Apple Watch for lap swimming

[Richard8655]

Recently got an SE for lap swimming and amazed how well and in such detail the Pool Swim feature works. Laps and yards (meters) are counted accurately, knows what strokes you did (sometimes), tracks BPM (especially highest), and keeps these and other stats in the iPhone Health and Fitness apps. The watch seems a good motivator to get into the pool everyday for an hour.

Since only using an iPad at home, wish more swimming stats would be transferred there instead of just the iPhone. Though the iPad's Health app does keep some. Also wish lap count was as prominent as yard (meter) count in the stats.

In considering Apple bands for swimming in chlorinated pools, the Sport Loop seems the most comfortable, lightweight, and dries quickly. Though band color loss does occur.

Wondering if other swimmers might have observations on use of their watch or bands choice in the pool.

 

[Foilguy]

I have skinny wrists and like the Nike band the best for swimming. I set it tight and the 10 is really slim to start with so it never feels draggy. I used an SE2 before the AW10. Both work well for laps and open water swims. I just use the native Apple swim activity rather than a third party app. After a couple of years my SE2 started acting up when it got wet. Had to be completely dry for the touch screen to work. Apple says that water resistance can degrade over time, but who knows. The 10 doesn’t have that issue but it’s new, so time will tell. I like seeing the 100m splits and stroke counts for any session.

 

[Richard8655]

Thin wrists here too, and will look into Nike bands. Also good to know water resistance can degrade, especially with the SE2. So far so good here though, but only a few months now wearing it daily in the pool. I've learned the double press technique (pressing both crown and side button simultaneously) to get a more accurate and immediate swim session finish time.

 

[Foilguy]

Thin wrists here too, and will look into Nike bands. Also good to know water resistance can degrade, especially with the SE2. So far so good here though, but only a few months now wearing it daily in the pool. I've learned the double press technique (pressing both crown and side button simultaneously) to get a more accurate and immediate swim session finish time.

I think the reason my SE2 started to have some water resistance issues over time wasn’t really due to swimming itself, it was more due to high impact watersports. Apple states that for any of their watches other than the Ultra, high impact watersports sports like waterskiing can degrade the water resistance. I don’t waterski but I do wingfoil and we can crash pretty hard. Surfing might be another example. Just my guess

 

[Earnest361]

First of all respect to you guys for getting into the pool regularly and for achieving those stats! Been learning freestyle technique properly for the past 4 months together with some friends and we're slowly improving. I'm happy to be able to swim 2 laps (100m) freestyle without having to rest gasping for air. In the beginning doing even 50m lap was hard (lol). Doing 1650 m with an avg. pace of 1m49s seems like quite the achievement to me and to most avg. people out there, bravo!

I also agree that a more detailed analysis of the data tracked with your watch would be useful, also on the Mac for example!

To your question regarding Watchbands: Since I have been swimming (although much less consistently) for the past 7 years with my Apple Watch 4 (stainless steel) and my Apple Watch 10 (titanium) I have some experience regarding the bands (I have small wrists too by the way):

- Sport Loop - best watch band for water-activities for people with small wrists imo
- Stainless Steel Link Bracelet - works surprisingly fine (one of the best watch-bands overall in my opinion) and it's obv. not affected by color loss
- classic sport band - easy and works fine too, dries up immediately
- Magnetic-Link in FineWoven material (the one I'm using now) is the worst in my experience, it loses its color very quickly, it can detach slightly in certain situations, it keeps being wet for some time after leaving the pool and I´m already on my second one after having my first one replaced by apple because the band came apart in the area where it connects to the watch

Now to my actual question: I am a bit confused as to how the avg. pace is calculated:

When I check the stats of my last training I can see the automatically recorded sets. There I get lap-times for 100m between 2m8s and 2m40s. This time is calculated by taking the 50m lap time x 2 and substracting the resting time between laps (yellow letters reading "Pause").



When I check the avg. pace I see a time > 4 min




That aligns with my actual lap-times, which include the resting time



That is quite the dramatic difference between the automated sets and the actual lap-times. Is ist possible that the avg. pace calculation ignores resting time and counts the total time in the water? Is there a way to change that? Does the avg. pace and the automatic sets look that different for you guys too or do you not rest between laps?

My last question is again regarding the automated sets. Some of the data just doesn't seem to make sense to me. See the 11th and 12th lap? Why is the "Pause"-time negative and why is there no avg. race to the 12th lap?





Sorry for the lengthy post, maybe someone of you can help me figuring this out? Until then- enjoy your swimming guys

 

[Richard8655]

First of all respect to you guys for getting into the pool regularly and for achieving those stats! Been learning freestyle technique properly for the past 4 months together with some friends and we're slowly improving. I'm happy to be able to swim 2 laps (100m) freestyle without having to rest gasping for air. In the beginning doing even 50m lap was hard (lol). Doing 1650 m with an avg. pace of 1m49s seems like quite the achievement to me and to most avg. people out there, bravo!

I also agree that a more detailed analysis of the data tracked with your watch would be useful, also on the Mac for example!

To your question regarding Watchbands: Since I have been swimming (although much less consistently) for the past 7 years with my Apple Watch 4 (stainless steel) and my Apple Watch 10 (titanium) I have some experience regarding the bands (I have small wrists too by the way):

- Sport Loop - best watch band for water-activities for people with small wrists imo
- Stainless Steel Link Bracelet - works surprisingly fine (one of the best watch-bands overall in my opinion) and it's obv. not affected by color loss
- classic sport band - easy and works fine too, dries up immediately
- Magnetic-Link in FineWoven material (the one I'm using now) is the worst in my experience, it loses its color very quickly, it can detach slightly in certain situations, it keeps being wet for some time after leaving the pool and I´m already on my second one after having my first one replaced by apple because the band came apart in the area where it connects to the watch

Now to my actual question: I am a bit confused as to how the avg. pace is calculated:

When I check the stats of my last training I can see the automatically recorded sets. There I get lap-times for 100m between 2m8s and 2m40s. This time is calculated by taking the 50m lap time x 2 and substracting the resting time between laps (yellow letters reading "Pause").

View attachment 2504551

When I check the avg. pace I see a time > 4 min

View attachment 2504552


That aligns with my actual lap-times, which include the resting time

View attachment 2504549

That is quite the dramatic difference between the automated sets and the actual lap-times. Is ist possible that the avg. pace calculation ignores resting time and counts the total time in the water? Is there a way to change that? Does the avg. pace and the automatic sets look that different for you guys too or do you not rest between laps?

My last question is again regarding the automated sets. Some of the data just doesn't seem to make sense to me. See the 11th and 12th lap? Why is the "Pause"-time negative and why is there no avg. race to the 12th lap?



View attachment 2504550

Sorry for the lengthy post, maybe someone of you can help me figuring this out? Until then- enjoy your swimming guys

Also bravo to you for joining the lap swim club here and doing freestyle so well!

Yes, I agree the Apple Sport Loop seems to be the best and most comfortable band for swimming. I have thin wrists as others here too, and its infinite adjustment works very well. It dries pretty fast also, as mentioned. My ink black color has turned into a medium brown, but I don't mind as it makes it look unique. It still fits and adjusts perfectly.

I haven't gotten into the detailed lap stats that deeply as you have, as I just look for swim workout start/end time, total laps/yards, total time, average pace 100/yds, and heart rate range (especially highest). But I'd be interested to read what other swimmers may say about your questions from the stats. Interesting to see your stats in German!