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I'd quite like to be able to time myself whilst swimming.
Do they make swimming GPS? Is there any point? Should I just pick up a Casio for £3.99?
Garmin and Suunto both have watches that use internal accelerometers to measure your swimming. (Edit: indoors. Outside you can use GPS)
I use the swimovate one for indoor swimming - so rarely swim in the sea that a GPS one is not worth it for me.
The free option is to use the clock in the pool and count your laps.
I found that generally I can't do front crawl, breath, focus on technique and cadence whilst counting reliably. I bought a garmin swim. Great device and helped me cut 30s off my 100m time, and continually falling too. Would recommend if you want to improve your swimming.
If just wanting to drift & down slow lane however....
The free option is to use the clock in the pool and count your laps.
Aye, only an analogue clock in this pool without a second hand - bit of a pain.
Pool without a lap clock.... wft.
Gotta have that for 25s and 50s
Anything longer... triathletes fav ... garmin 910xt (has been superceeded) so pr0bably can pick one up "cheap" on the bay.... great peice of kit... my fav.
Garmin Vivoactive I think does the garmin swim functions, plus bike and run etc?
Pool without a lap clock.... wft.
There's the traditional speedo one that just spins - for short efforts it's ok, but the other one is a normal analogue clock, so it's a bit of a faff and I am not sure they are synchronised.
Whilst we have a thread on this - does anyone make a swimming GPS for open water that will alert you when you deviate from a predetermined course?
I'd avoid the TomTom Multisport. Ours is fine for running but it's ability to count lengths barely seems more accurate than a random number generator.
I've reverted to using an old Timex digital watch with a stopwatch "app" I had kicking about in the back of a drawer and just manually counting lengths.
Not sure why you'd want that feature mols ?
It's not as if you can get lost swimming in open water, if you are doing it safely ... ?
"predetermined course".... over the bouy, left at the seagull carry on towards the seal until you see the crab on the sea bed and throw a right... 😀
Surely the coast or river bank is a rather large point of refence that you can always see ... ?
In open water you need to practice your sighting. Swim towards a "landmark" be it a buoy, a tree/egde of forrest, hill, spire, chimney. There is usually something on the horizon if you check carefully.
Also when you get the luxury of a lane to yourself in the pool, practice swimming with your eyes closed. If you focus on your hand entry you can work towards avoiding crossover which makes you steer a wobbly line. Bilateral breathing helps here too.
Not sure why you'd want that feature mols ?
A mate who does lots of triathlons (occasionally wins them, regularly wins his age group, so he knows what he is doing) said it was something he'd really want. I was mulling over the possibility of a kickstarter project 🙂
FWIW I don't seem to have a problem swimming in a straight line in the sea using the traditional methods, but there you go. His most recent swim was in a river though so that could be plenty harder as the river turns.