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VA3 Accuracy Swimming

Former Member over 7 years ago

Dear fellow Garmin VA3 users,

I like my VA3 and it works perfect with running and cycling for the needs I have. Only with swimming it does not seem to register the correct distance. Yesterday I went swimming in a 25M pool. I'm not a trained swimmer and I swim different styles, mainly breaststroke and alternate with freestyle strokes. I try to accelerate firmly when touching the ends of the swimming pool. First time I swum I thought the distance was longer then what I really did. This time I recorded it myself up to 70x25m in one hour. That should be 1750M but recorded was 2075M. Which is a more then significant difference. Is my watch broken? Do I do something wrong. Can I do something myself to get a more accurate measurement? Does anyone have tips to improve accuracy?

Thanks in advance.

0 Dr Phil over 7 years ago

Honestly? The simple answer is you need to be able to swim better. These devices work better with good, consistent swim strokes. Freestyle works the best, other strokes, especially if of poor quality will confuse the device no end. And of course there needs to be no interruption during the length; just a continuous swim from one end to the other.

These devices need clear, well defined strokes to work properly.

0 AllanOlesen67 over 7 years ago

The Garmin watches count swim laps, not swim distance. So you have to make sure that you are not confusing the watch by doing undetectable turns or doing stuff in the mid of the pool which might be detected as a a turn.

There is a long post somewhere in these forums with a quite detailed explanation of what to do and what not to do, also when having to give way to other swimmers without confusing the watch. I guess the three most important pieces of advice are:

When you make a turn, glide for some seconds without taking any swim strokes. If you are doing asymmetric swimming like crawl, consider starting with a stroke with the arm opposite of the watch - this will make the watch feel the glide slightly longer so it has a better chance of detecting the turn.
Keep your swimming style and cadence all the way from one end of the pool to the other. A pause or a changed swim style may count as a turn.
When you reach the end of the pool in your last lap, make sure to touch the wall with your watch hand.

0 Andy275 over 7 years ago

I agree entirely with above post. It is true of all swim pool watches. It may not be swim quality per se, but consistency. If you change strokes before reaching the end, stop, slow down or speed up bc someone is in the way, hit the lane line, or any other change the acceleration changes, mistaking it for a turn. Breast stroke per se is not a problem unless you are very, very slow, whereby you end up sometimes coming to a complete stop before taking the next stroke (breast stroke by nature is acceleration/deceleration, but it can't be exaggerated). My watch is accurate in all cases unless one of the above happens, in which case I am usually aware. I count in my head anyways as I use the watch mainly for timing intervals. Good luck.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Found nice app for fixing the swimming data: http://www.swimmingwatchtools.com - you can for example merge and split laps. Would be great if such features would be in Garmin Connect.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I agree with Zimo72,

I have a Garmin Swim since few years and just move to forunner 935...and still some laps can be missed during swim session.

I just tried swimmingwatchtools and it is an excellent tool, this is exactly what should be implemented in Garmin connect !!!!!!

is there any plan to do???