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Keeping time

Guides›On the Pool Deck

Keeping time

Time a lane from your own phone. Five minutes to read, nothing to set up.

Your whole job is 3 taps

Timing is semi-automatic. The race starter begins the clock for everyone; you stop it for your lane.

  • Start when the race begins
  • Stop when your swimmer touches the wall
  • Save saving is what records your time — stopping alone does nothing

That's it — repeated for every heat. Everything below is just detail.

First time? 4 things worth knowing

You don't need to change anything on your phone.
Just open Swim Club Connect the same way you do to enter your swimmer in a race.
Starting late doesn't matter.
Your phone locks to the race starter's clock. Press Start whenever you're ready — even after the swimmers have dived in — and your time still comes out right.
If you press STOP too early
Just press Continue to carry on timing.
You don't touch anything between heats.
Your screen moves to the next swimmer on its own.

Pro-Tips

  • Charge your phone. The screen stays on the whole time, so timing eats battery.
  • Turn your brightness up. Pool glare can make a dim screen hard to read.
  • Keep a small towel handy. A drop of water can make screens “glitchy”.

Open the app and find the meet

Open Swim Club Connect and tap Meets. Tonight's meet appears in the list.

Your role: leave yourself as Parent/Guardian. That's the default, and it's all a timekeeper needs. The only people who switch roles are the race starter and club admins.

Meets list showing tonight's club night
Your meets list. The role indicator sits at the bottom left.

Wait for the starter to open the meet

The race starter opens the meet from their phone. You'll be notified when they do.

Race starter does this, not you. Until the meet is open, there's nothing for you to tap.

Race starter's confirmation: timekeepers will be notified that the meet has started
What the race starter sees when they open the meet.

Tap Keep time and choose your lane

Open the meet. The green Keep time button sits in the bottom right corner of the events list. Tap it, then pick the lane you've been assigned.

Check with whoever is running the roster if you're not sure which lane is yours. Two timekeepers per lane is common.

Meet screen showing nominations and the Keep time option
Tap Keep time to start.
Lane picker listing the available lanes
Choose the lane you're timing.

An empty lane is normal

Your lane will show as empty at first. Nothing is wrong — it just means the starter hasn't run the first heat yet.

As soon as they do, your screen fills in with the event and the name of the swimmer in your lane.

Timekeeper screen showing an empty lane with the clock at zero
Waiting for the first heat. This is what you should see.
Timekeeper screen showing the swimmer's name with the clock ready at zero
Once the heat is running, your swimmer's name appears.

Time the race

Press Start when the race begins. Then watch the wall: the swim ends the instant any part of the swimmer touches it, usually a hand. Tap Stop at that moment.

Before you save, glance at the name on your screen and check it's the swimmer who just finished. Then tap Save — the time goes to the race starter, into the results, and out to the parents watching.

Don't forget the third tap

Your time doesn't go anywhere until you press Save. Stopping the clock isn't enough — forgetting to save is the most common way a swimmer ends up without a time. Save straight after you stop, while you're still looking at the phone.

Don't worry about starting on the exact signal.

Your phone locks to the starter's clock. If you press start a second or two late — or several seconds late — the recorded time is still measured from the real start of the race.

Your phone Timekeeper's clock running at 2.35 seconds
You pressed start late — but the clock already shows the true elapsed time.
Race starter's phone Race starter's screen showing every lane and its timekeeper
The starter's clock, which yours is locked to.
Timekeeper screen stopped at 26.48 with the Stop and Save controls
Stop on the touch, then save. The blue Continue button beside it is what you'd press if you stopped too early — see step 6.

If you stop too early

It happens — you glance up, another swimmer touches, and you stop the clock by mistake. Nothing is broken. What you press next depends on whether you'd already saved.

You pressed Stop but not Save

Press Continue — the blue button beside Save on the screen shown in step 5. The clock picks up where it should be and keeps running, so you can stop properly when your swimmer actually finishes. There's no Start button at this point.

You already pressed Save

Press Start. You'll be asked whether you want to start timing the same race again — tap Yes. Your phone re-locks to the starter's clock, and the new time replaces the one you sent.

Either way the time stays measured from the real start of the race, so a fumbled stop doesn't cost your swimmer anything.

Confirmation dialog asking whether to start timing the same race again
After an early stop that was already saved — tap OK to keep timing.

Carry on to the next heat

When the starter finishes the heat, your screen updates on its own with the next swimmer in your lane. You don't need to go back, re-pick your lane, or do anything at all.

The same is true when the meet moves from one event to the next — from the 25m freestyle to the backstroke, for instance. Your phone follows along.

Stay on this screen for the whole night. Start, stop, save, repeat.

Timekeeper screen showing the next swimmer after the heat advances
The next swimmer appears automatically.

Other things that happen

None of these are your fault, and all of them have an answer.

Nobody swims in your lane
Do nothing. The app knows the lane is empty. If a swimmer is in it for the next heat, their name appears on your screen when that heat is run.
You miss the touch
Don't guess and don't save a made-up time — a wrong time is worse than none. Leave it, and tell the race starter, or the chief timekeeper if the meet has one. They can enter a backup time, or take one from the other timekeeper on your lane.
A different swimmer is in your lane
Time them anyway and save it. Then tell the race starter or a club admin, who can put the right name against the time afterwards. Never skip the swim just because the name looks wrong.
There's a false start
If you've already pressed Start, don't press anything. When the starter resets and restarts the heat, your phone picks up the new start time by itself.
Your phone locks or you switch apps
Come back to Swim Club Connect and your lane is still there. The clock is running against the starter's, not yours, so nothing is lost.

That's it

Start Stop Save — for every heat, all night. If something looks wrong, tell the race starter; they can see every lane from their phone and fix a time on the spot.

Ready to do more? Starting races is the next job most volunteers take on, and it's the one that keeps the whole meet moving. Have a read of Starting races when you're ready.