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Swim strokes should NOT be counted as steps

godolphins
over 7 years ago
I noticed steps were being counted while I was swimming. Not just "some" steps, but many. I did a search on these forums and it appears that the Garmin sw does this on purpose -- ie, counts swim strokes as steps.

IMHO, I think this is a mistake. If anyone (from Garmin) is reading this, please do not count swim strokes as steps. I want to do 10k steps/day -- with or without my activities. I realize run activities count as steps too, but I can figure this out pretty easily (5 miles = 10k steps, more or less)
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    This has been discussed in a number of forums. It may not be able to distinguish the accelerometer reading differences as both walking and swimming (crawl) have somewhat similar profiles. But it conceivably could be disabled in future releases during swimming as HR is.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    My Vivoactive HR has always counted steps while rowing, swimming and even biking when on bumpy off-road terrain. In the latter case I even record stairs in case there are hills. Consider this quirk kind of normal.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    It would be nice to be able to turn off the step tracking during selected activities. As a work around you could turn off activity tracking before starting your swim.
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    This has been discussed in a number of forums. It may not be able to distinguish the accelerometer reading differences as both walking and swimming (crawl) have somewhat similar profiles. But it conceivably could be disabled in future releases during swimming as HR is.


    Seems that it should/can be disabled during activities (exc. run/walk).

    I would also think it's pretty obvious -- people want to know how many steps they've done IN ADDITION to exercise activities that involve totally different exercise action.

    I've been wrong many times before, so maybe this is just another episode...:(
  • 0 over 7 years ago
    I'd retain steps count for walking, running and hiking, but stop the process for biking, swimming, rowing and the like where it's obvious you don't make any steps. I'm interested in all "real" steps, both casual and activity related, since I participate in step challenges with friends.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    I used my Vivoactive 3 for the first time swimming this morning. I swam 1800 meters in just about 40 minutes. The swim added about 3500 "steps" to my count. This is okay with me because on my swim days, I often have trouble achieving 10K steps, so this will help. On the other hand, we did a step challenge at work last spring and had a conversion chart for various activities. The conversion for swimming laps was 154 steps per minute for a light-moderate swim and 261 for a vigorous swim. I just counted about 200 a minute since I felt I was somewhere in between. Garmin Connect was sync'd with the program, but only tracked steps. I manually added the points I got while swimming. Next year, I'll have to do math to subtract the "steps" Garmin tracks from the steps I manually enter for my swims. I hate math.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Similar when I'm riding. My rides are 45 minutes twice a day. According to this chart, since I'm riding at an average speed of o 17mph, it compares to about 170 steps per minutes. Turns out, according to my cadence sensor, my riding RPM is averaging at 85, which is 170 steps. So 170 "steps" per minutes x 45 x 2 = 15,300 "steps" not counted in Garmin Connect.
  • 0 over 4 years ago
    1. Why would you not want to count swim strokes as steps? If anything, strokes are better indicator of healthy activities than steps. 
      I’m returning the Garmin Venu because it doesn’t.  I spent 1 hour in the water. Swam 3100m and have no steps to show for it. It’s ridiculous! 
  • 0 over 4 years ago

     I think it should count. Swim strokes are a better indicator of healthy habits than walking. I spent 1 hr in the pool swimming 3100m and spent a lot of effort but not steps counted! I’m returning the venu because of this. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 2088518

    It shouldn't count steps. That would be silly. It should count swim strokes. According to the specs Garmin Venu counts swim strokes: https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/643260/pn/010-02173-11#specs

    Are you measuring your activities in how many steps you take? Do you have to report the number of steps you take per day to someone or why is it interesting? It is better to report the type of activity, time and distance. If you really want to have steps counted during your swim then select another activity type that counts steps and then change to swimming afterwards.

    Forerunner 945 got Swimming dynamics and counts my strokes.