The sport of swimming demands athletes and coaches who are very meticulous in their preparation for competition. In no other sport is the level of preparation, tapering for the big day and rigid control of training intensities quite the same. One aspect that contributes to this accuracy in training pace is the uniformity of conditions. Apart from having a warmer or colder pool or one that is 25, 33.3 or 50 metres in length, there is little difference in the training environment. Demands vary within the sport, depending quite simply on which stroke(s) are your best in competition, as well as on what distance you swim on race days. This means that there is an element of specialisation in swimming,

A 25 metre swim would give a similar competition time to the 100 metres sprinter, while a 200 metre effort could give race duration between 1½ to 2½ minutes, and an endurance event of 1500 metres may require between 14 to 20 minutes, depending on age, standard and gender. This range of events means that a variety of forms of conditioning are needed to match the demands of the race event.  Although a training regimen of mixed paces will be used by all swimmers, the sprinter will clearly be logging fewer but faster training lengths for preparation, while the endurance counterpart will log considerably more lengths at a more sedate tempo.

If you stick with it and do it on a consistent basis, stroke counting in swimming is an excellent way to increase your DPS (Distance per Stroke).