Whether you’re an aspiring swim coach or a new swim facility, understanding the role of a high-quality swimming clock is essential. Pace clocks help coaches build and monitor workout sessions. Without a quality clock, understanding pacing down to the second is challenging and knowing when it is time to change drills can lead to delays and skipping the cool-down that athletes need after intense training.
Athletes also appreciate the ease of reading a better swim pacing clock and might favor swimming at your facility thanks to the ease of pacing and understanding minuscule changes in their fitness and pace.
So what makes a high-quality swimming clock? Here’s what you need to know about its role in training and competitions.
What Is a Swimming Pace Clock?
Swimming pace clocks come in two formats: traditional and digital. Traditional clocks have large analog hands that tell you minutes and seconds (no hours show on these clocks).
Coaches have built lingo around these traditional clocks to communicate with their athletes. They’ll tell athletes to start at the top (beginning of a minute) and end at the bottom (30 seconds into a minute). Most drills are built around the hand that shows the seconds, while the minute hand helps coaches keep the overall training session on time.
Digital clocks are now available in a variety of settings, most especially in universities and newer swim facilities. These clocks work similarly to traditional clocks in that they display minutes and seconds. They do not show hours.
Coaches and athletes focus more heavily on the seconds display. And despite the fact that there is no top and bottom on the clock, swim lingo persists so don’t be surprised if your coach still refers to 30-second intervals in that format.
One challenge with digital clocks is that they are normally mounted on the wall and positioned for athletes. But for the coach, it requires turning from facing their athletes in the pool, to facing the clock. That’s one perk of the traditional clock is that it moves to meet your training session’s needs.
Why Quality Matters in Pace Clocks
The reason to focus on what pace clock is in your facility is the same as why people pay thousands of dollars for a wristwatch: accuracy.
Swimming competitions come down to the milliseconds. For coaches and athletes to push their limits, they need to know with absolute accuracy what those limits are. Many facilities don’t have underwater cameras coaches can use to track times like competitions benefit from. That’s where swimming pace clocks come in.
As you become a master at reading these clocks, you’ll spot incremental improvements in your swim pace.
Most pools also feature multiple clocks to allow the athlete and coach to see it from various angles. The best clocks are simple to sync and keep time so accurately, that they stay in sync day after day, month after month.
Benefits of Using a Pace Clock
Reading a pace clock offers many benefits to coaches and athletes alike. Here’s a look at those benefits as you evaluate the best equipment for your swim team or pool.
Pacing Workouts
As coaches write out their training sessions for their athletes, they can include minute indicators to make it easier to keep the session on time. That makes it easy to reference the clock and in a split second know how the workout is shaping up and when it’s time to change the drill.
Engaging the Body and Mind in Sync
When coaching youth, sports aren’t just about athleticism. Sports can form the whole person. Teaching young athletes how to read pace clocks engages both the mind and body, to form critical thinking right alongside physical athleticism.
Those are skills that youth can apply in other areas of their lives, including during academic test-taking and knowing how to pace themselves to complete the test on time.
Handing off Swimming Sets for Individual Practice
As athletes master reading swim pace clocks, coaches can provide workouts for athletes to do between group training sessions. This makes it possible to see improvements between weekly team training sessions and for athletes to test their skills and report back to their coaches during remote training.
Where to Find the Best Swimming Pace Clock
Competitor Swim offers swimming pace clocks in three sizes and two face-color options. The clocks feature incredible durability and accuracy that help athletes and coaches improve their training sessions. Contact us with questions or for support of your swim pacing clock.
