How to Use the FINIS Tempo Trainer Pro to Improve Your Swimming

There's a piece of kit that sits quietly in the bags of some of the world's best swimmers, age group competitors, and triathlon podium finishers alike. It's small, it's unassuming, and most people who own one have either used it once and given up, or have no idea how to use it properly.

The FINIS Tempo Trainer Pro is not a gimmick. Used correctly, it's one of the most direct ways to improve your swimming, faster than most drills, more measurable than most coaching cues.

Here's how it actually works, and how to use it well.

What Is the Tempo Trainer Pro?

The FINIS Tempo Trainer Pro is a small, waterproof metronome that clips onto your goggles strap and sits behind your head while you swim. It emits an audible beep (you can feel it as much as hear it) at a set interval, which you can use in two different ways depending on which mode you choose.

Mode 1: Stroke Rate: The beep signals when you should take each stroke. This trains your stroke rate (also called stroke tempo or SPM - strokes per minute).

Mode 2: Stroke Count: The beep signals the total duration of one full stroke cycle. This is used to work on distance per stroke.

Mode 3: Interval Timer: The beep marks set intervals, useful for timing rest periods or descending sets without a clock.

Most swimmers get the most value from Mode 1, and that's where we'll spend most of our time here.

Why Stroke Rate Matters

Your speed in the water is essentially the product of two things: how far each stroke takes you (distance per stroke, or DPS), and how many strokes you take per minute (stroke rate).

Speed = Stroke Rate × Distance Per Stroke

Most swimmers focus exclusively on improving their distance per stroke, reaching long, pulling efficiently, gliding through the water. This is important, and it's correct. But it's only half the equation.

If your stroke rate is too slow, you're leaving speed on the table, no matter how technically sound your stroke is. And if your stroke rate is too fast, you're burning unnecessary energy and likely sacrificing your technique.

The Tempo Trainer helps you find, hold, and gradually build your optimal stroke rate, which is something you simply cannot train effectively without external feedback.

What Stroke Rate Should You Aim For?

This varies considerably depending on the swimmer, the event, and whether you're in a pool or open water. As a very general guide:

Recreational and fitness swimmers typically sit between 50–65 SPM. Competitive pool swimmers often range from 65-80 SPM or higher for shorter distances. Open water swimmers and triathletes commonly target 70-80 SPM for sustained efforts, as a slightly higher tempo helps maintain rhythm through chop and contact.

Rather than chasing a number you've read somewhere, the best approach is to establish your current natural stroke rate as a baseline, and then work from there.

How to Find Your Current Stroke Rate

Before using the Tempo Trainer, spend one session counting your strokes. Swim a relaxed 50m or 100m at your normal pace and count how many strokes you take per minute. You can do this with a partner timing you, or by using Mode 1 on the Tempo Trainer set to a tempo you think roughly matches your current rhythm, then adjusting until the beep aligns with your natural stroke.

Once you know your baseline, you have a number to work with.

Two Ways to Use It: Fast and Slow

There are two distinct approaches to using the Tempo Trainer, and they produce different adaptations.

Increasing Stroke Rate (Going Faster)

Set the Tempo Trainer slightly above your natural stroke rate, just 2-3 beats per minute faster is enough. Swim to the beep, making sure every stroke hits the signal. The first few laps will feel a little rushed. That's normal. Your body is learning a new rhythm.

Over several sessions, gradually nudge the tempo up by 1-2 SPM. The goal is to increase your rate without sacrificing your technique, so if your stroke starts to fall apart, slow it back down and consolidate at that tempo before pushing again.

This method is particularly valuable for triathletes and open water swimmers who tend to develop a slow, glidey stroke that works in a calm pool but loses rhythm in chop.

Slowing Down to Improve Distance Per Stroke

Set the Tempo Trainer slightly below your natural stroke rate and see how far each stroke takes you. This forces you to work on your catch and pull, because you have slightly more time between each stroke and can feel the difference between a stroke that travels and one that doesn't.

Pairing this with a snorkel removes breathing as a variable, allowing you to focus entirely on the feel of each stroke cycle.

Sample Sessions

Session 1: Tempo Baseline and Exploration

Warm up: 400m easy with drills and kicking.

Main set: 4 x 100m, each 100 on a different tempo setting, start 2–3 beats below your estimated natural rate, then at natural rate, then 2 beats above, then 4 beats above.

Rest 20–30 seconds between each 100. After each, note how the stroke felt, was it controlled? Did your technique hold? Were you breathing comfortably?

Cool down: 200m easy.

This session teaches you a lot about your own swimming in one go.

Session 2: Tempo Ladder

Warm up: 400m easy.

Main set: 10 x 50m. Set the Tempo Trainer 3 beats above your natural rate. Hold that tempo for all 10 reps with 15 seconds rest between each. Focus on technique, don't just chase the beep with a sloppy stroke.

Cool down: 200m easy.

This builds the muscular and neurological adaptation to a new rhythm. Expect it to feel uncomfortable for the first three or four reps, then settle.

Session 3: Tempo + Distance Per Stroke

Warm up: 400m easy with snorkel.

Main set: 6 x 100m alternating between two settings, one 4 beats below your natural rate (focus on length and reach), one 4 beats above (focus on rhythm and turnover). Rest 20 seconds.

Cool down: 200m easy.

This session trains both sides of the speed equation and is excellent for developing an awareness of how the two factors interact.

Common Mistakes

Chasing the beep at the expense of technique. The beep is a guide, not a demand. If your stroke is falling apart trying to match the tempo, it's too fast. Back off and build gradually.

Only ever using it the same way. The Tempo Trainer is most effective when used as one tool in a varied training programme, not as the only variable you're working on.

Using it every session. Like any focused stimulus, it's most powerful when used deliberately, two or three sessions per week rather than every swim. Your body needs unstructured swimming too.

Not combining it with technique work. Stroke rate training is most effective when your underlying technique is sound. If your catch is weak or your body position is poor, increasing your stroke rate will just make those problems worse, faster. Pair Tempo Trainer sessions with drill work and snorkel sets.

Who Should Be Using the Tempo Trainer?

Honestly? Almost every swimmer who wants to improve. But it's particularly valuable for:

Swimmers who feel stuck in a plateau and are training hard without seeing results. Often this is because their training lacks the kind of specific, measurable stimulus that the Tempo Trainer provides.

Triathletes building race-pace conditioning. The ability to hold a target stroke rate under fatigue is a skill, and the Tempo Trainer is the only way to reliably train it.

Masters swimmers who've noticed their stroke rate has gradually dropped over the years. Even small improvements in tempo can produce meaningful speed gains.

Swimmers transitioning from recreational to competitive training who need to understand their own numbers.

The Tempo Trainer Pro rewards commitment. It's not a device that delivers results the first time you clip it onto your goggles, but with structured, progressive use, it gives you a level of control over your own swimming that most people never develop.

That control is worth every cent.