I used to think that stroke count was important to know just so you could try to then improve it (by lowering it). But stroke count is important for a number of reasons. If you are a hard core swimmer or just someone who likes to get in and do some laps, knowing your stroke count can help. If you are a beginner, you may be able to tell improvement by not only how you feel in the water but if your stroke count drops down. If you like to swim laps, knowing your stroke count can pretty much help you accomplish that wherever you go. For example, I know I am 19 strokes to the wall in a 25 yard pool (22 in a 25 meter pool). This does not change no matter where I swim. If I am away somewhere and I want to know how far I am going, I will count my strokes to get an idea of what a “lap” would be. You could always time yourself as well. In open water, knowing one’s stroke count can help the support team know if a swimmer is getting tired, or if something else serious is going on. I’ll end with an interesting thing that happened to me at the pool where I train. Let me preface this by saying that the lifeguards do a wonderful job at keeping that place running smoothly and making sure everything is in good working order and safe for everyone who enters the pools. There are either three pools or two if they move the walls to make two pools into one 50 meter pool. As I mentioned I am 19 strokes to the wall in a 25 yard pool. The pool was at 50 meters and the lifeguards had to put the wall in to make it 25 yards again for a meet. Now, I usually only swim in the one 25 yard pool (there are two when they put the wall in). So, after they moved the walls I got back in the pool and began to swim. My times, I noticed, were slightly off. This does not matter so much if you are doing 50 sets or 100s but I was doing 10 x 800s at the time. I started to count my strokes and was coming in consistently at 20 strokes per 25. So for every 800, I was doing an extra 1 and almost 1/2 laps. While this does not seem like a big deal, when you are timing your sets it can make a big difference. I asked others if they noticed a difference in their times, for which I received many confused looks more than anything. I let it go knowing the walls were off. When they switched it to long course and now back again, the walls were as they should be…my stroke count was again at 19. Consequently, they had to move us so they could clean the one pool yesterday so I went into the other 25 yard pool. Again, my stroke count was off by one stroke. So I am going to assume that if I am 19 strokes in the one 25 yard pool, the other pool I will be 20. That is what happens with movable walls.
