I have a squad of 18 swimmers with 15 of them owning their own Wetronome. As coach I have three, for usage by those who do not own a Wetronome.

My squad consists of country and state age group swimmers, some who are targeting 2007 Nationals.

The benefits of using the Wetronomes with this squad have been to assist young swimmers (10-14 yr old) understand the variations in stroke rate between distances eg 50m vs 200m. The Wetronomes also helps the swimmers understand pacing, especially that 3rd 25 of 100m or 3rd 50 of 200m.

An unexpected benefit has been using a Wetronome with a swimmer who has Downs Syndrome - Will. He understands better how fast I want him to pace during training sets with a Wetronome although overusing it, he will just switch off and ignore the beeps. I usually set Will's Wetronome to pace the single stroke rather than a stroke cycle.

On the down side, some things to be aware of is that using Wetronomes when too fatigued can be disspiriting for young swimmers, who still determinely try to keep pace but are no longer able - time to give the Wetronome a rest.

Some swimmers may just 'switch off' and it may need the coach with a stop watch measuring stroke rate to monitor this.

If the Wetronome is set at too fast a pace for the swimmer, the swimmer will shorten their stroke to keep up. This has to be carefully monitored.

-- Di Gray, Squad Coach, Armidale School, NSW