I typically only put the pause before one if I internally count a 0 first. :) But almost always I start the count and then pause. If I'm counting to 10, I'll st

I typically only put the pause before one if I internally count a 0 first. :) But almost always I start the count and then pause. If I'm counting to 10, I'll start at one, and when I reach ten, still pause at the end before taking action. Similarly with counting down: if I'm counting down from 3, I don't pause, then say 3, I say 3, then pause. When coordination is needed, to reduce ambiguity I and pretty much everyone I've met say something that's not a number to signify an action starting (like "go!", or "start!"). The only other variant I've come across occasionally that puts the pause before is really just moving the non-number element to exist before the pause -- i.e. "on the count of 3 pause one, pause, two, pause, th(everyone starts)ree!".