Basketball Tracking On Blaze

[davegrubb3]

Hi All-

Just got my first Fitbit yesterday (Blaze), and so far really enjoying it.  The one thing I am most interested in, is tracking my basketball stats.  I play basketball at lunch a few days a week, and mostly bought the Blaze so I could track my information while I play.  Often times I will get to play 2 or 3 games, then have to sit a game, then back in for a few more games.  I want to be able to pause things while I am sitting out one of the games.  I have looked through the different Exercise Shortcuts, but can't decide which would be best.  I initially thought "workout", but I want to be able to see how many steps, how many miles, etc I ran during gameplay, and it appears "workout" doesn't allow me to see these stats, so that is out.  I was thinking maybe "Tennis" might be an option to track basketball since it is similar starting and stopping, but obviously in tennis there isn't nearly as much full on sprinting.  Can somebody please share with me your experience with tracking basketball in a similar fashion?  I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks!

[AndrewFitbit]

@davegrubb3 I don't know for sure how well this will work, but how about using 'Walk' or 'Run' and just disable GPS on the activity? You can find that option by tapping the gear icon on the lower left when you go to select the exercise shortcut.

[Choctaw970]

@davegrubb3 I am having the exact same dilemma. No one in this forum has provided a direct answer. Can someone from Fitbit please comment? I will let you know if I find a solution to our question. At this time, there does not appear to be any information on the internet specifying a good method for tracking steps, calories, and time while playing basketball using a Blaze. 

[Choctaw970]

@davegrubb3 Ok looks like you just have to wear your Blaze and the SmartTrack feature will take care of itself. Problem solved. Let me know if this works for you. Thanks- credit to @AlejandraFitbit

[intermilan]

Hello,

I'm glad you enjoy your fitbit watch.

I have one question though: is it safe to wear the watch when playing basketball? What if it hurts or simply bothers other players?

best regards

[Choctaw970]

Hi @intermilan

Thank you for discussion point- an excellent one at that.

I play regularly like 3 times a week in a fairly physical environment and my second time wearing it the watch ripped off when I was coming down from a physical rebound. I am lucky it didn't break but essentially the band itself ripped out of the hinges. There is also the potential for the watch to hurt someone else.

What I have found to work- and this works for soccer as well- is purchase a sweat band (small or large) and place it over the fitbit. This prevents it from hurting other players as well as from getting damaged. Furthermore, in some organized leagues they may not let you wear a watch, so this also kind of hides the watch and no one will say a thing.

Hopefully my experience helps you out in some way.

Best regards,

AA

[intermilan]

T
​hanks for the reply...Wearing a wrist band is a good idea (it is mentioned
in some posts from Apple watch forum ​
​as well).​

[HoopDreams]

So, how does the SmartTrack feature work?  Do you need to start an activity?  Do you just ignore the device and let it record pulse, steps, etc?

-Thanks

[Stu_B]

When playing football (soccer if you prefer) I just wear the watch and it recognises a sport has been played and records HR, distance etc for the time I was playing. On the app you can set a minimum period before it recognises - think the default is 10 minutes

[AlejandraFitbit]

Hello all, I hope you are doing fine!  As mentioned, if you want to record basketball or any other activity, you can use the SmartTrack feature, I wear my tracker while playing volleyball and my Blaze register this activity thanks to this feature under the name "Sport". 

I hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else.