Swimmers! What Are Your Thoughts?

SaMaster14

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Mar 8, 2012
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Hey guys! I ordered my apple watch series 2 stainless steel (black) 42mm w/ sport band a couple of weeks ago.

When the first apple watch came out, I swore it wasn't for me... I'm wear a watch everyday, but I'm a huge "purist"when it comes to watches. That being said, the apple watch won't replace my day-to-day, but after seeing WatchOS 3, I hope it will fit into the rotation!

Probably the biggest reason I jumped on the watch was the swimming and fitness capabilities though. I try to either weightlift or swim everyday (and if I can't get that in, at least some cardio!) and I've always wanted a device that could accurately track my fitness goals and I think the Series 2 is for me!

I know that the watch advertises for swimming and I did get the stainless steel with the sapphire crystal face, but I'm just a little concerned about durability/the watch staying on.

My swim workouts are definitely more than 'casual.' I'm not a pro athlete by any means, but my normal workout consists of an average of 2000 meters or so, probably swimming freestyle at a 1:30 pace/100m with some I.M., butterfly, kicking mixed in, etc. Should I be worried at all about the watch flying off? Or the waterproofing being messed up by the velocity/force of a butterfly stroke?

Thanks for any input! (Hopefully I'm just overthinking my concerns!)
 

evenmed

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Oct 31, 2016
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According to Apple Watch Series 2: A Swimmer's Perspective - Mac Rumors, it's great at tracking your workout if you're swimming back and forth. It measures calories burnt and heartbeat rate accurately, as well as distance. However, "..where the Apple Watch's swim tracking starts to fall short is for people looking to do more varied swim workouts based around swim sets and focused exercises like stroke drills and kicking. The Apple Watch's tracking is linked to its ability to sense arm motion, which means if you're doing a kick set, it won't pick it up at all. Or if you're doing specialized drills to work on your technique, such as one-arm strokes, if may not track accurately if you don't have a regular stroke rhythm".
 

SaMaster14

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Mar 8, 2012
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According to Apple Watch Series 2: A Swimmer's Perspective - Mac Rumors, it's great at tracking your workout if you're swimming back and forth. It measures calories burnt and heartbeat rate accurately, as well as distance. However, "..where the Apple Watch's swim tracking starts to fall short is for people looking to do more varied swim workouts based around swim sets and focused exercises like stroke drills and kicking. The Apple Watch's tracking is linked to its ability to sense arm motion, which means if you're doing a kick set, it won't pick it up at all. Or if you're doing specialized drills to work on your technique, such as one-arm strokes, if may not track accurately if you don't have a regular stroke rhythm".

Thank you for the reply! I do a few kick sets, but that likely won't be an issue as much (hopefully you can 'add data' like on the iPhone Health app. Also wondering if the Speedo Fit app (which I've been using to manually add my workouts) has a Watch app!

I was mainly concerned about it falling off with more intense swimming, but after reading the article, I'm confident it should hold up nicely!
 

wvayens

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Dec 11, 2012
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I use a sports band with mine and have no trouble at all.

The Apple workout app is great if you're just doing freestyle. It does a good job of measuring laps, times, etc. Where it falls down is measuring other strokes...if you can keep track of when you're doing what, you'll be ok.

Swim.com has a free app that's pretty good at identifying which stroke you're doing, but strictly relies upon inputting the length of your pool to know your lap lengths. It does a good job of identifying free, back and fly, but for the life of me I can't get it to recognize my breast!

Neither app will help if you're doing kicking drills...but the swim.com app will let you go online when you're done and edit your workout. So I add those distances manually and then go in and clean up my strokes (I make sure I do them in the same order so I can tell what's what.)

I gave my original watch to my swim coach and got him a waterproof case for it and the swim.com app has been working well for him as well.