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Pool Swim - rest not detected and other problems

Simon1445134
over 2 years ago

Introduction: I'm an ex professional swimmer, so I have quite a good technique, maybe not the best, okey, but I won a few competitions and I'm a swimming instructor so I knew something about swimming.

I do tumble turn during freestyle and backstroke and always do a few meters under water when I push myself and rest only when I need to rest, seems stupid to write that but as a swimming instructor I know that is a common problem. For example if i have 4x200m I stop only after every 200m, lot of persons stops randomly inside the 800m, thinking about the total number of meters and not what is the purpose of what is asked to do for training...

After using it for a few days in the pool I noticed these problems:

  1. Last time even if the watch shows rest time when I was resting it didn't put it in the activity report. So I have 500m instead of 5x100m;
  2. Can't detect low rest (5-10sec) between repetition, unless I stay with my arm complety frozen, so I can't clear my googles or have a drink. I know I can press the lap button in these scenario but by doing that I have less time for resting or drinking. Seems strange that he can't detect I'm doing a different pattern/behavior and recognize it as rest.
  3. The problem above generate another problem, when the rest is not detected sometimes it even dosen't recognize that I started a new length.
  4. Wrong detection of the swimming style. For me this is not a big problem but seems ridicolous after all these years of data gathering;
  5. Showed rest time is always lower a few seconds than reality. Pourparler nothing compared to the others problems;

To me seems that "swimming" activity is good only to see total meters(with a 5-10% error), time and HR (this is the real advantage over not having the Garmin). For all other data there is a very high probability that they are wrong and therefore is better not look at them.

it would be wonderful to have a "pro swimming" activity with different sensibility (or the possibility to change the minimum rest time to create an interval), because what for who know how to swim at decent level is a rest maybe for a noob is a very slow turn...

PS This is not my mother language so I don't know what are the correct words for some specific terms.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Sorry about your troubles. I too am an experienced swimmer who does intervals. We are used to relying on the wall pace clock rather than a watch. I have owned several Garmin watches, including the Garmin swim. The reality is that lap counting relies on accelerometers, which just detect motion vs no motion. In theory they are supposed to detect stroke type, but even for me it frequently gets that wrong. Correct, the auto rest is not accurate. The only real solution is to shut that off and to use the lap button to start and stop each interval. I get 100% accuracy then. The time to push the button at the end and beginning is <1 sec. I use the countdown start timer, which adds 3 seconds. If I do a really fast set of sprints, I use drill mode and manually enter the distanced at the end, but then you lose the time for each. Alternatively you could upload workouts in advance that include the intervals and rest time, but I'm too lazy to do it and wouldn't trust it works every time. But it is especially useful for tracking longer distances and intervals (and now a decent heart rate). Happy swimming.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to Andy275

    Hi Andy!
    Of course we swim with wall pace clock and of course a coach during the main job :D
    I don't rely on the watch for times and rests during training, but having it on my wrist I look at it.
    With what it cost I would expect to have a final report and instant data with a little more accuracy, as you said is useful for tracking longer distances and intervals, but the swimmer that do long distance in competition (>=1500m) are very few compared to the shortes < 1500m.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I think your problems are related to interval trainings

    I only do 2500m (100 pools) freestyle sessions without rest (48min) and in this scenario the watch records all data perfectly.

    Only some problems with HR due to my thin wrist, I have to find the exact spot on the inner wrist to have correct HR

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I swim every day, do 5-6 interval workouts per week and I have an Epix gen 2.

    Overall, I am very satisfied with how my Epix tracks my swims. I know it is not the same watch, but the swim activity is the exact same. I use the lap button every time I stop for more than 3 seconds at the wall. Auto-rest is set to off. I found that having a lap button is a game changer and makes everything much more accurate. I would stongly encourage using it.

    If your watch misses some lengths, you can keep count of how many were missed and at the end of the session you can add them using the drill mode. The is also very handy.

    I also believe that Garmin could improve a few things here and there, but compared to the competition and what other watches offer when it comes to swimming, Garmin is years ahead.