Life Time Michigan has become the first swim club in the northern hemisphere to trial Olly Timing – the most significant development in swimming competition timing since touchpads in the 1970s.
Olly Timing replaces deck timers and hardware with high speed video. Accuracy is ensured and controversial results can be adjudicated from video review.
Removing deck timers can immediately reduce the roster call by 75% at many meets, which delights parents, coaches and administrators. Swimming has one of the most labor intensive sports competition formats, so reducing this improves the attractiveness and sustainability of the sport.
Beyond delighting end users, facility managers will enjoy its low footprint, low maintenance, high reliability performance.
Senior Head Coach Life Time Michigan, Mike Kavanaugh, has trialled Olly Timing alongside standard button timing at recent Block Party events. “The accuracy is amazing”, he commented after comparing results from all systems.
2 cameras and a laptop were temporarily installed at their pool. The trials were operated remotely from Melbourne, Australia – 10,000 miles distant from Michigan – a world first!
Olly Timing was developed in Australia where it is routinely used around Sydney. “Over 4 person years of timer effort has already been saved in Australia”, said Olly Timing Founder, Ben Ramsden. “We can’t wait to share game changing benefits with other swimming people around the world”.
Although High Speed Video timing has been used at some elite swimming events for many years, its complexity and cost has limited widespread availability. Olly Timing has smashed these barriers by using standard off the shelf equipment alongside advanced yet easy to use software.
Mike is planning further trials during the northern hemisphere summer.
