FORM Smart Swim Goggles track detailed swim and technique data, which HeadCoach™ transforms into clear metrics and actionable insights to help you become a better swimmer.

One advanced HeadCoach™ metric is your Set Pacing, which measures how well you are holding your pace from interval to interval during each of your sets.

You can find more information about HeadCoach™ and Set Pacing by going to our Introduction to HeadCoach™ blog. In this blog, we will be going into more detail about why Set Pacing is important, tips on how to improve your Set Pacing, and how FORM goggles can help enhance your improvement.

What Is Set Pacing and Why It Is Important

As you start adding longer sets to your workouts, learning how to hold your pace consistently will help you develop better training habits that will lead to better performance in practice and your races. Set Pacing measures how well you hold your pace, from interval to interval, while you are swimming your sets.

Ideally, unless instructed otherwise, you should be holding a consistent pace throughout your sets. If you try too hard at the start, and your speed drops towards the end of your sets, it means that you are using too much energy at the start and need to learn how to disperse your effort through your sets more evenly.  By starting a bit easier, you’ll have more energy to hold your pace all the way through your sets and maximize your performance for each workout.

FORM goggles can measure your Set Pacing in real-time. The goggles will compare the times from every interval within a set where you have more than one interval, and see how much your speed varies. The less your speed varies, the better your Set Pacing will be.

At FORM, we measure Set Pacing on a scale of 1-100 to help swimmers easily understand their benchmark and how much they can improve their Set Pacing.

General Coaching Tips

When you are trying to improve your Set Pacing, it is best to start on sets where you are swimming easily and with lots of rest so that you can stay fresh and focus on holding your pace.  Try a set of 6 x 25s with 20-30 seconds in between each one. A set like this will make it easy for you to focus on improving your Set Pacing without getting tired.

To improve your Set Pacing specifically, try these tips:

1. Start your first interval easier, especially remembering to breathe at the start.

2. Steadily build your effort. You might have to try a little harder at the end to hold your speed.

3. Be consistent in your technique, especially as you tire.

When you feel you’ve improved your Set Pacing, you can start increasing the workout difficulty. It’s best to match the difficulty with what you’re prepping for:

• Getting ready for a Pool Race? Stay with short intervals, but go faster while holding your pace, with lots of rest in between each interval.

• Prepping for a Triathlon or Open Water race? Try holding your Set Pacing on sets with longer intervals, such as 100s and 200s, so that you can practice holding your pace for longer.

• General Technique Improvement? Taking less rest between your intervals will make the end of your sets harder, so you can practice holding your Set Pacing when you’re tired.

Using FORM to Improve Your Set Pacing

You can use FORM goggles to help improve your Set Pacing in real time by activating the Set Pacing Skill in your goggles. The Set Pacing Skill will give you immediate feedback about how well you are holding your Set Pacing and guide you to improve it.

You can activate the Set Pacing Skill in a few ways:

You can keep track of your progress using the FORM App, where you can see your current Set Pacing score, the history of your score, as well as some additional Coaching info about how you can improve your Set Pacing.

Conclusion

FORM goggles will help you improve your Set Pacing, and your technique overall much quicker so that you can be on your way to becoming a better, faster swimmer.