i get out of a great race in the 200 free.
sitting on the concrete of the ramp by the statue.
a guy walks up and asks my name. yep im that person.
i'm ....we used to swim against each other...38 years ago
serious flashbacks to being 9. yes single digit age.
had not seen him since the late 70s.
really cant get much better than that!!!!
steve
For a group that says it welcomes new swimmers, the teams here make no accommodation for someone like me who's not confident enough to swim in the deep lanes.
The thing is, most teams just don't have an "all-shallow" option for their workouts. Most older, smaller pools like the one my team uses have a shallow end and a deep end. Crosswise is not even an option. A team with access to an all-deep pool usually would grab that scarce opportunity and not let it go, because the huge majority of the team's members would prefer all-deep swimming.
This pattern probably is true even for non-organized lap swimming: Part-shallow options are common, but all-shallow options are pretty unusual.
Definitely you should contact your local registrar to explore the options. But I hate to see you faulting local teams for failing to accommodate you when it's not at all clear how they could accommodate your preference regarding pool depth even if they wanted very much to do so.
And FYI, most teams are either all-volunteer operations, or organizations in which the only employee is a part-time coach. Don't rely on someone to call you. Contact someone by phone or email to confirm the practice time and to establish who you should speak to on deck when you show up for the first time, and then show up and ask for that person. I can't speak for teams in the DC area, but I know that if you followed that protocol and showed up at one of my team's workouts, the coach on deck would find a place for you and do whatever s/he could to help you enjoy the hour.
For a group that says it welcomes new swimmers, the teams here make no accommodation for someone like me who's not confident enough to swim in the deep lanes.
The thing is, most teams just don't have an "all-shallow" option for their workouts. Most older, smaller pools like the one my team uses have a shallow end and a deep end. Crosswise is not even an option. A team with access to an all-deep pool usually would grab that scarce opportunity and not let it go, because the huge majority of the team's members would prefer all-deep swimming.
This pattern probably is true even for non-organized lap swimming: Part-shallow options are common, but all-shallow options are pretty unusual.
Definitely you should contact your local registrar to explore the options. But I hate to see you faulting local teams for failing to accommodate you when it's not at all clear how they could accommodate your preference regarding pool depth even if they wanted very much to do so.
And FYI, most teams are either all-volunteer operations, or organizations in which the only employee is a part-time coach. Don't rely on someone to call you. Contact someone by phone or email to confirm the practice time and to establish who you should speak to on deck when you show up for the first time, and then show up and ask for that person. I can't speak for teams in the DC area, but I know that if you followed that protocol and showed up at one of my team's workouts, the coach on deck would find a place for you and do whatever s/he could to help you enjoy the hour.
