Swimming with Galaxy Watch: an End-2End Scenario

Recently I started swimming in a swimming pool. Or re-started after a long break. And since I have a smartwatch (Samsung Galaxy Watch 3) that supports swimming exercises I took it with me.

So far, the watch and Samsung Health app on my smartphone do a great job tracking my swimming and providing me details and statistics. Style and distance detection work great for me.

However, visiting a swimming pool I met an issue — it is not clear how one should use the watch there.

Sounds strange? I mean end-2-end scenario. Still unclear? Ok, let me explain what I mean.

My end-2-end routine is following:

1. change the clothes
2. shower
3. go to the pool
4. select a less busy line
5. swim
6. spend some time with children (while my wife is swimming), still in the water
7. shower
8. change the clothes

When I wrote it down, this became a rather long list. But its deviation from a “regular” routine is very minor.

Now, let’s add watch actions here.

Before going in a shower, it makes sense to activate “water lock” mode. And it is fine to keep it like this for the next two steps (“Go to the pool” and “select a line”).

Before starting swimming, I need to start the exercise on the watch. But, one cannot do this in “water lock” mode. So, staying in the water, I need first turn the “water lock” off (the watch will also show me the “shake it” reminder), start Samsung health, and start the “swimming” exercise (it includes “water lock).

After finishing swimming the watch auto-pauses the exercise. But there is a risk that it could track my swimming to the exit from the pool as a line. Therefore, I need to stop the exercise first (still being in the pool).
To stop the exercise one needs… deactivate the “water lock” mode (including the “shake your watch” reminder), then tap “finish”.

And since I’m still going to spend some time in the water and go to a shower afterward, I need to activate regular “water lock” mode right away.

This makes my routine look like the following way:

1. change the clothes
2. activate “water lock”
3. shower
4. go to the pool
5. select a less busy line
6. deactivate “water lock” (yes, I know I should shake the watch)
7. start “swimming” exercise
8. swim
9. deactivate “water lock” (yes, I know I should shake the watch)
10. finish the exercise
11. activate “water lock”
12. go out of the pool
13. spend some time with children still in the water
14. shower
15. deactivate “water lock” (yes, this time I do shake the watch)
16. change the clothes

This routine is over-complicated. Unfortunately, the user manual and everything I found on the Internet ignore end-2-end scenario and focus on the swimming part only.

I tried to optimize the routine. On the next visit, I started swimming exercise before going in a shower. This had two consequences:

• increased “total time” of the exercise (total and active time are tracked separately, but still)
• the watch counted extra line when I was swimming/going to a selected line.

One can solve the second issue, by immediately putting the exercise on a pause, and un-pause it directly before starting swimming.

This is a bit simpler, but still complicated. And “total exercise time” included shower — not a big deal, but not ideal.

Maybe I do something wrong, but as I already mentioned — I did not find any instructions/examples which cover swimming pool visit end-2-end.

I have to admit that this is relevant for many features of this watch. It gives you tons of data, and features but does not explain how to use them. This is sad.

But, even counting all written above, I’m very impressed with how well my galaxy watch 3 tracks my swimming.

PS: I would love to add a nice “in a pool” photo of the watch, but in the pool I visit taking photos is forbidden.

My Galaxy Watch 3 shows me the summary of my swimming exercise

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