Another newbie question: how do you keep count of how many strokes/lengths/laps?

I believe the rule of thumb is thus: when choosing between two distances, you have always gone the shorter distance. Great rule. However, I violated it yesterday. We were doing "Texas 25s" with the extra flip turn. The two fast lanes ended up doing 12 instead of 10. It was at the end of workout. We were all zonked. Everyone kept asking which one we were on. No one seemed to know. We just kept going. Our coach was swimming with us so .... I never count strokes. If I'm sprinting, I go fast. If I'm swimming longer, I slow down. I know many people count in an effort to improve their SPL. It's probably a good idea, but I'd rather worry about other things. As to counting laps, I do what Geek does only I don't say it out loud. I just think 50, 100, 150 or 2, 4, 6. I still lose count a lot in anything over a 200. Maybe it's age or life intruding on swimming. :eek: Or it proves the GoodSmith theory that sprinters have only an 11 second attention span.

I believe the rule of thumb is thus: when choosing between two distances, you have always gone the shorter distance. Great rule. However, I violated it yesterday. We were doing "Texas 25s" with the extra flip turn. The two fast lanes ended up doing 12 instead of 10. It was at the end of workout. We were all zonked. Everyone kept asking which one we were on. No one seemed to know. We just kept going. Our coach was swimming with us so .... I never count strokes. If I'm sprinting, I go fast. If I'm swimming longer, I slow down. I know many people count in an effort to improve their SPL. It's probably a good idea, but I'd rather worry about other things. As to counting laps, I do what Geek does only I don't say it out loud. I just think 50, 100, 150 or 2, 4, 6. I still lose count a lot in anything over a 200. Maybe it's age or life intruding on swimming. :eek: Or it proves the GoodSmith theory that sprinters have only an 11 second attention span.