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I always lose track of laps while swimming more than 1km freestyle in a pool.

Is there any gadget or technique which helps counting laps?

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Have you tried counting how long 100m takes you (more or less) then look at how late you started and what time it is right now? That should give you a ballpark idea of the distance (assuming there's a clock or watch) – Ivo Flipse♦ Mar 22 '12 at 10:04
@Ivo: I can never convince myself that these were 25 slow laps, not 26 fast laps. – Quassnoi Mar 23 '12 at 6:48

8 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

Count Yards/Meters, not Laps

I suffered from losing count so many times. Then, I started counting yards (or meters). I typically swim in a 25 yard pool so I'll use yards to describe. But if you swim in meters, just substitute - its the same concept.

I simply count yards instead of laps. I start in the shallow end and swim towards the deep end and then back continuously. I know that going towards the deep end, I have to be on either a 25 or a 75 (ie, 25yds, 125yds, 225yds, 325yds or 75yds, 175yds, etc). And, if I am coming down towards the shallow end, I am either on a 50 or a 100 interval (ie, 50yds, 100yds, 150yds, 200yds, 250yds, etc).

This really worked for me. When I was counting laps, my mind would wonder and then I couldn't remember if I was lap 14 or 15. But counting in increments of 25 or 50 really helps me. Sometimes I still lose focus. But, I remember about where I was. For instance, let's say that I'm coming back towards the shallow end and the number that pops in my head was 175. Well, I am probably working towards 200 yards because coming back towards the wall (in a 25 yd pool) will be a multiple of 50 (50, 100, 150, 200, etc). And I'm guessing I had 175 in my head because that's what I was on when I was last going towards the deep end.

And yes, as Ivo mentioned, you can always use time to help confirm your yardage. For instance, if you can swim 100 yds in 100 seconds (1:40 pace) then, 600 yards is 6000 seconds or 10 minutes even. So if you are swimming 1200 yards, and you think you lost track, when you are done, you should be at 20:00. If you swam 50 yards short, you'll be around 19:10 or if you swam 50 long you would be at 20:50.

Abacus

On really long sets or sets longer than my attention span, I will set up a layman's abacus on the pool deck. Our pool deck is made up of ~2" square tiles. My water bottle covers two tiles. So, for instance, if I have to do 1200 yards and my attention span is about 200 yards, I will use my flip-flops as end points between 12 total tiles. I'll use my water bottle as a counter (bead on an abacus). Every 200 yards I stopped just briefly enough to move my water bottle to next set of tiles. And then I restart my count at 0.

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Just returned from the pool. Unfortunately, that did not work for me too: I lost count at 475 (or 425) meters. – Quassnoi Mar 23 '12 at 16:40
I modified my answer to address your comment. maybe this will help – Ryan Miller Mar 23 '12 at 16:53
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oh, great idea! I can use buoys on the lane divider as beads. – Quassnoi Mar 23 '12 at 17:22
up vote 0 down vote

I count in smaller increments - 4 or 8 or 10. Of course you can't lose count of your count. (Was that my 4th set of 8, or my 5th?)

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up vote 1 down vote

My personal technique, which is a way to make it easier , was to remember which side of the pool did i start at (left or right side).

Then, let's say u start at the right side, so whenever u reach back this right side you are surely at an "even" number of laps (either 2,4,6,...).

So what you still have to do now is to count each 2 laps (ie swimming to the other side, then coming back to the "even" side) as ONE lap. When you are done, you multiply these laps by two(since "even") and you get the real nb of laps.
The advantage of this technique is that:

  • you are sure at least that you have done an "even" nb of laps (each time you are back at the "starting" side of the pool)
  • counting 2 laps as one, will diminish your need to count laps by 2 , which makes it a bit easier.
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That's exactly how do I count, and I still lose track. – Quassnoi Mar 23 '12 at 14:00
up vote 2 down vote

I use SportCount 100 It is very easy to use, and can be operated by one hand. I would highly recommend it.

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up vote 1 down vote

I have the same problem, I plan to buy the Garmin Swim watch, it has some good reviews: E.g. DCrainmaker

Through an accelerometer and clever software, it detects styles of swimming, measures laps, strokes, stroke rates, SWOLF and exercise time. The instrument is targeted for swimming in pools so there is no GPS.

Based on the site and the review, it seems like they have thought about the different scenarios that you have in the pool, for example, swimming laps, interval training and drills.

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So how do you use a Swim watch? Do you use it to count laps? – Ivo Flipse♦ Jul 3 '12 at 4:24
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My plan is to use it to count stroke per lengths (SPL), which for me as a relative beginner in swimming seems to be a great performance indicator, and count laps. – FredrikD Jul 3 '12 at 6:39
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Can you add some of what it does and why you would want to buy one to your answer, as well as maybe a picture of one and a link to their product description page? – Nathan Wheeler♦ Jul 3 '12 at 15:06
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@fredob - SPL is an ok metric, the problem is that people start to artificially extend their glide phase to lower the SPL, because lower is better, right? Plus, it's also dependent on body morphology, etc. It's unreasonable to expect a swimmer that is 5'6" to have the same SPL as someone 6'6". It's a good thing to be aware of, but I wouldn't make it a focus, but YMMV. – JohnP Jul 3 '12 at 16:30
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@JohnP, completely agree, the measurement is individual. I attended a Total Immersion class here in Sweden last winter and the instructors made that clear. Having said that, the greatest improvement in the class was from 33 strokes for 25 meters to 18. I try to keep the extended glide in check through focusing on always moving the other, not extended arm. – FredrikD Jul 3 '12 at 18:49
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up vote 3 down vote

Use a water bottle. Every 100 (4 lengths or 2 laps), move the bottle one tile over. The bigger question is, what specific purpose is served by a workout of 1km straight swimming, other than to know you can do it?

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blushes I like swimming :) Is 1 km that much? – Quassnoi Jul 2 '12 at 21:19
No, not really. It will probably maintain fitness, but as I am and coach triathletes, and grew up a swimmer, I'm used to sets where the max distance covered is 500m at a time. Rarely have I swum more than 1k in a pool outside of a race. :D – JohnP Jul 2 '12 at 22:15
actually, it's a good idea to (often maybe) cover the distance of a race during training. I target long course triathlons with 1.2 mile swims. I will often (every 1-2 weeks) swim at least 1600 yds (up to 2000yds) straight to simulate race distance and build confidence in a straight (no rest) swim. – Ryan Miller Jul 3 '12 at 15:48
@RyanMiller - Swimming it straight that often really isn't a productive workout, unless you are specifically doing it OWS to get used to sighting, etc. You can get much greater benefits from an interval or threshold workout. Once you know you can swim it, unless you take a lot of time off, that isn't going to go away. – JohnP Jul 3 '12 at 15:56
@JohnP I do enough of the intervals and threshold training during my other 3-4 swim workouts each week. A straight set is a good recovery workout the day after a hard run/ride/brick and just adds to weekly volume. – Ryan Miller Jul 3 '12 at 18:33
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up vote 0 down vote

Use coins (or marbles and two containers) and move them from one location to the other every lap or two, somewhat similar to how score is kept on Foosball tables.

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Have you tried this yourself? Sounds a bit tricky to do with wet fingers. – Informaficker Feb 10 at 8:07
I haven't done it myself, but I've seen people doing it at my gym. – Alex Lauerman Feb 10 at 20:54
That would mean I'd have to 'stop' and move the object every 2nd lap, killing my turning point. But having something to count with definitely helps – Ivo Flipse♦ Feb 10 at 23:18
up vote 0 down vote

I used to face the same problem. But after picking up a second swimming style, I don't have this problem anymore. The trick is to swim two laps of one style, followed by one lap of another style.

Example:

  1. Breast stroke forward
  2. Breast stroke return
  3. Front crawl forward
  4. Breast stroke return
  5. Breast stroke forward
  6. Front crawl return ...

??. Breast stroke return --> 8th lap

Better still, if your memory is really very bad, pick up more styles and swim them in a sequence, counting them as ONE SET. Example:

SET 1

  1. Breast stroke forward
  2. Breast stroke return
  3. Front crawl forward
  4. Front crawl return
  5. Butterfly forward
  6. Butterfly return
  7. Back stroke forward
  8. Back stroke return

SET 2

  1. Breast stroke forward
  2. Breast stroke return ...

Hope you get the gist.

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