Roller derby

[Tweed_kills]

Fitbit doesn't do a good job with skater strides. Derby is a growing fitness community of people usually learning to be athletes. We'd love an update that catered to our high impact training and our unique stride.

[SteveH]

I think the problem with skating is there isn't enough impact with the "steps" for them to register. I'm not sure fitbit will be able to get round this issue.

Although you may be missing out on your step count your HR monitoring should result in a reasonable calorie burn estimate.

[djc5569]

When I roller skate, my FitBit One tracks my skating as steps, approximately 6,000 steps for about 2 hours of skating. I find it interesting that it doesn't count any active minutes with roller skating.  I think the movement must be confusing for it. 

[kalimm]

It's always interesting to me to see the differences between each of these devices. Last time I went skating is was for a little over an hour. I clocked over 4200 steps, 389 calories, and 46 active minutes. My distance was obviously off, but I think the step and active minute count was fairly accurate.

[WhompingWillow]

Except I don't think any of the bands fit under a wrist guard, which is pretty important to wear in derby.

[RobertoME]

Hello @WhompingWillow, thank you for joining us here in our Fitbit Community. I was talking a few months ago with another user of the Community, he was commenting about using a sweat band on top of the tracker to protect and hide it when he was playing soccer. Perhaps it might be a good tip to put on practice in roller derby. 

About accuracy, the tracker is not design to track these motion patterns and may present some inaccuracies, for what I strongly recommend either create a custom activity or manually log the exercise for better results. To learn more about this, take a look at the following post.

See you around and keep participating in our Community.

[WhompingWillow]

Thanks for the response! Unfortunately, nothing but the slimmest of things can fit under a wrist guard, and they're isn't a fitbit slim enough yet. Maybe in the near future! It would probably have to be designed specifically with protective gear in mind. Thanks anyway though! 

[BoneSawBetty]

I am in the process of reaserching fitbits, and which to buy, but my derby wife wears her Charge HR just above her wrist guard, brown the wrist guard and elbow pad, for bouts and practices, rather than trying to put it underneath. 

[RobertoME]

Always happy to share with you @WhompingWillow. Having protective gear in a future would be a great idea to add on our Suggestions board. 

Welcome to our Community @BoneSawBetty, if you are researching which tracker is the best for you, maybe the following comparison page might give you an extra help.

Thank you for all your comments and keep participating in our Community boards!

[linzcrenshaw]

When I skate, I turn my Blaze so the face is against the inside of my wrist, and my pads fit over just fine 🙂 I have a bulkier guard, the Destroyer ones, so smaller ones might not work, but that's what I do.

[Nanoo]

Im wondering if anyone has tried removing the band, and taping it to another part of their body, If it came with a soft sports strap that could be worn say on the inside of your upper arm under an elbow pad or even a knee pad, that might work

[Nyrune]

I actually wear my Fitbit Blaze during derby. I wear the Atom palm/wrist guard. I use a looser notch and wear it higher than the wristguard and cover it with a cut off sock to protect it. It really only pushes it about an inch up my arm. Works just fine this way for me. Been doing that for a couple years.

[RobertoME]

Hi there @Nyrune, let me give you a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community. My apologies for the late response and thank you for sharing the way you use the Fitbit tracker for this activity.

I'm sure, this will give a workaround to other users who might have the same questions.

Stay awesome and keep participating in our Fitbit Community!

[Daphne.comeau]

I did that last night and got this when I fell. I gotta find another way...Turned Fitbit ionic face inside under wrist guard and fell on it.

[Sazgeering]

Hey - that strap isn't great for a couple of reasons - the sticky out clasp (which you've discovered causes bruising), but also the metal clip that locks it can come out if pulled/ caught and tree watch can fall off and the metal clip end up a trip hazard on the track. 

There are sports straps that are worth looking into that don't dig in so much and don't have parts that can come off. I still get some bruising, but no where near as much as with the original strap. 

Hope this helps. 

[Crookskates]

I bought wrist guards that have an opening for a watch 🙂