Eisenhardt, at this point a fresh-faced 400m and 1,500m freestyle swimmer competing in his home country of Denmark and wondering where his career might take him…

“I spent a lot of hours in the pool staring at the bottom wondering what my splits were, with my coach yelling and trying to get a few instructions in – then trying to do the mental math and looking at the pool clock in between laps,” says Dan. “I think that’s when I started thinking, well, maybe there’s another way of doing this?”

“This was back in the ‘90s when smart watches weren’t even available. Later on, waterproof sports watches started to appear. However, their functionality was rudimentary, requiring substantial manual input and offering only basic metrics. And of course, you couldn’t see the interface as you swam.”

Fast forward a few years and Dan’s choice of mechanical engineering as a university subject led him away from swimming to a masters, then a few years as a management consultant.

Aged 30, though, he decided to complete an MBA in Australia and in a twist of fate (Dan walked into the wrong lecture theatre) he ended up applying for – and getting – a semester in Vancouver on an exchange programme looking at business entrepreneurship.

That quirk in his timeline brought him to Canada, where FORM is now based, and also caused him to revisit his idea about revolutionising swim training.

“This was 2006 and we had to pitch an idea that was a real problem that needed solving. The challenge was to identify an issue we felt deeply passionate about. At first, I had no idea what to bring to class,” Dan says.

“Just one hour before the pitch, during lunch overlooking the campus aquatic complex, the idea came to me: ‘what if you could display metrics inside swim goggles to deliver critical performance information like time, splits, distance, and heart rate while swimming?’

“Many found the concept intriguing, recognising the clear value of accessing information underwater. After all, if one could access data while running or cycling, why not while swimming?”

• 10 essential pool swim drills for triathletes
• Best swimming watches
• How to use swim drills more effectively

How do FORM Smart Swim Goggles work?

It’s worth pausing here and giving those reading this piece who haven’t come across the goggles before a whistle-stop tour.

Put simply, FORM goggles have a transparent screen in the lens that displays your swim metrics in real time, showing you your pace, stroke rate, time and distance as you swim.

Even niftier, the goggles link to an app on your phone that allows you to download one of thousands of expert workouts straight to your goggles – so as you swim, the screen in your lens tells you what to do next, counts you down and records your performance.

Not only is this very motivating, turning pool swimming into a motivational and immersive experience, but it helps you work on your goals too.

Training plans are available and you can measure your progress through the app – plus new features launching as we publish this article will make it even easier to improve (but more on that later).

Can you use FORM Smart Swim Goggles in open water?

You can, yes. In open-water swimming FORM goggles provide time and stroke rate.

Additionally, by connecting the FORM goggles to a compatible Garmin watch or Apple watch, swimmers have the ability to view GPS performance metrics like distance, pace, heart rate, and more, in real-time.

Dan also cites them as being a helpful reassurance for those swimmers who might be nervous in open water.

“The serenity experienced when viewing the display in open water stems from its anchoring effect, much like the familiar confines of a pool.

While the surrounding environment might be dark or tumultuous, depending on the day’s conditions with waves or other natural challenges, the goggles serve as a steadfast companion. This sentiment is echoed by many users.”

• How to use the pool to prepare for open water

How were FORM Smart Swim Goggles developed?

For now, we’re back in Vancouver with a student with a dream. Dan’s swim goggles idea was ultimately chosen for the MBA project, but with miniaturisation an issue (swim goggles are pretty tiny) the group worked on bringing the tech to ski goggles instead.

Also, ski goggles can command a price (£500+) that would make adding tech more in line with the market. With swimmers used to spending £15 tops on goggles at the time, it was felt it would be a hard sell.

“Ultimately that tech developed into Recon Instruments,” says Dan. “We made ski goggles in partnership with major brand names like Oakley, Smith, Uvex and Scott.

“Our distribution channels included the Apple stores and hundreds of winter sports retailers around the world. That company sold to Intel in 2015, and I stayed on for 18 months.”

Dan’s passion for integrating his concept into swimming remained undiminished over the years. In 2016, he took the plunge and established his next startup, FORM.

By 2019, the product made its debut in the market. The company embodies the spirit of aquatic innovation. Their office space resonates with creativity and enthusiasm, boasting meeting rooms with playful names such as Splash Zone, Shark Tank, and Whirlpool.

All employees receive swimming pool memberships and new hires benefit from guidance by experienced team swimmers to refine their technique if needed.

“Everything is done under our roof,” Dan explains. “From optics to machine learning, software, firmware, sales, and marketing – it’s all us.

“Our close-knit collaboration is vital. Since we all swim together every week, we promptly identify and address any glitches in the technology!”

Can FORM Smart Swim Goggles make you a better swimmer?

We know triathletes love their data and gadgets, but there’s a difference between knowledge for knowledge’s sake and knowledge to spark improvement.

Dan is passionate about using the goggles alongside a coach if you have one – and they’ll link to Training Peaks and other coaching platforms to allow true collaboration between human and tech.

Many of us don’t have access to a coach, though (whether through time, budget, or circumstance), so here comes the next exciting chapter for FORM – as we publish, the brand is set to announce its new ‘HeadCoach’ AI function.

“The thing with swimming is it almost doesn’t matter how fit you are,” says Dan. “You’re going to hit a barrier because of the technique; you kind of plateau very quickly. And I think that’s a reason why a lot of people don’t stick with swimming.

“It’s a critical component which we always knew we had to put in the product because 90% of people that swim don’t have a coach on deck”

So how will it work? HeadCoach uses two metrics to provide swimmers with technique feedback during and after a swim: FORM Score and HeadCoach Skills.

FORM Score is a measurement of overall swim efficiency, defined by pace and stroke length (a little like your golf handicap, or existing SWOLF score, if you’re familiar with those). FORM Score ranges from 0-100, with an average being in the 40-50 zone.

HeadCoach Skills encompasses five key areas that’ll help swimmers identify where to focus on improving their efficiency: head roll, head pitch, set pacing, interval pacing, and breathing time-to-neutral.

Swimmers will also be assigned a rating from 0 to 100 for each of the HeadCoach Skills, an assessment that highlights where improvement is needed and demonstrates when progress is being made.

Watch this space as we try the new features out soon in the pages of 220 – but for now, Dan’s pretty open about how the system is already helping swimmers in the inner circle (including himself!) improve during product development.

“Is my swimming perfect? Aha, no, there is no escaping the metrics!” he laughs. “What I’ve found out is that apparently my head pitch isn’t great.

“Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s we were taught to swim looking more forward, so now I’m trying to unlearn that and improve.”

Why FORM Smart Swim Goggles are invaluable for pro triathlete Lionel Sanders

Ironman 70.3 and full iron-distance champ Lionel Sanders cites FORM goggles as one of his essential items of training kit. We asked him some Qs…

1. Why do you enjoy training with FORM Smart Swim Goggles?

Sometimes technology comes around that you can’t live without, and for swimming, the FORM Smart Swimming goggles are that for me.

It’s the one item in my swim bag that if I forgot it, I would go home and get it. 

I pretty instantly fell in love with the goggles – they’re such an integral piece of my swimming now and make it so much more enjoyable.

The fact that I can do these tough sessions and have a precise and accurate log of the workouts afterwards is extremely important to me. 

I also use the instant feedback to do longer sets where I’ll swim what feels like aerobic, and then if I’m able to throw 25m out suddenly 8-10 seconds/100y quicker, then I know I’m at the right intensity. 

2. How can newbies get used to using FORM Smart Swim Goggles?

They take a little bit of getting used to, of course, but the first time I put them on I was blown away.

There’s a little bit of a learning curve of how to look at the metrics but not stare at the metrics so that you’re not slamming into the wall or anything when you’re turning.

Once you get used to that, it’s pretty seamless – you just glance over at your pace per 100, your heart rate, your stroke rate, or any of the other valuable metrics that before FORM, you didn’t have adequate access to.

3. How do you use FORM Smart Swim Goggles to improve?

I’m really concerned with making technical gains. Seeing stroke rate and time per length is the power meter of swimming – so if you can keep stroke rate inside of something you can sustain, and watch the times coming down, you know that you’re actually making technical gains.

4. What’s your training balance between pool and open water?

There’s no balance of pool/open water in the desert!

5. Can you share any of your favourite swim sessions?

This is one of my favourite workouts. The goal here is sustain your sprint pace on each 50m throughout the whole set:

Warm-up

• 200m choice easy 
• 30secs rest after warm-up

Main set – 3 rounds

• 8x50m freestyle fast at 30secs rest
• 200m freestyle easy at 30secs rest
• 30secs rest after main set

Warm down

• 100m choice easy

Total = 2100m

Want to know more? Head to the FORM website to check out the goggles in more detail and to order your pair, which includes a free one-year trial of FORM’s premium features.

Top image credit: Talbot Cox