FORM Smart Swim 2 Review: Swim like a Fighter Pilot!

Head Up Displays or HUD used to be the preserve of fighter pilots but with the FORM Smart goggles you can swim train like a fighter pilot!

A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD or head-up guidance system (HGS), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view information with the head positioned "up" and looking forward, instead of angled down looking at lower instruments. A HUD also has the advantage that the pilot's eyes do not need to refocus to view the outside after looking at the optically nearer instruments.

This is very similar to the FORM Smart goggles and now a new version and they have been re-named FORM Smart Swim 1 for the originals and Smart Swim 2 for the latest iteration which now has a built in hear rate monitor.

In this article we will look at the new features and how the Smart Swim 1 compares with the Smart Swim 2 goggles and how they help triathletes, swimmers, and coaches.

FORM Swim Smart 2 Heart Rate Monitor, Swim Straight and Head Up Display (HUD)

FORM Smart Swim 2 Features

First and foremost, the Smart Swim 2 are goggles, so there a few key features they need to have such as a good fit, good seal, comfort, and anti-fog.

For me I used the standard nose bridge and the goggles fitted well and comfortably. When I swam, they did not let in water and did not fog up which was impressive as it was a hot, sunny day and the water was cold so this a perfect storm for foggy glasses. If the standard nose bridge does not work for you have four others to choose from.

So, a tick in the box for standard goggle features!

Trying out the FORM Swim Smart 2 in the Spanish Sun

FORM Goggles: What’s in the Box?

The goggles come in a protective zipped burger style box (versus the original FORM goggles that come in a hotdog box!). The full contents of the box are:

-          Goggles

-          Protective “burger” box

-          Four extra nose bridges

-          USB charge cable with magnetic connector

-          Instruction booklet

-          FORM sticker

You can see the full unboxing video below:

FORM Goggles Heart Rate Monitor

The main hardware feature update to the FORM Smart Swim 2 goggles is the inclusion of a built in optical heart rate monitor (HRM) on your temple. This means that you don’t need to purchase the Polar Verity Sense HRM to see your heart rate as you swim, which you have to do on the Smart Swim 1 goggles. (As a side note the Polar Verity Sense is a great HRM in its own right so if you need this for other sports or already have it then maybe consider the original FORM Smart Swim 1 goggles).

Make sure the heart rate monitor is fully in contact with your skin – push your hair and your swimming hat out of the way. The goggles will tell you on screen when the heart rate monitor is reading your heart rate correctly and show it on screen.

I find it extremely useful to know my heart rate as I swim and also have this as feedback from my athletes. Heart rate (HR) is more accurate way to train rather than Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and ensures you are making the right physical adaptations.

The Head Up Display showing heart rate on the Swim Smart 2 Goggles

Knowing your HR makes sure you are not training too hard during easy training sessions or not swimming hard enough in the hard sessions. I always write both RPE and heart rate targets in the training sessions I write for athletes and in my training plans on TrainingPeaks so these goggles make it much easier to train with heart rate when swimming.

Swim training sessions written in TrainingPeaks can be sent directly to your goggles so you can do the workout without printing it out or keep looking at your watch – just put your goggles on an swim and follow along with the workout.

The FORM Swim Smart 2 Build in Heart Rate Monitor

FORM Goggles Swim Straight

Swim Straight is a great new feature that helps you stay on course while in open water with an in-goggle digital compass.

With this unique feature there’s no more zig-zagging in the water which means your will conserve energy and shave minutes off your time. As a triathlete you may even feel stronger on the bike from the energy you have saved.

I went sea swimming this week and decided to use my FORM Smart Swim 2 goggles to really test the Swim Straight feature.

You switch them on, take a few seconds and to calibrate and off your go. I got in the water an spotted some cliff rocks in the distance I wanted to swim to. I noted they were at a bearing of 240 on my display and started to swim, keeping my head down and just using the screen to navigate.

After 20 seconds it does give you a warming to sight which is useful. They have a build in heart rate monitor so I could also see this plus my stroke rate.

I remembered just how good they are! You can wear them in races so if you have trouble swimming straight, I would recommend getting a pair.

The FORM Swim Smart digital compass to help you swim straight in open water : Nerja Beach in Southen Spain

FORM Goggles HeadCoach

HeadCoach uses sensors in your goggles to assess your head pitch and your peak head roll.

Having an optimal head pitch will help you swim in a more streamlined position and help you swim faster with less drag. The peak head roll function will help you roll you head and shoulders to breath in an efficient way with the best form to keep you in a streamlined position and again swim faster.

FORM Smart Swim Goggles HeadCoach Features

FORM Goggles "Script" - Load Custom Workouts Fast

Script is text converter that lets you create workouts from any text description. This an addition to Custom Workouts and allows you to generate a workout by typing or pasting text into the Create From Text field in the FORM App.

You can also launch your phone's camera from within the FORM App to scan text, which will seamlessly auto-generate a workout.

As a coach this will save a lot of time creating custom workouts for your athletes or allow athletes to scan their workout from their plan and load it into the googles.

This feature is in addtion to the being able to load swim workouts directly from your TrainingPeaks plan. Simply connect your FORM accout to TrainingPeaks and you can load your structured workout direct to your goggles.

You can check out my compatible swim and triathlon plan on TrainingPeaks.

Loading Workouts onto your FORM Swim Smart 2 Goggles using Script

FORM Goggles Charge Time

I discharged the goggles fully and then charged them for 1 hour and this charged the googles to 69% which is more than enough for a few swim sessions. The goggles should last 14 hours when fully charged.

The FORM Smart Swim 2 Magnetic Charge Connector

FORM Smart Swim Goggles Feature Summary

To help you decide if you need the original FORM goggles or the new Smart Swim 2 here’s a comparison table:

FORM Smart Swim 1 Goggles on Amazon for £159

FORM Smart Swim 2 Goggles on Amazon for £229

The FORM Smart Swim 1 and Smart Swim 2 side by side at ChiliTri

The FORM Goggles Smart Swim 2 for Triathlon

As a triathlete you will want to know “how does the FORM Smart Swim “ goggles help me?” Here’s how they will help you in your training and racing.

Swim Straight

The FORM goggles are approved by World Triathlon, USAT, PTO/T100, and supertri and race-legal in all half and full distance triathlon competitions worldwide. For other events, they recommend checking with the organizers.

This means using swim straight could help you swim straighter on race day and could cut seconds off your swim time. When using them in a race you will need to set a new direction to aim for at the buoy turns by looking at where you want to go and remembering the new angle which will take some practice to avoid losing time.

You need to re-calibrate your goggles to ensure swim straight works at the beginning of each open water swim session or your race so remember to build in time to do this (about 15-20 seconds).

To swim in open water and get the most out of your goggles you will need to use it with an Apple or Garmin watch to get GPS data (the googles do not have GPS built-in).

For Garmin watches you will need to pair with your watch and in the case of Garmin use a Connect IQ data field to be able to send data to and from the watch and goggles. It’s easy to do from the FORM App and only needs to be done once. You can start the swim from your watch which is pretty cool – no need to start it on your goggles.

I generally use a COROS watch which is not integrated yet, so I had to dig out my Garmin Fenix 5 Pro to do this.

For open water swims with the FORM Swim Smart 2 you will need a Garmin or Apple watch for GPS for the best results

Note that you need to wear your watch on the same side as the smart part of your goggles to make sure the Bluetooth works. Bluetooth does not like water so it will send data as your arm comes out of the water. This assumes you are swimming front crawl stroke.

The Swim Straight function is a digital compass, so you use it by sighting on a building or tree or swim buoy and note the compass bearing and swim in that direction.

It will not take the place of sighting so remember do this as well but not as often. In calm water, depending on how straight your swim, you may not find this as useful as some swimmers but when the water gets choppy or in a busy race then you will find this a useful feature.

At the end of your swim, you can stop the swim on your watch and when you get onto dryland sync the swim the App on your phone. You will them be able to see your swim stats, route, and heart rate.

FORM Goggles Heart Rate for Triathletes

You can train more accurately and keep in the right zone when training with heart rate when swimming. You probably do this already when you run, and cycle so used to the concept of heart rate training. Heart rate training when swimming usually involves stopping and looking at your watch (if it supports it – not many watches do without a chest strap) but with FORM Swim Smart 2 you can see your heart rate in your goggles as you swim.

During your race however your heart rate may go higher than you expect so take this into consideration if you use these on race day. Your planned zone may need to be adjusted upwards due to adrenaline and the extra effort needed to start fast.

On race day you may need to wear an extra swimming hat over your goggles to help avoid losing an expensive piece of kit during a race swim with all of its accidental interactions with other swimmers!

FORM Goggles Swimming Metrics

Triathletes tend to train in the swimming pool the majority of the time and then transfer to open water when the weather is warmer and on race day so it’s important to have goggles that work well in both environments.

The FORM smart goggles have an extensive range of metrics for pool swimming and different metrics for open water. Here’s the breakdown of metrics for each environment:

Triathlon Swim Training Made Easy

When you swim the goggles will sense when you come to the end of the length and automatically record your lap times. You can load a training session from the App and it will automatically keep track of where you are in the session and let you know the details of each part of the session. This means that you can concentrate on swimming rather than keep checking your watch.

If you opt for the premium subscription, you will get access to training plans, training sessions and HeadCoach which will help you train consistently.

Swim Metrics after an Open Water Swim using the FORM Swim Smart 2 from Richard Murray, Professional Triathlete

FORM Goggles For Coaches

The FORM smart goggles are fully integrated with TrainingPeaks so you can write and send sessions to your athletes, and they can load them onto their goggles.

The Script feature means you can take a photo of a workout and add it to your goggles.

The HeadCoach feature may give you some useful insights into your athletes’ head position and technique and this can be used in conjunction with the FORM App insights to work on improving streamlining and hence swim speed. This data can be used in conjunction with video analysis to help your athlete be more streamlined in the water and ultimately swim faster.

FORM Smart Swim training sessions, training plan and coach created swim session (ChiliTri Spicy Swim)

Conclusion: FORM Swim Smart 2 Goggles

The new FORM Smart Swim 2 offers you the ability to not only know your swimming pace, stroke rate, swim times, distance per stroke and split times but you can now see your heart rate during your swim – no need to check your watch.

These new goggles, when used with the premium service, can help you swim straighter in open water with the new swim straight digital compass. Swimming straighter will stop you zig-zagging in the water, expelling more energy and swimming more distance than you need to – even in a race.

The new design of the Smart Swim 2 goggles are more streamlined and smaller than the original FORM goggles and offer a great fit. They also include a built-in heart rate monitor to help you train in the right zone.

The head up display can be distracting at first, but you will get used to it quickly and you will soon use the on-screen data just when you need it.

Even without the paid for premium option the FORM goggles offer some great features such as real-time metrics, tracking & analysis in the FORM App, open water mode, sharing to Strava and sharing to TrainingPeaks.

Karen Parnell is a Level 3 British Triathlon and IRONMAN Certified Coach, 8020 Endurance Certified Coach, WOWSA Level 3 open water swimming coach and NASM Personal Trainer and Sports Technology Writer. 

Karen is currently studying for an MSc in Sports Performance Coaching at the University of Stirling.

Need a training plan? I have plans on TrainingPeaks and FinalSurge:

TrainingPeaks

FinalSurge

I also coach a very small number of athletes one to one for all triathlon and multi-sport distances, open water swimming events and running races, email me for details and availability. Karen.parnell@chilitri.com

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