Seeing/Knowing Split-Times??

Fascinating. For purely interest sake, I need to ask a couple of questions: Why are clocks a "naughty" thing in swimming? How did this manifest? What is the issue here? (I come from a running background, with a reliance on split times, so please forgive my incredulousness around this.) How would wearing a watch in a race be helpful in any way whatsoever? How can you even glance at it without disrupting what you are supposed to be doing? Glancing at a clock on the wall can be done with no interruption in form, but glancing at a watch on your wrist?? Seriously?? What am I missing here? I think part of it is that not every competitor has a watch or access to one, so it evens the playing field if NO ONE gets to have one. I realize you could also make the same argument for cap and goggles, but watch just seems different. As to how I can use a pace clock while swimming, that is a skill I honed and refined over years and years of swimming. I breathe every 2 strokes (or once per stroke cycle), so always to my right side. When in practice I time my last breath to be the stroke before my turn allowing me to take a normal breath and see the clock IF it is positioned a yard or two MAX from the end of the pool. I do not have to break stroke or breathing pattern. As I turn my body/head and breathe, the clock is clearly visible. It works even better if the clock is positioned a little higher off the ground. I have been using the clock to count lengths, laps, and repetitions for the better part of 20 years now. I don't count (1 lap, 2 laps, 3 laps, etc. in my head when ticking off the lengths of a 400 in practice), I just watch the clock and if I lose count, I can check the clock against what my pace. If I miscount on said 400 and see 3:03 when I flip, I can ask myself "Ok, are you at the 300 or the 250? Well if you are just flipped for the 300 you are averaging 1:01s (which is basically threshold for me). Does it feel like you are holding 1:01s? Am I about to puke and does my face feel on fire? No? Well then I just flipped for the 250." I realize that feels like a lot of soul searching when I could be focusing on other things like stroke, kick, or flip technique, but all those thoughts basically happen simultaneously for me. If I were to try and glance at my wrist to see a watch, that WOULD mess up my stroke. Glancing at the pace clock right before my flip turn is effortless for me. The only difficult part for me is if sometimes the pace clock is not on my right side as I approach the wall. This requires me to map out my strokes/breaths when I am about 12-15 meters from the wall so that my last breath comes on my opposite side (left), allowing me to still see the clock. Usually when the clock is positioned to the other side, I check less frequently. EDIT: Just want to add that this is also why I HATE pools where the pace clocks are positioned at the end(s) of the pool. For my method to work the clocks MUST be on the side of the pool, and really inside the flags to get the most accurate splits!

Fascinating. For purely interest sake, I need to ask a couple of questions: Why are clocks a "naughty" thing in swimming? How did this manifest? What is the issue here? (I come from a running background, with a reliance on split times, so please forgive my incredulousness around this.) How would wearing a watch in a race be helpful in any way whatsoever? How can you even glance at it without disrupting what you are supposed to be doing? Glancing at a clock on the wall can be done with no interruption in form, but glancing at a watch on your wrist?? Seriously?? What am I missing here? I think part of it is that not every competitor has a watch or access to one, so it evens the playing field if NO ONE gets to have one. I realize you could also make the same argument for cap and goggles, but watch just seems different. As to how I can use a pace clock while swimming, that is a skill I honed and refined over years and years of swimming. I breathe every 2 strokes (or once per stroke cycle), so always to my right side. When in practice I time my last breath to be the stroke before my turn allowing me to take a normal breath and see the clock IF it is positioned a yard or two MAX from the end of the pool. I do not have to break stroke or breathing pattern. As I turn my body/head and breathe, the clock is clearly visible. It works even better if the clock is positioned a little higher off the ground. I have been using the clock to count lengths, laps, and repetitions for the better part of 20 years now. I don't count (1 lap, 2 laps, 3 laps, etc. in my head when ticking off the lengths of a 400 in practice), I just watch the clock and if I lose count, I can check the clock against what my pace. If I miscount on said 400 and see 3:03 when I flip, I can ask myself "Ok, are you at the 300 or the 250? Well if you are just flipped for the 300 you are averaging 1:01s (which is basically threshold for me). Does it feel like you are holding 1:01s? Am I about to puke and does my face feel on fire? No? Well then I just flipped for the 250." I realize that feels like a lot of soul searching when I could be focusing on other things like stroke, kick, or flip technique, but all those thoughts basically happen simultaneously for me. If I were to try and glance at my wrist to see a watch, that WOULD mess up my stroke. Glancing at the pace clock right before my flip turn is effortless for me. The only difficult part for me is if sometimes the pace clock is not on my right side as I approach the wall. This requires me to map out my strokes/breaths when I am about 12-15 meters from the wall so that my last breath comes on my opposite side (left), allowing me to still see the clock. Usually when the clock is positioned to the other side, I check less frequently. EDIT: Just want to add that this is also why I HATE pools where the pace clocks are positioned at the end(s) of the pool. For my method to work the clocks MUST be on the side of the pool, and really inside the flags to get the most accurate splits!