Bob Griswold, Founder and CEO at SwimClips: “Starting in sportstech requires focusing on real, pressing problems and keeping solutions simple”

If you’re a fan of the Olympics, you’ve almost certainly watched a lot of swimming in the past week. Split-second timing, underwater cameras, multiple angles to capture the action. Bob Griswold, Founder and CEO at SwimClips, had one simple aim: to bring the same level of quality and insight to every coach, swimmer and swim meet.

It helps that Bob has a vast amount of Silicon Valley experience behind him – he was a VP at companies such as Cisco and HP – and also happened to be a competitive swimmer in his younger days. Adding yet more motivation: he’s a current National N3 certified USA Swimming Official… and a swim dad.

“Growing up as a competitive swimmer and swimming D1 at Northwestern, I regret not having a single video of my performances,” Bob told us. “Back then, capturing swim meets wasn’t easy. Even today, parents and coaches rely on shaky cell phone videos that often miss the crucial underwater action, the most critical part of a swimmer’s stroke.”

Or consider the problem from a swim meet’s point of view, he pointed out. “For a swim meet with 2,000 races a day, this means generating 2,000 videos from footage captured by ten cameras running continuously.” SwimClips takes that raw data and turns it into packaged videos “within a few hours after the competition ends, complete with overlays and transitions”.

While the technology currently focuses on swimming, it has obvious applications for other sports too. Speed skating, skiing, bike racing and cross country running are all in Bob’s crosshairs.

To discover more about how this technology helps swimmers, and how Bob sees video and data transforming sports as a whole, read on!

Related reading: Let the games begin: Paris Olympics put AI to the test

Technology to help swimmers

Tell us your elevator pitch

At SwimClips, our mission is to bring swimming into the modern era of sports video technology. We start with our automatic, multi-camera ‘Olympic-style’ meet videos, designed specifically for parents, swimmers and coaches. Our videos focus on individual swimmers and feature underwater views, lane animations, highlights, lower-thirds graphics and a running clock — just like professional broadcasts.

By offering these high-quality videos at local swim meets, we not only enhance the excitement of the sport but also help families build a cherished library of their favourite swims to share with friends and family.

Recently, we’ve expanded our offerings with SwimClips Coach, a groundbreaking video coaching system. Using the same advanced camera synchronisation technology as our meet videos, coaches can place multiple cameras underwater during training sessions. Through our intuitive iPad app, they can select swimmers from drop-down menus and record from multiple angles simultaneously. Coaches can show swimmers their videos instantly without them having to leave the pool or save the footage to create multi-camera sequences with voiceovers and telestration tools for detailed analysis.

In collaboration with legendary coach Mike Bottom, we’re integrating wearable sensors like EO SwimBetter. This technology allows one-click synchronisation with video, so coaches can instantly pinpoint and analyze drops in propulsive force, identifying issues such as dropped elbows or lateral sweeps. SwimClips is dedicated to transforming how swimmers train and compete, making the sport more engaging and effective for everyone involved.

What is it about sports tech that excites you? What made you get into this sector?

Growing up as a competitive swimmer and swimming D1 at Northwestern, I regret not having a single video of my performances. Back then, capturing swim meets wasn’t easy. Even today, parents and coaches rely on shaky cell phone videos that often miss the crucial underwater action, the most critical part of a swimmer’s stroke.

For over 15 years, I’ve passionately promoted the use of video in youth sports. I recorded every one of my daughter’s soccer games, hoping her coach would use them for training — and they did. Visual feedback is essential for athletes to understand and improve their performance. This belief drove me to create SwimClips, aiming to revolutionise swimming with high-quality, professional videos.

We enhance the excitement of local swim meets and help families build a cherished library of their swimmer’s best moments.

Our latest innovation, SwimClips Coach, empowers coaches with synchronised cameras during training. Using our iPad app, coaches can record multiple angles simultaneously, show swimmers their footage instantly, or create detailed analysis videos with voiceovers and telestration tools. Partnering with legendary coach Mike Bottom, we’re integrating wearable sensors like EO SwimBetter. This allows coaches to pinpoint and correct issues in real time, transforming how swimmers train and compete.

SwimClips is dedicated to making swimming more exciting and effective, bringing the sport into the modern era with cutting-edge video technology.

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What sports does your tech apply to? And have you been surprised by its use?

SwimClips’ core technology is built on a fundamental design principle: eliminating human intervention in the video production pipeline to boost efficiency and reduce costs. We achieve this with three novel (and patented) innovations.

First, we use highly synchronised cameras that timestamp each frame and utilise simple algorithms to predict the competitor’s position, seamlessly assembling clips from multiple cameras without missing a frame.

Second, we integrate with electronic starting and timing systems to log the exact start time of every race, along with the computer systems managing seeding and results.

Third, we allow end-users to edit camera transitions in their videos directly through the browser.

While we currently apply these cutting-edge technologies to swimming, they can be equally effective in any sport where competitors race along a predictable path controlled by electronic timing systems. Next on our list could be sports like speed skating, downhill skiing, bike racing, track and cross country.

Parents love our service because it allows them to share professional-quality videos of their kids on social media just hours after a race. Surprisingly, coaches are also encouraging swimmers to purchase meet videos for review during team video sessions. This dual appeal to both parents and coaches highlights SwimClips’ potential to revolutionise how sports videos are produced and utilised, making high-quality, accessible footage a game-changer for athletes and their supporters alike.

Video, data and sportstech

Can you give an example of a complex problem in sports that you – or your company – have been involved in tackling with technology?

Absolutely, I have a couple of great examples of tackling complex problems in sports with technology.

First, capturing and creating watchable videos of athletes moving long distances without a production staff is a major challenge. Typically, you’d need someone to pan cameras or switch angles manually.

To solve this, I developed proprietary video recording technology that time-stamps every frame to the millisecond using a highly accurate clock source. This clock doesn’t drift more than a single frame in over 12 hours. I then created a unique “clip cutting” technology that precisely selects and assembles video clips from different cameras based on the exact start and end times.

For a swim meet with 2,000 races a day, this means generating 2,000 videos from footage captured by ten cameras running continuously. Our system can process and produce all these videos within a few hours after the competition ends, complete with overlays and transitions.

Second, synchronising data from wearable sensors with video is tricky because different wearables record data in various formats and timescales. We tackled this with the EO SwimBetter handsets by collaborating with their engineers to create data files that our SwimClips Coach iPad app could easily parse.

Users can find a specific frame in the video, like when a swimmer’s hand enters the water, and with one click, the entire video syncs with the force graph. This allows coaches and swimmers to see exactly what’s happening in real-time, making it easier to identify and correct issues.

These innovations make SwimClips a game-changer in sports video technology, providing precise, high-quality visual feedback that enhances both training and competition.

Related reading: Dr Lyndell Bruce, Sport Scientist at Deakin University: “Harnessing data is the biggest opportunity in sports tech right now”

When it comes to technology, what are the most common mistakes you see sports organisations make?

One of the biggest mistakes sports organisations make is underestimating the complexity and cost of technology that requires direct human input. Take streaming a long-course swim meet, for example. Organisations have two main choices: 1) use a wide camera angle that covers the entire course, making competitors look like tiny blobs, or 2) have humans pan a single camera or switch between multiple angles in real time, usually focusing only on the lead swimmer. Relying on humans during a competition is costly and can reduce streaming quality. If the operator doesn’t show up or makes a mistake, the whole stream suffers.

Another common mistake is assuming all sports are the same when it comes to streaming. Team sports like basketball, soccer and football are possession-based, and fans want to watch entire games. However, in swimming, viewers are interested in specific races, not the whole meet. Scrolling through hours of footage to find a particular race is tedious. This means the underestimated human cost of technology ends up falling on the viewer, which is far from ideal.

At SwimClips, we’ve designed our technology to address these issues. By eliminating the need for human intervention, we ensure high-quality, focused footage of each race. Our system captures and assembles videos automatically, providing viewers with the exact content they want, without the hassle. This approach not only reduces costs but also delivers a far superior viewing experience for everyone involved.

Sportstech careers

What advice do you have for those wanting to start a career in sports tech, or those wanting to launch a startup in the space?

Starting a career in sports tech or launching a startup in this space can be incredibly rewarding but also challenging. Here are a couple of pieces of advice I’ve learned the hard way.

First, while it’s crucial to identify a problem that isn’t currently solved in the market, it’s even more important that you find an audience that feels this problem acutely and is willing to pay for a solution. Trying to create a market by identifying a problem no-one else has seen is risky and costly. Raising awareness of an unrecognised problem before selling your solution can be a tough, uphill battle.

Second, always think in terms of MVP — minimum viable products. Overcomplicating a solution adds time, expense and risk to your project. At SwimClips, we faced this with our method for switching between camera views. Instead of developing an AI to determine when a swimmer exits a frame, we used race start/finish times and splits to make assumptions about camera switches. This approach may sometimes switch cameras slightly too late or early, but our end-user transition point editor allows users to make these adjustments themselves. Surprisingly, users prefer having control over when the video switches, enhancing their experience.

At the end of the day, starting in sportstech requires focusing on real, pressing problems and keeping solutions simple. Always consider the end user’s needs and preferences, and remember that flexibility and adaptability are key. With these principles, you can navigate the challenges and create impactful, successful technology in the sports industry.