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Pool Length
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 2005-06-22 8:11 AM |
Veteran  277   Spartanburg |  Subject: Pool LengthOk...I'm getting freaking confused...And the stupid kids running the gym dont know....How long is an olympic pool...just from one end to the other...in meters...is it 50? or 25? Because everyone says something different...and the difference between swimming 400 and 800 is an awful lot... |
| 2005-06-22 8:14 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Regular 92 Pittsburgh, PA | Subject: RE: Pool Length an official Olympic sized pool is 50m long and 25m wide. (you can read all about it here) |
| 2005-06-22 8:51 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Expert 666 St. Thomas, ON | Subject: RE: Pool Length However, just because they say they have an Olympic sized pool, doesn't mean it is. We have a local pool here that insists it is Olympic sized, but it is 25m on the long side. |
| 2005-06-22 9:10 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Veteran 277 Spartanburg | Subject: RE: Pool Length how discouraging to think that my gym could be the same...I think i'm all amazing getting into the pool for the first time and being able to swim 200 meters and really its only 100? It better not be a 25m pool...I'll be pissed... really pissed... I might ask for a free month...(as if) |
| 2005-06-22 11:16 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Champion 8766   Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Pool Length Pace it out. Walk along the side. The average person has about a 3 foot stride (or less if you are short like me). That will at least tell you whether it's 25 or 50...now yards or meters...that's a whole different ballgame... |
| 2005-06-22 11:46 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Expert 1279 Northern VA | Subject: RE: Pool Length No offense, but if you can't tell the difference, just by LOOKING, between 50 yds/meters and 25 yds/meters - well, I don't know you need glasses or something. Now the difference between 25 yds and 25 meters - THAT'll probably require a tape measure! I joined a health club in Detroit that advertised an Olympic pool. Expecting a 50 meter pool, I was disappointed to find it only 25 yards. |
| 2005-06-22 12:03 PM in reply to: #180650 |
| Online or Offline | Subject: RE: Pool Length Jeezus...c'mon. If it looks twice as long, then it's a 50 m pool. If it looks half as short, then it's 25. Duh. |
| 2005-06-22 3:52 PM in reply to: #180650 |
Veteran 150 Los Angeles | Subject: RE: Pool Length Almost all regular gym pools are 25 yards or 25 meters. I think some folks called it "olympic sized" referring the the metric system. But real olympic sized pools are 50 meters, and they are really long. I would bet yours is only 25 meters. |
| 2005-06-22 3:59 PM in reply to: #180650 |
Elite Veteran 777 flatland | Subject: RE: Pool Length You can also measure it if you're not sure by how many strokes it takes you to get across the pool. When I was starting out, it took me 26-30 strokes to get across a 25yd pool, and 60someodd to get across a 50m pool. HTH. |
| 2005-06-22 4:43 PM in reply to: #180896 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Pool Length "No offense, but if you can't tell the difference, just by LOOKING, between 50 yds/meters and 25 yds/meters - well, I don't know you need glasses or something. " Okay, folks...BEGINNER TRIATHLETE is the website! Even the old hats can be fooled. I swam in a 50m pool for the first time in a year this weekend. It sure as heck didn't look like 50 meters to me...and I swim a lot. It looked longer than 25...but I would not have guessed 50. FWIW. |
Yes, it's a big difference...but if you are not used to what one or the other looks like...well...I can see how you might not know. For a year in pilot training they taught us to taxi 75feet behind the other airplane (or 25 yards!) and not a single person I knew could do it by sight alone...they needed to use the lights along right runway for spacing. And when we counted lights we usually found that we were something like 150feet when we meant to be 75. Hmmm...sounds like the difference between a 25m and 50m pool | 2005-06-22 10:00 PM in reply to: #180650 |
Supersonicus Idioticus 2439 Thunder Bay, ON | Subject: RE: Pool Length I can tell if it's meters or yards by swimming into the wall doing backstroke. If the wall is surprisingly close when I turn onto my front, it's yards. You can also see how far you push off with respect to the flags, but this requires swimming in two different pools. |
| 2005-06-22 11:23 PM in reply to: #181231 |
Expert 1279 Northern VA | Subject: RE: Pool Length jldicarlo - 2005-06-22 4:43 PM Okay, folks...BEGINNER TRIATHLETE is the website! Even the old hats can be fooled. I swam in a 50m pool for the first time in a year this weekend. It sure as heck didn't look like 50 meters to me...and I swim a lot. It looked longer than 25...but I would not have guessed 50. FWIW. Beginner Triathlete- yes, Beginning in Life - NO. Most adults & kids over a certain age know what a yardstick looks like. If you had to guesstimate by sight whether something was 50 of those or 25 of those, I don't think its rocket science. Just my opinion. Ya know why women are so bad at measurements? Cuz all their lives the've been told this, (hold up your thumb and index finger with a few inches of space between them) is 10 inches. Its JUST a JOKE!!!! (And on MEN if ya think about it) So please, no letters to the station manager. Edited by glf33 2005-06-22 11:25 PM |
| 2005-06-23 12:46 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Regular 77 Fort Worth, Texas | Subject: RE: Pool Length Don't feel bad. I was wondering the samething when I joined my gym and started training for my first tri. Thankfully, people at my gym new the answer. I have not heard of too many pool that are 50m in length for gyms....more than likely it is 25m/yd pool. Either way...you will be able to do your swim!! |
| 2005-06-23 1:37 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Member 26 Clarksville, TN | Subject: RE: Pool Length ok. I have spent a lot of time in a pool, but i never cared how long it was. I was just in there splashing around. Now that I want to swim in a tri, I don't even know what 25 meters looks like. So lay off, just because you're a veteran, doesn't give you the right to be a jerk. Note the name of the website. |
| 2005-06-23 6:49 AM in reply to: #181396 |
| Member 215 Houston, Texas | Subject: RE: Pool Length So Fresh So Clean - 2005-06-22 9:00 PM I can tell if it's meters or yards by swimming into the wall doing backstroke. If the wall is surprisingly close when I turn onto my front, it's yards. You can also see how far you push off with respect to the flags, but this requires swimming in two different pools. Most gym pools I have swam in don't even have flags, I have to measure my backstroke turns from the rafters that are abour 35feet above the water lol, not the most accurate method... Edited by swimzor 2005-06-23 6:50 AM |
| 2005-06-23 9:45 AM in reply to: #181483 |
Pro 4578 Vancouver, BC | Subject: RE: Pool Length swimzor - 2005-06-23 3:49 AM Most gym pools I have swam in don't even have flags, I have to measure my backstroke turns from the rafters that are abour 35feet above the water lol, not the most accurate method... When the flags aren't up, I use the lane lines for reference. Don't they usually change colours 5m from the end? Actually that would be a good way to determine pool length - by the number of lane marker sections, each being 5m. Jen |
| 2005-06-25 12:02 AM in reply to: #180650 |
Extreme Veteran 319 Dallas, Texas | Subject: I can swim twice as far! Okay, this thread made me question what I had originally been told about the pool length at both of my gyms. And, tonight I figured out the pool is twice as long as I thought! (Apparently teenage lifeguards don't know the difference between a "lap" and a "length"). Yay! No wonder I was having such a hard time getting up my distances. I did a true 1000 yards tonight for the first time since I started swimming again since a 9 month sabbatical. I would have swum longer, but the pool was closing. So thanks everybody for the hints, and humorous condescensions about pool lengths. It was all very helpful. :-) |
| 2005-06-25 12:29 AM in reply to: #183371 |
Member 156 Bellevue, WA/Chicago, IL | Subject: RE: I can swim twice as far! jeng - 2005-06-23 8:45 AM swimzor - 2005-06-23 3:49 AM Most gym pools I have swam in don't even have flags, I have to measure my backstroke turns from the rafters that are abour 35feet above the water lol, not the most accurate method... When the flags aren't up, I use the lane lines for reference. Don't they usually change colours 5m from the end? Actually that would be a good way to determine pool length - by the number of lane marker sections, each being 5m. Jen yes -- lane lines typically change their patterns when it gets to the point where the flags should/would be. Also, you'll probably see two yellow "buoys" on each line -- those are the markers that you cannot pass underwater while streamlining (kind of complicated, but essentially prevents people from streamlining the entire distance underwater....I believe it's more of an issue during butterfly....) correct me if I'm wrong.... MandiGayle - 2005-06-24 11:02 PM Okay, this thread made me question what I had originally been told about the pool length at both of my gyms. And, tonight I figured out the pool is twice as long as I thought! (Apparently teenage lifeguards don't know the difference between a "lap" and a "length"). Yay! No wonder I was having such a hard time getting up my distances. I did a true 1000 yards tonight for the first time since I started swimming again since a 9 month sabbatical. I would have swum longer, but the pool was closing. So thanks everybody for the hints, and humorous condescensions about pool lengths. It was all very helpful. :-) oh and yes, the lap/length thing is actually pretty confusing, even if you've been a swimmer your entire life. Typically I think of everything in lengths, (like a 500 is 20, 1650 is 66 etc) just because that's how the counting cards (for long distance swimming) go....and additionally laps are different to think of in a pool than on a track, per se. A track is a defined circle/oval, so a lap is very obvious, whereas in swimming you're constantly going back and forth over the same path (ignore circle swimming), so it always seemed odd to me to think of swimming in laps... |
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