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.
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by kaelonj
If you feel strongly about something, don't rely on someone else to present your message. The fact that you feel that there is a risk to your well being, it is in your best interest to notify as many people as possible. Sorry to have to say this, if you were kicked from an exerciser in the aquatics class and received a serious injury, the parties at fault would mostly be the lifeguard and instructor, the management can claim ignorance (not the best defense but could work). If you let the management know there is a problem, then you have several individuals responsible and you might see more action.
Actually, I just deal with the problems for the most part and swim on past them.
I have spoken with an assistant aquatics director and some of the membership coordinators about problems in the pool (not specifically being kicked by the ladies, but other problems I haven't even mentioned), and I have come to the conclusion that there IS no solution. This pool is just too crowded. They have too many people wanting to use it, and it is beyond their ability to control. All I can really do is ask for the things that can be fixed, like tightening the lane lines, and remove other nuisances myself, as they happen.
Do I really think there's a safety issue? No, not likely. Like I said, these ladies are weak, and the kicks are more a nuisance than anything else after you get over the initial surprise. Likewise, the floaties in my lane are more nuisance than safety problem.
Then why did I raise the safety issue a few posts back? Emmett suggested that my removing the offending item from the pool was somehow offensive, and a punishable offense at that. I was merely demonstrating how difficult it would be for a lifeguard or facilities manager to justify such punishment. There is no way the lifeguard could spin his side of it so that it would stand up to the facts of the case.
You see, I don't push these issues very hard because I try to be a nice, reasonable person, and they aren't, for the most part, worth wasting my time. If someone attacked me the way Emmett suggested, however, THAT would warrant the kind of all out assault on the situation and that person's character that you see written above. That would make it worth my time.
I guess it's a good thing for both of us that Emmett is not my lifeguard.
Sorry for my part in hijacking Ian's thread. Sometimes you just go where the conversation takes you.
Originally posted by kaelonj
If you feel strongly about something, don't rely on someone else to present your message. The fact that you feel that there is a risk to your well being, it is in your best interest to notify as many people as possible. Sorry to have to say this, if you were kicked from an exerciser in the aquatics class and received a serious injury, the parties at fault would mostly be the lifeguard and instructor, the management can claim ignorance (not the best defense but could work). If you let the management know there is a problem, then you have several individuals responsible and you might see more action.
Actually, I just deal with the problems for the most part and swim on past them.
I have spoken with an assistant aquatics director and some of the membership coordinators about problems in the pool (not specifically being kicked by the ladies, but other problems I haven't even mentioned), and I have come to the conclusion that there IS no solution. This pool is just too crowded. They have too many people wanting to use it, and it is beyond their ability to control. All I can really do is ask for the things that can be fixed, like tightening the lane lines, and remove other nuisances myself, as they happen.
Do I really think there's a safety issue? No, not likely. Like I said, these ladies are weak, and the kicks are more a nuisance than anything else after you get over the initial surprise. Likewise, the floaties in my lane are more nuisance than safety problem.
Then why did I raise the safety issue a few posts back? Emmett suggested that my removing the offending item from the pool was somehow offensive, and a punishable offense at that. I was merely demonstrating how difficult it would be for a lifeguard or facilities manager to justify such punishment. There is no way the lifeguard could spin his side of it so that it would stand up to the facts of the case.
You see, I don't push these issues very hard because I try to be a nice, reasonable person, and they aren't, for the most part, worth wasting my time. If someone attacked me the way Emmett suggested, however, THAT would warrant the kind of all out assault on the situation and that person's character that you see written above. That would make it worth my time.
I guess it's a good thing for both of us that Emmett is not my lifeguard.
Sorry for my part in hijacking Ian's thread. Sometimes you just go where the conversation takes you.
