Hello, like some suggestions in the past and as an master swimmer, I am looking to find a solution to old problems that are not solved on Garmin softwares regarding the counting of lengths covered by swimming, especially at the masters level, I do not mean the amateur level of improvement after initiation and not the elite level.
You have to be absolutely always careful that you don't make any style (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle-crawl) movement other than the unique one on a length of the pool, because the clock automatically decides that you have turned to the wall and gives you an extra length. So, as it is written in the manual, the watch is designed to measure only the 4 standard styles, but with the condition that they are found uniquely on a pool length. If you leave with a butterfly style, you are not allowed to swim anything else until you turn. For the other situations, you made the Drill Log menu, there you can swim any style... you set the real distance manually. But, I kept saying that I would send you an email on the forum to propose something else, to enter an "individual user setting", that is an example : if you are elite, swim 50m freestyle in 25 seconds. If you are a master, you swim in 30 seconds, and if you are improving, let's say you swim 45 seconds. If you pass these data to the watch user profile, we can also be used for the other 3 procedures, so 4 standard times per 50 m, so the watch will know that if you move your arms around, like you should put your helmet back on for 2 seconds, or remove the water from your glasses for 5 seconds, or to avoid an impact with another inattentive swimmer by avoid the standard swimming style, the watch will create automatically an point as turning at wall. So, here you have not reached that minimum time from the user profile setting. That means you have more than the profile time, so you are late and therefore you are still on the same length of the pool. That is, if I missed some stroke at 35 m, and I am a master swimmer, I have 30 seconds for 50 m free setting, the clock will know that I have not yet reached the wall in those 30 seconds to complete the length of the pool and not put a point there. Now, the manual specifies that you don't have to swim with your fins, paddles and other helpful elements to count correctly, but if you do it anyway, you have to take into account these aspects of motor analysis. I think that this solution thing with the 4 times per lenght entered for the 4 procedures swum as a minimum reference time for 50 m (for a teaching pool of 25 m it is not necessary to implement) the clock would also remove from the calculation the errors that occur when swimming incl. when using the fins and paddles. If you swim with fins and paddles and make a very fast turn without rolling with immediate continuation of the strokes, the watch does not detect the turn, knowing that in 50 m you have 18-20 strokes, and you with fins and paddles make 10-12 strokes with a very short turn, and he will only count a swim as 50m for 2 real swimming pool lenghts, with respectively 20-22-24 strokes being close to 18-20 as he swims without fins and paddles in a single pool. I still don't know if the software detects the body twist and not just the stroke break. The manual says that after the turn you should lie down for 2 seconds after pushing the wall, so that the watch detects the turn as the stroke break. I'm still analyzing to find the most efficient solution to have the smallest possible error during training. So that the final display is correct, coherent, organized and identical to the swimming one. That's why sometimes I repeat the trainings identically, to test and experience situations... When the error occurs, why it occurs, how it can be avoided, which hand to put the watch on depending on which hand goes first after the turn (stroke counts), sometimes with the swim hand paddles you have to keep the watch on your right hand to avoid pressing the lap or stop buttons with the paddles wrist strap tending to touch the watch, etc.
To resume, If I need to swim 400, 800 or 1500 and in the middle of the pool something is happening for 1-2 seconds, the watch see a turn and put a new 50m on counting. This should be limited somehow from the software development team... the solution could be implemented to all the Garmin indoor swimming watches.
Thank you,
Remus Miron