DIY Swim Lap Counter

Swim Lap Counter

Where I swim there is a 100 mile club.  Each swimmer who chooses to participate enters the number of laps they have done on the day they have done them. To the best of my knowledge I am at 39 miles. 

I don’t have a 100% accurate count because I am thinking about other things when I swim like my husband, my children, projects, or things I am working on changing about myself.  I am not competing any more so it’s ok to not be mentally engaged the whole time.

I originally joined the 100 mile club just to see how many miles I could get in the time they set to do it in.  However, after a little bit I noticed that my kids were paying attention to how many miles I swam each day and how close I am to the 100 mile goal.

It hit me that this could be the chance I had been longing for; a chance to show my kids that doing things that are hard physically can be done.  Some of my children have a tendency to hold themselves back when things get hard.  I have longed for a chance to set an example of how to try your best in a sport but I have not known how to do this since my competitive days are over. I don’t want to take the time away from my family that it would take to try to be competitive again in any of the sports I used to do.  I am a mom and that is what I want to do with my life, I’m happy. How could I set an example and still be a Mom? This 100 mile club I hope will be this opportunity.

With these thoughts in mind I have decided I need an accurate count of the laps I am actually swimming.  I couldn’t take it casually anymore. I knew I was short of the miles I had actually done but there was nothing to be done about that now. Here is the counter I made to help me keep track.

Materials

15 Index cards

Marker

Lamination sheets

Scissors

Hole punch

Three ring binder

Step#1

 

I counted out 15 index cards and folded them in half. I cut the index cards in half and then separated them into even stacks of 10 cards.

Step#2

I wrote the numbers 0-9 on each stack of cut cards.

Step#3

I punched holes in the middle of the top of all the cards.

Step#4

I laminated the cards and cut them out.

Step#4

Next I punched holes in the place where I had punched holes before laminating.

Step#5

I placed the cards on the rings

Step#6

Trying the Counter Out

When I took the binder to the pool it worked very well. I flipped a card as soon as I hit the wall and didn’t have to worry about losing track.  I counted 12 more laps than I had the previous day in the same amount of time. There is no way I dropped that much time in one day. I don’t know if this will work as the example I am hoping for with my children but it can’t hurt to try.

Materials                    Cost

15 Index cards-Already had    0.00

Marker-Already had           0.00

Lamination sheets-Already had 0.00

Scissors-Already had          0.00

Hole punch-Already had        0.00

Three ring binder-Already had  0.00

Total Cost

                              0.00