My friends like the finis swimsense and the garmin swim.

Personally I have a 920 and find it a PITA to keep pushing buttons. I like the clock on the wall much better.

jaretj

If a $300 watch is out of your budget then why are you buying one of the least important things needed for a successful swim program? I am not attacking, I am asking genuinely.

Buy a timex with an autorepeat timer. Costs about $30. Buy a kickboard, short fins, and a buoy. If you already have those buy a $50 racing suit that you wear only when you do sprint training.

Swim watches are "cool," but with a few exceptions pretty useless. if your answer is you just want to have one, well, of course that is fine. Again, I am not attacking, I am just asking.

I agree with AJ...

A little dry erase board helps too... I'd rather spend that on some other tri goodie or swim coaching. I think the benefit would be greater... but if that's your bag then all the power to ya! I love cool gadgets too.

The Garmin Swim is a fantastic swim watch. It does everything you need and is low profile.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

This.

I swim in a 50-meter pool used by Olympic hopefulls (with a London Olympic Bronze medalist swimmer), masters swimmers, old farts (like myself) and a bunch of triathletes / Ironfolk. The only groupset using wrist watches (all of them using Garmins) are the triathletes / Ironfolk. Everyone else have nothing on their wrists.

But as Mr. Thomas puts its... I am not attacking.

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I have a Garmin Swim as well. It made a really nice birthday present for pool swims and it keeps a weekly distance total on the time display for extra motivation. It can double as a regular watch too.

I have a Garmin swim. I like the fact that I can look compare result from previous workouts. Also for the life of me I can't count laps or total distance. It's nice the swim counts for me, so I can let my mind wander during workouts.

I'm not even sure why one would buy a kickboard and/ or pull buoy. Across several states and many years, I've never been to a pool that didn't have these readily available for free. Instead, I'd agree on the short fins but add paddles in lieu of the kb/ pb.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I have both the Garmin Swim (bought used) and the 910 (bought later on deep discount sale). For indoor swimming I still use the Garmin Swim. I'm not a great swimmer but I find it to be an incredibly useful tool. My pool already has kick boards and buoys. My family has bought me fins and paddles as gifts. And I used to use a cheap timex and now realize how far off I was using both it and the pool clock. I had myself talked into being an okay swimmer during training but when I got to a race was I ever wrong. I love the auto lap counting, the fact that I can see how well I have done lap to lap and not just a general account of how I did in a set. I lets me figure out where I start to go wrong.

I also use the Garmin Swim as my daily watch as it is small and comfy.

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Ian

My experience with the garmin swim is that it isn't precise enough to provide any useful feedback except total distance and total time.

To the extent that I am antiswim watch - if I was coaching again I wouldn't let my athletes where them - is that it encourages the wrong kind of swimming. Long straight swimming with your brain half asleep...

Having had both the Garmin Swim and Swimsense, I would absolutely go with the Garmin. I use one now, and I completely agree with those that find value with it. I have to train solo quite often, and I can see if I'm holding intervals, or staying consistent. Also, it's easy to change swim styles (longer stroke or faster turnover) and see the obvious differences to determine the best stroke style for YOU. It's a great valuable tool that gives metrics similar to what others use a power meter or running GPS system. Get the Garmin....you'll love it.

Honestly, if you are not getting accurate splits with the pace clock on the side of the pool, you aren't using it correctly. You should be accurate within a half second, which is all of the precision necessary in daily training.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Well then I am not using it correctly. I also don't do daily training. I have to run and bike as well. Is this Let's Swim? I gave my assessment of the watch based on being a mediocre triathlete, not some Olympic swimmer with tons of experience. The pool clock sucks when my goggles are fogged up or I don't have my contacts in and can't see it accurately. I'll add that disclaimer next time.

It is really just a nice simple piece of tech that can help with training if used the right way, no different than running and biking computers. It can also help you keep track of your workouts really well after the fact, great if you are being coached from afar.

Now I remember why I took 2 weeks away from this site and why I should stay out of anything swim related. Only fish need apply!

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Ian

Dude, lighten up a bit. I didn't attack you, or question your ability. You don't have to be an Olympic athlete with tons of experience to use the pace clock, even little kids use it fine. I'm just saying, based on what I know about how the garmin works, is that you can and should get better splits with the wall clock than the Garmin. The best way is to have coach on deck taking splits, but absent that, the wall clock because of its "hands-free" nature.

I'm not telling you what to use either. You want to use the garmin, go right ahead.

Wear your contacts, don't let your goggles fog.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

The pace clock on deck is totally unreliable at my pool. It slows down intermittently, and sometimes even stops. I wish I was that fast!

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.

suggest to the lifeguard that the batteries might need replacing, or ask them to get a new one... I figure if you're paying for a pool membership, they need to keep the pace clock running

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

you beat me to it. I was going to reply "I have this giant watch that lives on the wall of the pool"

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

City pool. $2 to get in. City is broke, though they just bought brand new pull buoys and kickboards (gotta have priorities. One of the city pools has 1/2inch thick brown sediment/earth/leaves covering the bottom and the water is almost green). Pool is ran by a handful of what looks like children. They claim the clock is slow because it gets too hot in the sun.

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Two wheels good. Four wheels bad.

wonder if/when a garmin swim 2 with GPS capabilities for open water swims (for non-triathletes not wanting the 920)

I hope you're not swimming in that one! Yikes.

What, the clock gets tired in the heat and needs a siesta?

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

LOL.

I like a pace clock enough that if it were me I'd find out what type of batteries it eats, and bring some.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Might be outside of the scope of what you're looking for but I use the Polar V800 in the pool and open water. Does a fairly reliable job of tracking distance, pace, swim stroke etc. while also getting heart rate data.

I've been using the swim for 2 years now and I don't really find much difference, if any, between it and the big clock on the wall. I will point out that the clock on the wall can't upload to Garmin connect.

Not much difference doing what kind of sets? I'd find pressing a button to start each repeat on a set of 40 x 50 to get old really fast.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly