Garmin watch recording the wrong distance for your swimming pool drills? Correct it in less than 30 seconds

How do Garmin watches track pool swims?

Garmin watches typically use GPS for activities. However when you jump in the swimming pool, it disables GPS and relies on motion detection instead. This is because GPS signal in indoor pools is patchy at best.

The motion detection follows your wrist movements to try and keep track of:

• Number of strokes
• Type of stroke
• Number of lengths swam

When this works, it’s great. But since you’re reading this article, you’ve probably found that it’s not perfect and you want a solution.

Why do Garmin watches get distance wrong when swimming drills?

When you swim drills, your movement will be different to just swimming up and down doing freestyle.

For example, if you hold a kickboard with your right hand and practice your left arm stroke, Garmin’s accuracy will depend on which wrist the watch is on:

• Wear it on your left wrist - fine
• Wear it on your right wrist - Garmin has a meltdown and thinks you were standing still

If you’re holding the kickboard with the same side that you wear your watch on, then your watch won’t be moving the same as a normal stroke. This gives Garmin very little movement data to work with, so it will most likely think you were stood still, and end up recording 0 distance.

How can I prevent this?

If you’re swimming drills, use the drill mode on your Garmin watch. This swaps it from “motion detection” mode into “manual input” mode. What this means is that at the end of each drill, you’ll be prompted to input the distance swam. It’s a bit annoying, but it’s much easier than swapping your watch onto your other wrist each time you change up your drills.

What if I already have broken swim workout data?

If you already recorded some swims and forgot to use drill mode, then fear not.

Swim Blueprint’s workout editor can be used to edit your swim workout files.

Try it for yourself, or read our in depth guide to find out how it works.