Swimming tech - educate me, please!
Discussion
Hi All. I’m about to get back into swimming, and I’m wondering what tech/tracking people use to monitor and improve?
I like tech. I work well from seeing progress and interrogating data to make informed training decisions.
I currently own a Garmin Forerunner 735xt, which will only last so much longer, I fear. It’s good, but didn’t capture my stroke changes well in a session of clearly distinct sets yesterday.
I’m considering a Swim 2, but that seems to have its own issues, reading user reviews. It also is poor at running, which it like to keep a toe in. I’m thinking another Garmin multisport May actually do a better all round job here.
DC Rainmaker is impressed by the Apple Watch for swim and GPS OW accuracy. I’ve also seen that services like Swim.com play well with it, loading training sessions and having advanced stroke detection. Any experience here?
Segueing into: Garmin Connect; Strava; Swim.com…what is the best swim days analysis tool? I think Strava is weakest here, but have no experience of swimming specific platforms.
So, in summary…Swimmers: what’s on your wrist, and what gives you your data?
I like tech. I work well from seeing progress and interrogating data to make informed training decisions.
I currently own a Garmin Forerunner 735xt, which will only last so much longer, I fear. It’s good, but didn’t capture my stroke changes well in a session of clearly distinct sets yesterday.
I’m considering a Swim 2, but that seems to have its own issues, reading user reviews. It also is poor at running, which it like to keep a toe in. I’m thinking another Garmin multisport May actually do a better all round job here.
DC Rainmaker is impressed by the Apple Watch for swim and GPS OW accuracy. I’ve also seen that services like Swim.com play well with it, loading training sessions and having advanced stroke detection. Any experience here?
Segueing into: Garmin Connect; Strava; Swim.com…what is the best swim days analysis tool? I think Strava is weakest here, but have no experience of swimming specific platforms.
So, in summary…Swimmers: what’s on your wrist, and what gives you your data?
I have a Swim2. I like it, it’s comfortable, not too bulky, last the fat end of a week before needing a charge and it can track my cycling as well as my swimming (including both pool and open water).
However, had I been given one for a month’s free trial I probably would have handed it back. It’s inaccurate for a start. Some of my 100m FS times are all over the place - it’s not unusual for them to be as much as 15 seconds different on consecutive 100s, which I know I’m not swimming at such a different pace. It’s also known to add or not register random lengths - you get to the end of a 100m set and it says you’ve do 75m or 125m. It’s rare, but it’s happened at least half a dozen times since I bought it February, and I swim twice a week in my local 25m pool. I mentioned accuracy previously, I’m not convinced it correctly registers when you either start or finish a set - I’ve had times I clearly haven’t done next to times my mum would do.
But, how accurate do you want or need to be? Of course you want your tech to work as intended, and I haven’t even explored a fraction of what it’s supposedly capable of, but as a simple and cheap recording device it’s fine for me. If you’re training seriously, you’ll have a coach with a stopwatch anyway, but now I’ve got one, and I wear it all the time, I’m in no hurry to get shot of it or replace it.
Good luck in your search
However, had I been given one for a month’s free trial I probably would have handed it back. It’s inaccurate for a start. Some of my 100m FS times are all over the place - it’s not unusual for them to be as much as 15 seconds different on consecutive 100s, which I know I’m not swimming at such a different pace. It’s also known to add or not register random lengths - you get to the end of a 100m set and it says you’ve do 75m or 125m. It’s rare, but it’s happened at least half a dozen times since I bought it February, and I swim twice a week in my local 25m pool. I mentioned accuracy previously, I’m not convinced it correctly registers when you either start or finish a set - I’ve had times I clearly haven’t done next to times my mum would do.
But, how accurate do you want or need to be? Of course you want your tech to work as intended, and I haven’t even explored a fraction of what it’s supposedly capable of, but as a simple and cheap recording device it’s fine for me. If you’re training seriously, you’ll have a coach with a stopwatch anyway, but now I’ve got one, and I wear it all the time, I’m in no hurry to get shot of it or replace it.
Good luck in your search
McAndy said:
Hi Antony. Thanks for the Swim 2 review! When random laps get lopped off a session and leaves me on a 25 m measure, it does annoy me; but that probably says more about me than anything else…
I do like my tech when the features add value. For example, being to pre-load sets/sessions so I can train to a plan on my wrist would be helpful to me. Accessibility gives fewer excuses to duck-out when feeling demotivated!McAndy said:
McAndy said:
Hi Antony. Thanks for the Swim 2 review! When random laps get lopped off a session and leaves me on a 25 m measure, it does annoy me; but that probably says more about me than anything else…
I do like my tech when the features add value. For example, being to pre-load sets/sessions so I can train to a plan on my wrist would be helpful to me. Accessibility gives fewer excuses to duck-out when feeling demotivated!And regarding the ‘missing’ random laps, I do 2k per session (80 lengths) and it drives me up the wall to see 1.975k or 2.025k, I have to do extra then to make it even round numbers before saving!
Sorry SP, I haven't tried underwater headphones. One of the reasons I like swimming as that I find the thrapping through the water quite meditative! It's my escape from the constant noise of the world around me.
Also, apologies to Antony for my very odd quoting up the page! I was on a mobile. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it)
Swim Smooth looks like it was the app that uses the Apple Watch accelerometers, whereas MySwimPro looks like more of a community for simmers (á la Strava). Any experiences on PH of either of these? Or any others?
Also, apologies to Antony for my very odd quoting up the page! I was on a mobile. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it
)Swim Smooth looks like it was the app that uses the Apple Watch accelerometers, whereas MySwimPro looks like more of a community for simmers (á la Strava). Any experiences on PH of either of these? Or any others?
Hi All. Just nudging this up the "What's new?" section! I'm still struggling to make a decision upon|:
1. MySwimPro vs. Swim.com sv. Swim Smooth
and
2. Apple (better for swimming?) vs. Garmin (better for running!) for wearable replacement, swimming and running as items for which I require performance analysis.
Thanks!
1. MySwimPro vs. Swim.com sv. Swim Smooth
and
2. Apple (better for swimming?) vs. Garmin (better for running!) for wearable replacement, swimming and running as items for which I require performance analysis.
Thanks!
Salted_Peanut said:
I'm interested too. About to get back into swimming and I have their regular bone conducting 'Open Run Pro' set and it is pretty excellent for outdoor exercise.Sound is not quite comparable with a good set of regular headphones but is still pretty decent and for exercise when you are getting sweaty, they are very comfortable, easy to clean and allow you to hear everything around you (especially good for cycling). If you are listening to podcasts then they are perfect.
The waterproofed version should be perfect for swimming I reckon. I did previously try a dedicated 'swimming' mp3 player set up, but the included wired earbuds were just not at all satisfactory so they lasted about 3 sessions before I gave up on them. Didn't help that they were very uncomfortable with water getting into ear canals. The Shokz ones have a built in mp3 player so no wires and of course would not suffer from that ear canal problem.
Salted_Peanut said:
Swimming-wise, isn’t the Garmin Swim 2 better than an Apple Watch? Does the Apple Watch track open-water distances?Lucas Ayde said:
I'm interested too. About to get back into swimming and I have their regular bone conducting 'Open Run Pro' set and it is pretty excellent for outdoor exercise.
Sound is not quite comparable with a good set of regular headphones but is still pretty decent and for exercise when you are getting sweaty, they are very comfortable, easy to clean and allow you to hear everything around you (especially good for cycling). If you are listening to podcasts then they are perfect.
The waterproofed version should be perfect for swimming I reckon. I did previously try a dedicated 'swimming' mp3 player set up, but the included wired earbuds were just not at all satisfactory so they lasted about 3 sessions before I gave up on them. Didn't help that they were very uncomfortable with water getting into ear canals. The Shokz ones have a built in mp3 player so no wires and of course would not suffer from that ear canal problem.
I’ve been very happy with my Shokz for running. If I listened to music while swimming I’d be very tempted by the waterproof version. Sound is not quite comparable with a good set of regular headphones but is still pretty decent and for exercise when you are getting sweaty, they are very comfortable, easy to clean and allow you to hear everything around you (especially good for cycling). If you are listening to podcasts then they are perfect.
The waterproofed version should be perfect for swimming I reckon. I did previously try a dedicated 'swimming' mp3 player set up, but the included wired earbuds were just not at all satisfactory so they lasted about 3 sessions before I gave up on them. Didn't help that they were very uncomfortable with water getting into ear canals. The Shokz ones have a built in mp3 player so no wires and of course would not suffer from that ear canal problem.
Salted_Peanut said:
Swimming-wise, isn’t the Garmin Swim 2 better than an Apple Watch? Does the Apple Watch track open-water distances?Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff