Timing Mate vs Freelap
If you’re looking for the best Freelap alternative for sprint timing, you’re in the right place. Freelap and Timing Mate are both products tacking a similar issue, which is to provide accurate timing results for speed development.
What’s the difference between Freelap and Timing Mate?
Freelap is an electronic timing system that provides immediate feedback during training sessions. Each athlete is required to wear an FxChip that is then sensed by transmitters through emitting a magnetic field. The Freelap system has an accuracy of 1/50th of a second (0.02s).
Timing Mate is an affordable laser based timing gate system that does not require a reflector. It has an accuracy of 1/100th of a second (0.01s).
Four reasons why customers use Timing Mate over Freelap
We’ve condensed 4 reasons that explain why you might consider Timing Mate to be a better alternative to Freelap.
1. No wearables
Freelap requires an FxChip wearable to use. If the athlete damages or loses the FxChip then the system will not work correctly.
Timing Mate does not require any wearables and works like a traditional laser-based timing gate system.
2. No Setup Restrictions
As Timing Mate is like an traditional laser-based timing gate system it is simple to setup and use. With no reflector needed it allows coaches and athletes to reduce time dealing with reflector alignment problems. Turn the devices on, pair, and away you go!
Due to the nature of Freelap using a magnetic-field for detection, care must be taken to ensure that the transmitters are placed at appropriate locations. For any split or end gates the Freelap transmitters must be placed 80cm after the desired distance. If they are not placed 80cm after the desired distance then the split times will be inaccurate and much faster than reality.
Similarly, due to the magnetic field detection, Freelap transmitters must be placed approximately 10m apart or more. If they are closer than 10m the user risks inaccuracies or non-detection with their timing.
Timing Mate does not have any restrictions on the minimum distance between devices and a user is able to time 5 metres and short distance splits if they chose to do so.
3. Reactive Drills
Timing Mate has built in LED indicators. These provide feedback to the user for in-beam starts and reactive drills. Reactive drills are coming soon and can be used to test and train reaction time of the user.
At the time of writing Freelap does not contain these features.
4. Affordable Precision
The Freelap Pro BT102 Timing system includes one FxChip, two transmitters with an accuracy of 1/50th of a second (0.02s) and costs $780 AUD. This is equivalent to a 2-gate laser based timing system.
The Timing Mate 2-gate system costs $700 AUD and has an accuracy of 1/100th of a second (0.01s).
We are on a mission to make high-performance sports tech affordable.
Timing Mate
NOTE: If Freelap gets an update and this article becomes outdated, please email us and we will update it.