Pool Swim inaccurate

I swim in a 25 meter pool. The last time I went I swam 20 laps, 500 meters. It took me 30 minutes. I am learning to swim properly, so I have to stop 2-3 times each 25 meter lap to catch my breath while I practice breathing.

I configured the Pool Swim on my fenix 6 and started it. At the end of the swim, I checked my fenix 6, and it said total distance 200 meters and 78 strokes. I found this article that covers why swim data is inaccurate and how to correct it: https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=iS2KcmGiVb4djrE1lri8i7. This is very helpful info. Thank you to the person who posted it.

I saw somewhere else in the forum that someone suggested using drill mode, https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/196020/pool-swim-distance. Can someone help me understand what the drills are and if I should be doing that for now while I learn to swim properly so I get more accurate data please? Thank you.

-Mike

0 PaulDN81 over 3 years ago

That was my post about drill mode, blast from the past right there.

Drill mode is mostly for when you are doing drills that do not involve typical stroke motions. For example kick sets, one arm drills, or sculling drills. These all either have you doing laps without moving your arms or not moving them in the typical stroke motion. Because of this the watch will usually not be able to automatically detect those laps properly. Drill mode allows you to do an interval and at the end of the interval it will ask you how far you went. Since you are learning you probably will be doing drills and drills and drill mode is very helpful for that. I wouldn't suggest using it for all of your regular laps since you do lose some of the stroke information and you have to remember how far you went which can be annoying for longer sets.

If you are doing structured workouts you might want to look into setting up swim workouts in Garmin Connect. You can set up all your repeats and other sets in advance, including drills, and it will guide you through the workout. It's very useful, especially compared to either memorizing the workout or bringing a paper to the pool.

Unrelated to Garmin, but if you are learning to swim one of the best things you can do if you haven't already is get a few lessons from a coach. Swimming is so technical compared to biking or running and it's hard to beat having a coach onthe pool deck watching you and telling you what you need to do to improve.

0 Dr Phil over 3 years ago in reply to PaulDN81

PaulDN81 said:
I wouldn't suggest using it for all of your regular laps since you do lose some of the stroke information and you have to remember how far you went which can be annoying for longer sets.

I’d counter that and suggest you do use drill mode until you can swim 25m continuously. Until you can the watch is most unlikely to record the number of lengths correctly. If you use drill mode you can enter the distance swum for your records.

0 PaulDN81 over 3 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Fair point, looks like I misunderstood when and how often OP was taking breaks. I agree that if taking breaks mid length of the pool drill mode probably is the best bet to ensure an accurate count.