Splits

The term "splits" refers to the times it takes you to swim parts of a total distance. If, e.g., you were swimming 200y, the times it took you to swim each 50y would be your splits. Electronic timing systems will sometimes record your split times automatically every time you touch the touch pad (i.e., every 50 in a short course pool, or every 100 in a long course pool). There are also lap timers you can wear on your finger where you press a button every time you do a turn to mark the end of the lap, though the ones I have seen only retain the times and lap numbers for your last lap, your fastest lap, and your slowest lap. Your splits give you feedback on how you are swimming a race. If, e.g., your final splits are significantly higher than your earlier ones, this suggests that you are running out of steam near the end of the race. Swimmers sometimes strive for "negative splits", meaning that they try to swim each segment of the total distance faster than they swam the previous one. Bob

If you are really interested in learning more about how to split your races - find a copy of Swimming Even Faster and go to chapter 23. The author shows the way many of the world record holders split their races. Different strokes and different distances are split much differently. I sometimes use splits to direct my training. They can help you determine if you need more endurance or more speed work.

Thank you for the info. Appericate it very much:)

there can be touch pads at both ends of the pool giving you splits for 25 in sc pools and 50 in lc pools, but most of the time there is just one pad. Lainey