Question About Tracking Sports with Inspire (or alternative device?)

[wegottops]

Hi all, the major thing I'd like my tracker to do is show me how far I run during sporting activities (soccer, basketball, etc.) when I don't have my phone with me. I also need a clip on device because we're not allowed to have anything on the wrist. 

I bought a Zip thinking it could do this, but I was told that it has no way to determine distance traveled in a particular time period. (Or a way to start/stop an activity.)

I now see that the Inspire can has a belt clip. Is it possible for me to figure out distance for a particular time, or manually start/stop an exercise like a soccer or basketball game? 

I see the Inspire HR has more features, and better sleep tracking, but is it true that it does not work with a clip?

Or are there any other devices that would do what I'm hoping for? Thanks!

[JohnnyRow]

The Inspire (not HR) is currently the only model of Fitbit with a clip.  You can start and stop a workout to get steps during that time. 

Distance is measured as number of steps times stride length.  One concern for soccer or basketball would be the variation in stride.  For walking or running, one does tend to keep a similar stride length.  But for such a sport, I would think there might be a lot of short shuffle steps, or even just hip movement without a step that might get interpreted as steps, and these would throw off the distance.

  And of course there is the issue of how much contact will be involved in the sport.  You would hate to get it bumped and knocked off.

[wegottops]

Thanks for the reply. I now see the issues that come with measuring distance. I'm not too concerned with perfect accuracy, though, as I'm mainly just trying to get a general sense and compare different games. Just to be sure, are you saying that the Inspire would be able to show me distance for an activity that I track, even if there might be some issues with accuracy? My Zip can't show me distance for a particular time or set activity.

And contact definitely could be an issue, but I've had a couple of trackers that I've clipped on and I haven't had a problem so far. Also good to know that the Inspire is the only Fitbit with a clip. I do wish the HR or something else with more advanced tracking also had one!

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

My mistake.  I guess the Inspire does not have the Exercise App where you choose the activity and tell it when you begin and stop.  I was thinking of the Inspire HR which I have, and answered too quickly for the non-HR Inspire.

It does have auto-recognition whereby it tries to automatically detect tell when you start and stop activity, but I would fear it might stop every time there is a rest period rather than group the whole time together, though I suppose you could manually add them up.

I have heard Amazon does carry a third-party clip that fits the Inspire HR but no idea how well it works, and of course no warranty from Fitbit.  Also the Inspire has a setting to switch between wrist and clip-on, that the Inspire HR does not have.  I have no idea how much of a difference that makes.

Another possibility might be to wear a tracker around your ankle with an extra large band or a band extender, but I would think that would be even more susceptible to getting kicked/damaged/hit by soccer ball.

[wegottops]

Thanks again. That's too bad it doesn't have the Exercise App. I agree the auto-detect mode would likely start and stop during a whole game. Would those individual activities at least show distance, or just steps?

Is there any other way to view how much distance was traveled during a period of time? (Like if I keep track of when the game started/stopped?) I'm guessing if I create a manual activity afterward, it just uses a formula, not actually check my own activity during those minutes. Is that right?

I think I will look into anyone who has tried the third-party HR clip to see if that might work. Agreed that the ankle would likely be a bit more risky!

Another big thanks for the help

[wegottops]

I decided to go with the HR. It looks like the Exercise app will indeed work for tracking my sports events, but I've found there is no way to categorize them. The only options I have on my device are "Run," "Bike," etc. so I choose Run. I figured I could change that later to Soccer, Basketball, etc. but there is no edit option when I click the activity! (Android/Galaxy S8) I also can't edit on the web dashboard. For a walk that was auto detected, I do have an edit button on my phone, but not anything where I used the Exercise app to start/stop. I'm baffled that this wouldn't be an option! Is there any other way that I'm not thinking of?

[JohnnyRow]

It sounds like you are looking at starting exercise from phone.

Use the exercise app on tracker.  From clock face, scroll up (swipe down) to "exercise"; tap, then scroll up and down to see options.

Also How do I change or reorder the exercises in the Exercise app?

[wegottops]

Thanks. I am actually using the app on the Fitbit device. I pick Run, but want to change it to the sport (ie. Soccer, Basketball) and I'm unable to edit it via the app (there's only share or delete) or even the web interface.

[JohnnyRow]

I don't deal with editing past workouts, but for future use, link above tells how to get the choices you want available.

[wegottops]

I appreciate your help and have looked at the link. In the Exercise shortcuts, I didn't have a + icon, and I didn't realize I had to delete one first for that to show up.

Still, none of the options are the sports I want to track (namely, soccer and basketball). And since I can't edit the name of a past activity, I guess I'll just have to live with them all showing up as Run since that seems to be the closest exercise type.

[wegottops]

I did see it say " If a specific exercise isn’t available, choose workout as your exercise type," So I'll try using that one to see if it lets me change the name later or anything.

[wegottops]

Okay, so the Workout exercise type does allow me to edit its name after the fact, but it doesn't show distance which is the one metric I wanted to see! So it looks like I'll just log my sports as Runs.

[wegottops]

Of course, the other thing I'm going to try is see how the device auto tracks as Sport.

My concern was that if I am subbing in and out it won't capture the whole game together, but it still might be useful. Anyway, sorry for so many posts, but just thought I'd update what I am trying in case someone else has a similar issue in the future.