[REQUEST] Swim "laps" data field (vs. lengths)

I'm almost certain that the information necessary to do this is not available to a ConnectIQ app. Is there a reason that you're counting laps instead of distance (meters or yards)? Normally when swimming in a pool, swim intervals are measured in total distance, not lengths or laps.

Additionally, lengths = laps / 2, not laps = lengths / 2 as you suggest.

I did some quick Google searches and apparently the terminology of laps versus lengths is somewhat up for debate. It sounds like newbies lean towards calling one "there and back" as a lap whereas more established swimmers lean towards calling a lap swimming from one end to the other.

I do understand your point about using distance in meters or yards. However it's just that once I start getting over a mile or so, I find the number of "there and backs" more intuitive than lengths, meters, yards, etc. For whatever reason, seeing 53 "there and backs" is more intuitive for me than 106 lengths or 1325 yards.

If you go into the various data fields Garmin provides for pool swims, there is a category called "Length fields". And within that category, you have a choice between Lengths and Interval Lengths. So I am essentially looking for a data field that divides the total of number of Lengths by two. Since Lengths are there, I've got to think it should be a relatively easy operation to divide the Lengths by two (rounding down) and provide that as a custom data field. I agree it wouldn't make to make an app out of this, but instead it would just be a data field. (Although please let me know if I'm posting this to the wrong forum, and perhaps the "Connect IQ Showcase" would be more appropriate?)

Thanks!
Bill

I'm amazed that there is any debate about length versus lap. The length of a swimming pool is the distance from one side to the other (like the length of a football field), and a lap around a track is the distance from the start back to the start.

If you think lengths/laps/strokes is a better metric, then I can't really argue. Out of curiosity, when you go to the pool, do you have a prescribed workout? Are the distances shown in lengths, laps or distance? I'm guessing that you aren't working from an interval workout or that the intervals are not measured in distance, which is the norm in my experience. No matter. Just curiosity.

As for your original request, you are talking about the length fields shown in the watch software. The information shown in the watch software is not all available to a ConnectIQ data field. This page lists the data that is available to a ConnectiIQ data field. Notice that the only thing available is distance, swimEfficiency, swimSwolf, swimStrokeType. There is no access to any data about lap or length count. If the pool length is known and the distance field is filled in the number of lengths could be derived. Unfortunately, there is no information about the pool length, so this won't work either.

A data field could be made with a hard-coded pool length (one version for each of 25y, 25m, 33 1/3m, 50m), but the developer would have to maintain at least 4 different data fields and users would have to configure a different swim activity for each pool length, or configure their swim activity every time they went to a different pool.

Thanks for the very detailed explanation. It is interesting to see how few fields there are available for developers to work with. And I agree, it wouldn't be worth producing four data fields to address a relatively minor issue like this.

Btw, good guess ... I have not been using prescribed workouts. : )

Thanks again for taking the time to respond!

Best,
Bill

actually, i too would like this feature.
Just a simple - lap counter or just a field that shows this is lap #.
i'm forgetful and I don't swim all that well, hence the push off from the wall or if I do turn w/o pushing on the wall, the lap / length isn't recorded, so I do it manually. but currently - I have no idea how many laps has been done. Hence - i would like a Lap # data field. (not exposed by the API i think)


I just checked and noticed that the option for "LAPS" is in the running app, but it's not available in the Swim app.
there is a "Lengths" tho. but not what i want I think.