Dr Patrick Lander collects data for the study.

EIT’s School of Health and Sport Science is using new technology to capture the performance of swimmers in an open water pacing study.

Senior lecturer Dr Patrick Lander says the study is novel, not only in its use of the latest  GPS enabled portable fitness devices but also because participants were asked after an open water swimming event how they felt it went for them.

Some research projects collect numbers on performance while others collect perceptions on how an activity went. In this project, the researchers both tried to understand all the aspects that go into an individual’s participation in an open water swimming event.

The project team also includes local academic Dr Dallas Knight, a graduate of the University of Otago, and recent EIT Recreation and Sport valedictorian Philip Shambrook, who is now studying for a PhD through La Trobe University in Bendigo, Australia.

“In fact the concept for the project came from Philip’s investigations as part of his EIT Master of Health Science thesis,” Patrick says.

“We used the Napier Port Ocean Swim in March as a data collection tool, so it is important to thank the participants in the race for helping us with this data collection and also the race organiser, Trevor Adsett from Napier Aquahawks Swim Club.”

Patrick says the research team is looking forward to creating academic articles from the study data and returning to next year’s race to see what else can be learnt about open water swimming.