What can make a potentially great pool and swim meet (78-80 degree deep water, wide lanes, great gutter system, good starting blocks, great lighting, large scoreboard, excellent officials, etc.) into a mediocre one? The lane lines.
We recently swam our championships in a new state-of-the-art pool. The only problem was the slack lane lines. The water was very choppy and continued that way throughout the whole race. They served no more purpose than the old “floaties” we used 45 years ago. They were so loose they visibly rose and fell with the waves and had so many horizontal waves they looked like serpents at the surface. The lane lines did not cut the waves but rather rode them. When there was a race with an open lane, the waves pushed the lane lines well into the free lane. Predictably overall times were not as fast as they could have been.
It is not necessary to have the lane lines are tight as a piano wire in order for them to be effective, but tightening them up for a meet is an area that is most often neglected. We work too hard at our craft not to be given every opportunity to swim as fast as the pool allows.
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Former Member
Hey, bummer Ian, your thread got hijacked. Not the first time that has happened and I am sure it won’t be the last either.
I agree with your original premise, lane lines don’t seem to be used to the fullest potential anymore, especially in meets worth tapering for. Nobody I know enjoys racing in a wavy, choppy pool. I can recall swimming at the University of Michigan in the early 90s when they had in triple lane lines at a zone meet. Talk about a smooth pool. At the USMS Short Course Nationals in Nashville (also in the early 90s), just prior to the first race of the first day, they tightened all the double-lane lines. When was the last time you saw that? As a result that was a fast pool with fast times (there are others worth noting but Robert Peel turned a 19.83 and 44.44 for the 50/100 free at that meet).
I think what you are asking is to please give us pool conditions (that are controllable) to race in that will allow us to go as fast as our training and taper will take us.
Hey, bummer Ian, your thread got hijacked. Not the first time that has happened and I am sure it won’t be the last either.
I agree with your original premise, lane lines don’t seem to be used to the fullest potential anymore, especially in meets worth tapering for. Nobody I know enjoys racing in a wavy, choppy pool. I can recall swimming at the University of Michigan in the early 90s when they had in triple lane lines at a zone meet. Talk about a smooth pool. At the USMS Short Course Nationals in Nashville (also in the early 90s), just prior to the first race of the first day, they tightened all the double-lane lines. When was the last time you saw that? As a result that was a fast pool with fast times (there are others worth noting but Robert Peel turned a 19.83 and 44.44 for the 50/100 free at that meet).
I think what you are asking is to please give us pool conditions (that are controllable) to race in that will allow us to go as fast as our training and taper will take us.
