I don't have the Garmin Swim yet, but have a question:
When you reach the wall and stop swimming, does the watch stop the time for the length or is the time running on, counting this as a very slow length?
Thanks! Yes I know that I can press a rest button.
What I meant was: Does the watch recognize my stop without pressing a button?
Let's say I swim 4 x 50 m in 1:00 each, but after the last I rest for 30 s. Is that counted as 1:30 for the length then?
The answer is yes, the watch does realize you are stopped and will show some rest time (see the Swim Graph or expand out to see length detail on the Intervals page). BUT, the rest has to be long enough - let's say more than 10 s, for this to work, and it is not how the watch is really intended to be used. Ideally you should press Pause (bottom-right) when you start resting, then again when you resume swimming. The advantages of doing this are: - the amount of time shown for swimming and resting will be more accurate - after the swim, you can see each interval broken out nicely in History and on GC - in the pool you see the summary information for the just-completed interval while you are resting - if you move your arm around while you are resting and you haven't pressed Pause, then it is more likely you'll get a falsely detected turn in the first length when you resume swimming I hope that answers your question.
I learned this the hard way... basically a little trial and error.
For the most accurate info use the pause button to mark the end of a session of lengths. In my case I press the blue swim button once then start the capture of information with the middle right button being pressed once before pushing off the pool wall.
When I then stop I hit the lower right button once to pause and log my first session. You know you've done it correctly when the screen reverses so it's light numbers on a dark background.
I can then relax and the watch counts my downtime. In my case that matters because I'm trying to keep my rest sessions as short as possible so I want to know how much time I spend NOT swimming between each block of lengths.
I then hit the same bottom right button once to restart and do my next set of lengths, usually backstroke in my case. Pausing again for a short rest I then restart and do one length underwater -- pause -- short rest -- press again -- final length underwater -- pause. Then, importantly, I hit the right middle button to stop and then save the total session data.
I have found that trying to race to press the pause button as quickly as possible has caused me to inadvertently hit the stop, rather than the pause button. If you do this you lose the last session data of your swim -- or I did anyway -- so be careful ensuring you press the correct button! Anyway, you're only shaving off fractions of a second and you'd be cursing yourself if you're finishing a big swim and you lose data for want of adding a second or two to your total pool time!.
I have found that the only way to get truly accurate data is to press pause at the end of every length and then restart at the beginning of the next.
This makes very length an interval, but it is the only way to get truly accurate data when touch turning.
If you allow the watch to guess when you start and stop your length you will get fairly accurate interval data (ie 5 lengths takes me 5 mins) but your length data will be all over the place as the watch doesn't always accurately estimate when the length starts and stops.
For instance without pausing every length you may get the following over five lengths even at a steady swimming pace 51; 55; 41; 1.12; 51 (from a breatsroke swim of mine)
But with pausing you get: 43; 45; 44; 43; 45 (another breastroke swim of mine) - much more accurate.
It is annoying that you have to do this to get accurate data.
But this is the only way I have found top achieve it
The idea of stopping every 25 meters to pause then un-pause between each length is not, I suspect, how the designers of the watch intended it to be used :)
I have found that trying to race to press the pause button as quickly as possible has caused me to inadvertently hit the stop, rather than the pause button. If you do this you lose the last session data of your swim -- or I did anyway -- so be careful ensuring you press the correct button! Anyway, you're only shaving off fractions of a second and you'd be cursing yourself if you're finishing a big swim and you lose data for want of adding a second or two to your total pool time!.
When you press the Start/Stop/Enter button (middle-right) during a swim session, you get a list of options: SAVE, RESUME, and DELETE. Typically, if you are done swimming, then you select SAVE. But, if you inadvertently stopped the session, then you can select RESUME. This will allow you to carry on swimming in the same session and not lose any data.
Believe me - I'd much rather the watch provided accurate data, but it doesn't seem to.
So its a choice between a smooth hassle free swim, or logging what you do with a little bit of hassle.
Have to say that sounds a bit crazy!
The idea of stopping every 25 meters to pause then un-pause between each length is not, I suspect, how the designers of the watch intended it to be used :)
