Counting laps in pool triathlon swim

Animella

New to this, how do they do it? Did one try a tri where there were small numbers in lane. Did a sprint recently with much bigger numbers and wonder how they keep tabs ? Sorry if it's a stupid question, I've never been a swimmer!

peter kern

i dont count laps just wait till they hit me on head for last lap.
but i cant even count 400 m in training.

68 lost souls

I count strokes to remind me of lengths. 3 stroke pattern 1-2-1-1-2-1-1-2-1 turn 1-2-2-1-2-2-1-2-2 turn 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3 turn 2-3-4-2-3-4 and so on. 4 lengths per 100 so 30 for 750m.

Wanderer78

Unfortunately can't remember counts so I don't count

Animella

Thanks, I can manage to keep count myself , just wondering how the people counting at the pool do? I just say the number of the lap to myself every time I breathe out!

panda100

peter kern wrote:

i dont count laps just wait till they hit me on head for last lap. but i cant even count 400 m in training.

Do they do this though? I did a tri a tri recently, was only 7 laps so was able to keep track in my head but no one tapped me on head for last lap.

joey100

They normally write down your hat colour and then mark everytime you have done 2 lengths (50m in 25m pool, 100m in 50m pool) once they can see you only have 2 lengths left they let you know. Usually 2/3 people doing it too to keep an eye on everyone.

peter kern

they have a list and count the laps ( one lap one tick or whatever) thats why usualy everybod should have a different colour hut

Animella

OK, thanks.

Animella

panda100 wrote: »

Do they do this though? I did a tri a tri recently, was only 7 laps so was able to keep track in my head but no one tapped me on head for last lap.

What happened me was that I'm certain I had to swim an extra two lengths. I paused with two lengths to go waiting to be tapped on the head but it didn't happen so I continued.
When I had swum the required distance I went to get out but got tapped on the head then. I'm sure I had counted correctly but was afraid of being disqualified so did the extra distance.
My time confirmed what I suspected. It was a great day (and I wasn't going to be on the podium!) but it was still annoying.

mossym

Animella wrote: »

What happened me was that I'm certain I had to swim an extra two lengths. I paused with two lengths to go waiting to be tapped on the head but it didn't happen so I continued.
When I had swum the required distance I went to get out but got tapped on the head then. I'm sure I had counted correctly but was afraid of being disqualified so did the extra distance.
My time confirmed what I suspected. It was a great day (and I wasn't going to be on the podium!) but it was still annoying.

that happened me before, was sure i had done extra, when i went back and checked my watch afterwards it tuned out the count was spot on and i had been off.

peter kern

Animella wrote: »

What happened me was that I'm certain I had to swim an extra two lengths. I paused with two lengths to go waiting to be tapped on the head but it didn't happen so I continued.
When I had swum the required distance I went to get out but got tapped on the head then. I'm sure I had counted correctly but was afraid of being disqualified so did the extra distance.
My time confirmed what I suspected. It was a great day (and I wasn't going to be on the podium!) but it was still annoying.

I guess human error is always a posibility ( both athelte and the volunteer ) but by and large those people doing quite a good job.

its easy to keep track of atheltes that swim at the same speed it gets very difficult when people get lapped pass each other etc.

the biggest problem are we atheltes who give the wrong swim times.

griffin100

Animella wrote: »

What happened me was that I'm certain I had to swim an extra two lengths. I paused with two lengths to go waiting to be tapped on the head but it didn't happen so I continued.
When I had swum the required distance I went to get out but got tapped on the head then. I'm sure I had counted correctly but was afraid of being disqualified so did the extra distance.
My time confirmed what I suspected. It was a great day (and I wasn't going to be on the podium!) but it was still annoying.

It's happened me once when the lane had lots of overtaking and myself and another swimmer had to do an extra two laps and a guy we both lapped got out at the same time as us.

I usually count to ten when counting lengths and then start again. I hate losing count in a race. Having trained for my first IM in a 20m pool you do get used to counting lengths (190 lengths in a 3.8km swim).

kierank01

peter kern wrote: »

i dont count laps just wait till they hit me on head for last lap.
but i cant even count 400 m in training.

my coach says that you are not a proper swimmer if you are not counting the laps.

At least now, I know I can be 3rd in a Olympic distance without being a proper swimmer :P

My watch came up on 1600m yesterday (I didn't record my warmup lap)...i didn't really hang around to complain or anything...

peter kern

and of course if you are not a proper swimmer you have many others things to focus on other than lap counting ....

topcat77

I count laps when i swim (2 lengths makes a lap). But when i forget what lap i'm on i always revert to the lowest amount. So basically if i forget i'm more likely to do more than i should, this helps focus the mind.

Animella

peter kern wrote: »

I guess human error is always a posibility ( both athelte and the volunteer ) but by and large those people doing quite a good job.

its easy to keep track of atheltes that swim at the same speed it gets very difficult when people get lapped pass each other etc.

the biggest problem are we atheltes who give the wrong swim times.

Yes, there can always be human error. I imagine it's difficult to keep track when you have ten people finishing and exiting the pool at different times too.

As regards the estimated times, I watched the try a tri and it was fairly chaotic- perhaps people couldn't judge their swim time ( or gave inaccurate predicted time) and there was huge variation in pace in the same lanes.

In my lane of the sprint ( and presumably the other slower lanes) there was also a lot of overtaking. Many in my lane were novices who couldn't be certain regarding times .Watching the Olympic swim though, they were much better spaced and evenly paced- better and more experienced swimmers.

Counting laps in the try a tri must be particularly tricky.

topcat77

The attachment show how they did it in the joey Hannon Tri last weeked. everyone has a different hat colour and they just tick off the boxes as each colour passes. Tap on the head to let you know it's your last lap.

Animella

topcat77 wrote: »

The attachment show how they did it in the joey Hannon Tri last weeked. everyone has a different hat colour and they just tick off the boxes as each colour passes. Tap on the head to let you know it's your last lap.

Thanks. Easy to see how you could miss someone if distracted by another swimmer getting out.

Animella

kierank01 wrote: »

my coach says that you are not a proper swimmer if you are not counting the laps.

At least now, I know I can be 3rd in a Olympic distance without being a proper swimmer :P

My watch came up on 1600m yesterday (I didn't record my warmup lap)...i didn't really hang around to complain or anything...

Do you think you did an extra 100m too then?

Congratulations Peter Kern 😀ðŸ†

kierank01

Animella wrote: »

Do you think you did an extra 100m too then?

Congratulations Peter Kern 😀ðŸ†

possibly, I'm not too bothered about it...my swim time was 37 minutes...so was never going to be a brilliant time...

I went into the event saying to myself, just take it easy for the swim, because if I shaved a minute off my swim time, I would lose that much or more on the bike...so not worth it really.

thesimpsons

Animella wrote: »

Yes, there can always be human error. I imagine it's difficult to keep track when you have ten people finishing and exiting the pool at different times too.

As regards the estimated times, I watched the try a tri and it was fairly chaotic- perhaps people couldn't judge their swim time ( or gave inaccurate predicted time) and there was huge variation in pace in the same lanes.

In my lane of the sprint ( and presumably the other slower lanes) there was also a lot of overtaking. Many in my lane were novices who couldn't be certain regarding times .Watching the Olympic swim though, they were much better spaced and evenly paced- better and more experienced swimmers.

Counting laps in the try a tri must be particularly tricky.

I gave the try a tri a go. the variances in swim ability caused real frustration. Not frustrated over my times as I was going to be happy to just finish the pool section, but with swimmers in the lane doing breaststroke and everyone else doing standard front crawl, we caught up quickly and there was big bunching up. I was nervous of the depth of the deep end and ended up hanging on to the ropes to hold myself up to get a bit of space. I gave my estimated time based on my swimming including quick breaks at the end of the pool between laps. I found out others just counted their actual swim time and not the breaks so that caused the big variances within the same lane. Anyway, we all finished it, and I'll definitely be back again at a longer distance, but it was an eye opener.

Macy0161

peter kern wrote: »

its easy to keep track of atheltes that swim at the same speed it gets very difficult when people get lapped pass each other etc.

the biggest problem are we atheltes who give the wrong swim times.

My one pool triathlon, where we were asked to give swim times and supposedly in lanes of similar ability, there were some in the lane that did it in essentially half the ball park lane speed/ time.

So those that us were around the expected time were continually stopped at the wall to let the faster ones pass.