I swim lots and lots of long distance and often find myself drifting off in thought while staring at the little tiles on the bottom of the pool. Doing sets of 200s or 300s tends not to be a problem...it's the 500 and 1000 yds that I loose concentration. When I start concentrating on technique is when I'm most likely to forget what lap I was on! Is there a gizmo out there to help me out? I envision something I can hang on the wall that would advance with my flipturn. Does anyone have any tricks to help them out with the counting of laps? Thanks!
Former Member
I bet other masters swimmers are reading this thread going "and what is wrong with these people that they even DO long sets of 1000's?"
You gotta love distance swimmers. I have often been accused of being "on the dark side" of swimming, because I favor super long overdistance sets....
I too have this problem - again on the longer swims of 1000's...
I am sure they could invent something on the lines of the goggle timer (the device that displays times inside the goggle) where there are pressure pads at each end of the lane - every time you turn you hit the pad which sends a signal to the device to show you in the goggle what lap you were on or could be set to display remaining laps.
Perhaps in the future communication to the swimmer could be through the goggle - workouts could be sent to the goggle lense. messages to the swimmer could be sent to them from coach on pool side whilst the swimmer is mid-set - e.g. " **Stretch out Arm**
This would allow full concentration on the important things in swimming - good technique and the task in hand.
Like you I spend much of my time thinking about how many laps have I done - or trying to calculate things in my mind - and then loose it (technique).
I have a bad memory too! And spend ages looking at a board trying to remember complex sets.
just an idea....
If you are fairly confident of your pacing, you could use a countdown timer on your watch. Just set it to go off on your projected last length or even at each 200, 100, etc. That way you might get two advantages...you don't keep swimming long after you were supposed to be finished, and second, you might be able to play some challenging "games" with your pacing (i.e. pick it up!) .
I usually count 1000s as 4 groups of 10 lengths.
If you lose count, check the clock. If you know how fast you ordinarily go, you can figure out where you are. It can take a few lengths, but hey, it's a long swim.
I always count lengths. So it is odd numbers going up and even numbers coming back. If I get mixed up alittle I usually drop back 1 length and keep counting. If that makes sense.
When swimming 100's I count 1, 2, 3, 4 then 11, 12, 13, 14 etc till I get to 94 then I am done with 10 100's. Works for me!
Some how on longer swims and especially when I am by myself the counting just happens in the background so to speak and I can then think about more interesting things.
I always count lengths. So it is odd numbers going up and even numbers coming back. If I get mixed up alittle I usually drop back 1 length and keep counting. If that makes sense.
When swimming 100's I count 1, 2, 3, 4 then 11, 12, 13, 14 etc till I get to 94 then I am done with 10 100's Works for me!
Some how on longer swims and especially when I am by myself the counting just happens in the background so to speak and I can then think about more interesting things.
This may be sacriligeous but does it really make any difference? If I lose count I go back to the last number I can remember, add two, and finish off my swim. In the worse case scenario I'll do a couple extra. (good for me) If my count is right on, well, good for me. The yards don't make the difference, the time/effort in the water does.
There is a product out there that fits on your finger, like a ring, and every time you want to count (whether by lengths, 50's, 100's, whatever) you reach over with your thumb and it records the count. I don't think you'd be able to read it while you're swimming, but at least you could see if you'd swum as many as you thought you had when you stopped. I'm not sure what it's called, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it advertised in Kast-a-way's catalog.
I don't mean to sound too simplistic, however, my advice would be to follow a good lane leader. That's what I do because I cannot count beyond ~300 yards! When swimming longer distances during workout, my lane always designates the best distance swimmer to lead because s/he is best at keeping count. ;)
-GG
I also don't have trouble with the 100s or 200s ... so I often put in a different stroke for one lap as a marker. swim 75 free 25 back ... then I can just count the laps of backstroke. or 175/25 and count the unusual stroke and stretch out some different muscles while I am at it. It sorts of wakes up technique awareness, too.
