Over the past few months, we have been working on three new features: detailed AI summaries of your athletes’ training sessions, synchronization of these summaries with platforms such as TrainingPeaks, Intervals.icu, and the new platform: Strava. We have also updated our business model to make it more flexible, including weekly subscriptions for coaches who only perform occasional measurements and a new model that allows you to assign Spleeft PRO subscriptions to your athletes.
VBT Intelligence: laying the foundation for the future of coaching
New language models, or LLMs, are changing the way we work and access information. Coaches cannot fall behind. While other apps are using this technology to create “personalized workouts,” at Spleeft we have introduced it to support and streamline the coach’s work. Our architecture will allow athletes to receive a more personalized experience inside the app, but always based on what a coach who knows them has told the model.
Our first step with this technology, which will not be the last, has been the simple creation of AI-powered session summaries. This helps athletes better understand their performance while also making the coach’s workflow more efficient.
Time is one of the barriers that still prevents coaches from introducing VBT with their athletes. With our iCloud and TrainingPeaks update (link), we already made the data flow faster and easier. With this update, we are taking one more step forward.
How to set up and customize your AI summaries
In Settings, you will find a new section called VBT Intelligence. There, you can enable this technology. In its configuration, you can choose which parameters the summary should be based on. As you can already see, these recommendations are based on the advanced insights (links) that we already show you at the end of each set. You can also configure the message length and language.
Below that, you can also add personal notes. This will help the model learn more about you, your strengths and weaknesses, and your goals. This is where one of our key differentiators begins. If you share your data through iCloud with your coach, your coach will also be able to write personal notes as they learn more about you. That way, when the AI summary is created at the end of the session, it will be based on the context that a professional has configured for you. That is what truly personalized AI recommendations should look like.
If you have a free trial or a coach subscription, you will have an additional section to describe your coaching philosophy. There, you can tell the model more about your general context, what type of athletes you work with, how you like them to execute their training, and more. This philosophy will be assigned to the profile of all your athletes, both local and online.
To protect your work and your privacy, this philosophy is not visible or editable by online athletes. They can only see whether you have assigned your philosophy to them or not. The moment they decide to stop sharing their data with you, your philosophy will automatically be deleted from their profile.
Here is my coaching philosophy: “I coach cyclists. In general, our training is usually focused on maximal strength. Only in specific cases do we work on hypertrophy. Therefore, we usually look for a moderate level of effort within the set, maximum intent, and low velocity loss.”
Remember that Spleeft is available not only for iOS, but also for macOS and iPadOS.
AI summaries for your VBT training sessions
The summaries are located at the top of each training session. As the training session progresses, you can regenerate them if you do not want to wait until the end or if there has been an error. The summaries are also saved in the database.
AI summaries in TrainingPeaks, Intervals.icu, and Strava
Strava was the first reason why we decided to create not only our integration with the platform, but also AI training session summaries. From now on, you will not only be able to share your achievements in cycling, swimming, or running, but also show your friends your achievements in the gym. The summary generated for Strava is customized for the platform.
Going back to coaches, we believe this AI summary will be very valuable for complementing the data we already synchronize with platforms such as TrainingPeaks and Intervals.icu (link). Now, a session summary will appear to help the coach quickly understand how the session went. The summary also has a specific context. The model is asked to highlight session achievements and exercises to review using colors. It omits information it does not consider relevant so it does not waste your time.
The goal is for coaches to quickly know whether the session went as planned or whether there is any aspect that needs attention. In your coaching philosophy or personal context, you can configure where you want the model to focus.
A new business model with less friction for athletes and coaches
We have made some changes to help coaches give their athletes all the benefits of Spleeft PRO. We all know the benefits that velocity-based training has for the quality of athletes’ strength training. However, athletes often face more friction when paying for a software subscription. Coaches, on the other hand, are used to doing this as a fixed expense that adds value to their service.
That is why we have given our “Big Coach” subscription the ability to assign a PRO subscription to 5 online athletes, included in your account. With no extra cost. This allows you to give additional value to your athletes while also helping them save money. You can include the subscription as part of your coaching services.
Based on this change, we have added a new tier called “Elite Coach,” which includes 15 online PRO athletes.
IMPORTANT: Like our entire data flow, this subscription is assigned through iCloud. Therefore, the athlete needs to have enough iCloud storage available to receive the assignment.
We have also added the option to pay for the basic “Coach” subscription weekly. This better fits the idea behind that tier, which is designed for coaches who are just getting started or who use Spleeft occasionally for assessments.
Finally, we have added 10 free measurements per month of velocity or jump height, either with the iPhone or the Apple Watch, for everyone. Remember that importing data from other VBT devices and syncing with platforms is also free. This makes it easier to introduce VBT with Spleeft to many athletes.
Steps to grant PRO access to your athletes.
Personalized onboarding with a detailed guide
Another point of friction when starting to use Spleeft is the learning curve. Remember our best practices here (link).
So you do not have to spend too much time teaching your athletes how to use Spleeft, and can instead focus on showing them the value you are getting from it, we have created a personalized onboarding experience. After a few questions, Spleeft will guide them so they can learn how to measure velocity with their iPhone or Apple Watch. If they use an external device, the app will show them the tutorial. They also have a personalized NotebookLM where they can ask any questions they may have.
The new onboarding experience that will help you and your athletes get started with Spleeft without any doubts.
As you can see, we continue working on both the technology and the business model to make Spleeft as accessible and suitable as possible for coaches who want to introduce VBT into their coaching business.
Iván de Lucas Rogero
Prestazioni fisiche MSC e CEO SpleeftApp
Dedicato al miglioramento delle prestazioni atletiche e dell'allenamento ciclistico, unendo scienza e tecnologia per ottenere risultati.
