I love my 920XT, but after two swim sessions, I am wondering what I am doing wrong with the pool swimming function. Last night I swam 2500 yards (25 yard pool). The opening 200 free is reported as 125. The next two 100’s (25 scull, 25 finger drag, 25 scull, 25 catch-up) are reported as 75’s (I know that drills do not work so well). The rest of the workout is all freestyle and for a while (2 X 50, 4 X 200, 1 X 100) it is spot on. Then of the next 5 X 100, 3 are reported as 75’s. Back on track for 4 X 50 and 1 X 100, but then the last 300 is reported as 275.
So I lost 225 out of the 2500. 50 is somewhat understandable because of the drill work. But the rest is frustrating. I have not used a swim watch before, but if this is going to have any value it would be nice to have it record the distance properly so that it in turn can give me pace accurately.
I started the session by hitting “enter” and I hit “back” at the end and at the beginning of each leg, then hit enter to stop the session. Is there some secret to this? Do I have a faulty 920XT?
I’ve never had any issues with reported yardage with my 920xt or my Garmin Swim. If you’re going to do drills. Put the watch on the "Drill’ mode and then report the final yardage at the end of your drills. Your 920 will not pick up drill yardage accurately.
What are your turns like? DCrainmaker notes the key to accurate lap (or length/turn) recognition is a strong push off from the wall. I have been careful to do so and have not seen a single missed length in a number of swim workouts. For reference, I do open turns.
Do you do flip turns? Do you have a strong push off the wall? I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the 910 (and presumably the 920 also) used this acceleration to trigger the lap (and distance) increments. If you have a weak push off the wall (or “miss” the wall in a flip turn) that will cause the watch to miss laps.
I’ve never had any issues with reported yardage with my 920xt or my Garmin Swim. If you’re going to do drills. Put the watch on the "Drill’ mode and then report the final yardage at the end of your drills.** Your 920 will not pick up drill yardage accurately**.
Mine actually does. It always shows drill yardage correctly, doesn’t matter what I am doing (one arm drill, flatter kick…).
I have done 2 pool swim so far and it has been accurate each time. When i am using a pull buoy i do not even push off the wall and it still captures correctly. Not sure what else to say other than i hope it corrects itself for you, wish i could be more helpful
All turns are flip turns. I am pretty sure there were no missed turns. How strong are my push-offs? They are my normal. I am a little out of swim shape, but my swimming intervals were all between a 1:20 to 1:30 pace / 100. Seems like my push-offs should be strong enough.
I’ve had some missed laps on one or two occasions and went searching online for an answer. What I found was that in addition to having a strong push at the wall it helps if your watch is on the arm that stays in front the longest after the push, so not on the arm you take your first stroke with. Possible reason being a more clear sign for the watch that you are onto the next lap. I put my watch on the other arm and havent missed any laps since.
I should add this is with the 910xt but probably also goes for the 920.
I’m curious whether the OP ever figured this out, or if anyone else has more advice (other threads on the 920xt are getting a little unwieldy, so I apologize if I’ve overlooked it elsewhere). I have a plenty strong kick off the wall and have made sure to not make the first stroke with the watch hand. The watch will only capture about 300 of every 500 yards no matter what I do, and that has been frustrating.
I’ve found I get a few missed laps and additional laps nearer the mid and end of my swim sets at times and seems to correlate to breakdown in my technique due to fatigue. On turns, my arms move a lot when tired and it seems to throw out the accelerometer, when I focus on smooth turns with a strong push off and maintaining a smooth transition I don’t get the same issue.
I have the same issue with dropping laps so I ran a little test. I placed a 910 and a 920 on my arm for a 2200 yard session. The 910 recorded the session perfectly and the 920 dropped 500 yards of freestyle intervals. I believe it has to be a watch issue and not a technique issue. Still searching for answers as well.
I’ve never really had issues with any Garmin device tracking swims (swim, 910xt and Fenix 3).
The other day we were doing lengths but avoided touching the sides so not really pushing off and my Fenix 3 still measured the lengths ok, I would imagine a 920xt works the same.
The only issue I have had is actually over reporting distance when for whatever reason I break my rhythm mid length.
My Fenix 3 has been missing about 10% of my lengths. Hopefully they fix it soon. My 910XT NEVER missed lengths, and the Fenix 3 was perfect until they must’ve pushed an update.
My 920xt (with current firmware) miscounts maybe one lap every few swims, and usually the culprit is a mellow cool-down breast stroke lap, associated with a less vigorous push-off, too. Freestyle laps with even a fairly light push-off are fine. Drills are only correctly counted maybe 60 percent of the time, but it doesn’t matter, an incorrect count just means the initial suggestion is off and a few more button pushes scrolls to the correct one. Overall I’m finding it plenty accurate for my needs.
I never have trouble with my Fenix 3 by doing the following…
To start my workout I don’t dive in… I jump in… sink down a little then push start. I then push off and start swimming then.
When I’m done with a portion of a workout I hit lap… let the rest timer run… Before pushing off I hit lap again to resume.
If I do anything other than swimming I use drill mode and manually enter my distance.
Doing it this way I’ve only had inaccurate distances when I have messed up… not the watch.