Holy moly, I'm getting confused....
Like all of us, I learned early on that a mile is defined as 5280'. Simple math coverts 5280' to 1760 yards. But now I've read that a mile in the pool is 1500 meters, or about 1640 yards. :worms:
I swim at a pool that is 25 yards long, so is a mile 66 lengths (or 1650 yards) of a pool, or is it 70 lengths?
I've also heard folks referring to a lap as what I have always thought of as a length...again I swim at a pool that is 25 yards in length....so isn't a "lap" in this case 50 yards (down and back)?
Please set me straight!
:groovy:
I've always considered 1800 yards my pool "mile," even though it's really over the 1760 yards that my grade school math taught me was a mile. I figured that way I had the full mile and then some, whereas if I swam 70 lengths (1750) it would be too short for my OCD self to accept; 71 lengths would have me finishing at the wrong end of the pool from where my water and pool toys (typically kickboard and pull buoy but of late paddles and fins), so that made me feel out of kilter. Plus I figured if I could swim x amount of time in 1800 yards, I'd feel all the more ready to swim a true mile in that time or better. (In theory only... in o.w., it tended to vary depending on a lot of stuff.) I didn't ever belong to a 50 mile (or 51 or whatever) mile club so that was never an issue.
Oh, and I'm both a runner and a swimmer, but I remember using the term "lap" before I got into running and defining it for myself as a length of the pool.
It gets so complicated that when people not into swimming (for swimmers, I always use "yards" to describe my distances) ask how far I swam, unless it was for at least 2 miles, I just say how many yards. Then someone asks, "How many laps is that?" Sigh!
lol - this was posted by Natalie Coughlin today on Facebook. It is relevant to this conversation - I totally agree with Natalie (she comes into the podcast at around 5 minutes). I grew up swimming in California like she did and we always referred to laps as one end to the other. Also - what about the fact that "lap" Counters used in distance events don't count laps by 50's but by 25's?
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At least in the mid-Atlantic and northeast a lap and length were synonymous, but I get the fact that a lap would imply a return to the beginning. So if you get "lapped" in a race is that one length or two? :afraid: Double-lapped was two lengths in my book.
We always counted a "mile" as 72 lengths to finish at the same end.
I've raced in 20 yard and 33-1/3 yd pools back in the day, but never a 1650, where the race would have ended in the middle of the pool.
At least in the mid-Atlantic and northeast a lap and length were synonymous, but I get the fact that a lap would imply a return to the beginning. So if you get "lapped" in a race is that one length or two? :afraid:
Aussie perspective:
I've also always used "lap" and "length" synonymously. But if someone is lapped in a race, the lapping swimmer is definitely 2 lengths ahead. Double-lapping is what Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacs silver medalist Mack Horton did to half the field in the 1500m at our State Age Swimming Championships.
So if you get "lapped" in a race is that one length or two?
It’d be two lengths (one lap). Put simply…if you jump off the blocks and just stop…the other swimmer has to go all the way down and back…two complete lengths (one lap) to get back to where you are and pass/lap you.
Dan
Growing up all over the south and Midwest in the US, we always use laps and lengths interchangeably, although laps was the term used the vast majority of the time.
Just curious. Are they called lap counters? Do they count single lengths?
That's what everyone I know calls them. And, yes, they count single lengths - all of the odd lengths at turn end of the pool (1 lap, 3 laps, 5 laps...)
As far as the auto racing comment - it's much easier to call something a (circuit) lap when you're on a course that has no real beginning or end :)
Also - what about the fact that "lap" Counters used in distance events don't count laps by 50's but by 25's
Just curious. Are they called lap counters? Do they count single lengths?
