Choose a profile and threshold
Use Outdoor Soccer when valid Garmin GPS speed and distance are expected. Indoor/Futsal deliberately disables GPS distance, speed and sprint estimates instead of inventing them. In Connect IQ settings select the sprint threshold, Free/Match/Repeated Sprints template, optional cues, drills, position and visible 80–120% speed calibration.
Record safely
- START begins the native Soccer FIT activity.
- BACK/LAP marks a period. MENU opens optional Goal, Assist, Custom and undo-last-marker actions.
- START pauses. From PAUSED choose Resume, Save or Discard; destructive discard requires confirmation.
- After Save, wait for the local SDK receipt before closing.
Understand GPS and estimates
GPS UNAVAILABLE, SEARCHING or POOR pauses sprint estimates. GPS USABLE allows them. A sprint requires sustained speed over your threshold, plus hysteresis and cooldown to reduce duplicates. These are training estimates; Garmin's native route, distance, speed and heart rate remain separate.
After the session
Garmin Connect receives the standard Soccer activity. Estimated sprint count, high-speed time/distance and estimated peak can appear as Connect IQ developer fields. A local save receipt confirms only that the Garmin SDK accepted the watch save; it cannot promise phone/cloud sync.
Troubleshooting
- Unwanted pauses while walking: disable Garmin's native Auto Pause in Soccer settings and use manual pause.
- No sprint estimates: confirm Outdoor Soccer, wait for GPS USABLE and verify the threshold/calibration.
- No activity: do not uninstall first. Note the exact message, watch model, firmware and app version, then contact support.
- Previous outcome unknown: check Garmin activity history; the app will not claim recovery it cannot verify after a crash.