HRM Pro: Distance for timed activities

Is there any news?

I own the fenix 6x and just got myself the HRM-Pro and wanted to use it while playing basketball. I was hoping to record steps, distance, etc...

Or do I need to get a foot pod?

I am so happy the hrm pro came out. I am a Triathlete but I also play handball for a long time.

Before hrm pro came out, I used the older generation garmin food pod and wear my watch (D2 Charlie) during exercies without full body contact. What i didnt like was, that the steps were not recorded when I had my watch on the side pf the pitch. Yes, why should a food pod not record steps!? Anyway, I also felt, that distance with the calibrated food pod was also not accurate and for my overall training review therefor not a good recording. So I decided to stop recording handball sessions. I remember a friend told me, he was putting his apple watch on his lower leg, right above the food and secured it with a wrist band or so. Not a bad idea, as it recorded heartrate quite accurate and distance from steps. But again, for sports like handball or basketball I think distance from strides and steps can not be accurate. 

So I decided to buy hrm pro which gives me very accurate heatrate during training and matches. It adds the total steps to my daily report, steps per minute and it adds a few intersting running dynamics, like vertical balance etc. // and for my personal opinion steps is the most important bit in handball. So I am happy now. (Still, speed would be nice to know )

I record handball with a copied and slightly adjusted indoor running profile. After starting it on my watch,  I leave my watch in my bag on the side. Just do manual laps sometimes for changing exercises. 

Distance and speed would be a nice to have, but I guess without an integrated system that measures movement of players in a closed room it will be useless.

So, thanks garmin for the HRM Pro ;-)

Side note: while I have my watch in my bag on the side. Once I move it just a little bit, it sometimes records a distance, which it adds to the training data, so I get an annoying pace report atvthe end of 0,003726xxxkm/min removing it then manually always. Hope to find a solution one day for that problem. Maybe another sport profile than indoor running.

Here is screenshot of a normal training session. Steps total are in my records as well

Hey, I play football so the field is a bit bigger and i stand further away from the watch. Could that be a problem to connect it or does the HRM-pro remebers your data and then sends it to the watch? (Hope you understand the question, sorry for the bad English) 

Start an activity on the watch then play your game. The data is stored on the band during the activity. When you get back to your watch and save the activity there will be a prompt to download the data from the watch.

I bought the HRM-PRO to record football. It doesn't add distance to an activity unless the watch is in range of the strap. This seems to be illogical as I can see distance calculated on Garmin connect under daily steps if I wear the strap and leave the watch at home. I called Garmin to discuss however they said this is the way it works.

At best you'd only get an estimate of any distance recorded as the distance between steps would vary so much during the game. Even the step count might be problematic for that reason too. The distance you see in Garmin Connect would be based on the average step distance calculated from other activities and would likely bear little resemblance to the distance you covered during the game. So it makes sense not to have that information saved to the watch as part of the activity. Even a footpod would be unlikely to give you anywhere near accurate distance too for the same reason that each step recorded is based on an average step length that has been calibrated to the footpod. As someone else stated in a similar thread discussing volleyball:

"To put it another way, step count is not reliable for activities where there are frequent and rapid changes of pace and direction, and there is no sustained pace nor rhythm."

Simply put, if you play football without a watch, you're pretty much restricted to heart rate data (and metrics that can be determined from that) and time.