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.
Former Member
Steve,
We've recently become a bit more conscious of measuring pools to ensure that they are regulation distances. (I know this because I am on the SLAM BOD and we recently hosted a SCY meet.) A real concern is that if your pool uses a bulkhead, or anything that might flex, that tightening the lanes lines too tight might cause it to bow in the middle to a non-regulation distance.
So...maybe those multiple lanes lines all tightened to a guitar string tension contributed to fast times by some means other than reduced turbulence. Just a thought...:p
Shakey: I had one thought re your post. Is your workout style suited to the conditions as you find them? I know that back when I worshipped low rest intervals, swim every lap on the edge of puking my guts out, ANY distranction in my lane was an irritant. If you are following a similar prescription, maybe you can reduce the friction (and improve your swimming) by doing some lower speed drill work when the aqua-crowd is at its densest. I know that if I am not trying to hold an interval, I am a whole lot more tolerant of rec swimmers and their toys bouncing in front of me if I am doing hand lead TI drills. If I know another big group is about to share the water, I try to schedule my workout to do stuff like that there when they are in the pool. Just a thought; I could be, and frequently am completely wrong (just ask my wife :D ).
One boring sea story, then I'll go. Back when I was an age grouper (when dinosaurs walked the earth) our team was practicing in the municipal pool, which was enourmous--25 yard wide, very long. We used the central third; the rest of the pool was open to rec swimmers. We were swimming a set of haul a__, max sprint 25's fly, from the dive. I was the first swimmer in my lane, and this little ole' rec swimmer meandered into the swim team area (probably wondering why no one was using all that empty water). Well, needless to say, he didn't see us, and (with my head down) neither I nor any of the life guards saw him, and WACKO!! I speared the guy right in the back with the top of my head at full speed (think greek trireme ramming a persian galley at the battle of Salamis). Fortunately, both of us were stunned, but unhurt. We continued with out workout, and I'd bet the rec swimmer was a little more aware of where the swim team was working out from that point on.
Matt
Originally posted by Matt S
Is your workout style suited to the conditions as you find them? I know that back when I worshipped low rest intervals, swim every lap on the edge of puking my guts out, ANY distranction in my lane was an irritant. If you are following a similar prescription, maybe you can reduce the friction (and improve your swimming) by doing some lower speed drill work when the aqua-crowd is at its densest.
I agree, and I have pretty much given up on trying to hold intervals. I have been tempted to try to resume interval training on those rare occasions where there are only two of us in a lane (so that we can swim sides instead of circles), but inevitably a third person joins us within a few minutes and destroys that opportunity. You're right: once I gave up on interval work, there was less tension, so now I just swim longer distances.
Emmett: Perhaps it would be good to have you running our pool after all. A tighter ship would certainly help mitigate some of the problems. A few points, though...
There is no prohibition against throwing things at this pool. The lifeguards regularly hurl equipment across the pool when straightening up (to land it in the vicinity of the cages where they're stored), and the kids in the open swim lanes on weekends frequently play by grabbing exercise equipment and throwing it back and forth. That's one way it ends up in the lap lanes. When I mentioned that no one had said anything about it, I was referring to the water aerobes; the lifeguards wouldn't care.
Responding to your alternatives, I HAVE pushed the items back in their lanes. They just put them back. Considering that I'm being shocked out of my mental training zone, I'm usually not ready for conversation, so talking to the instructor or the ladies about keeping their stuff off the lane right then would probably go much worse than tossing it. I don't think I would be polite.
You asked: "...why you would direct your dramatization at the aerobics people instead of the staff or management?" I have spoken with the staff and management. They do little or nothing about the problems. I thought I had made that clear. It's pretty much a lost cause, up to the individual swimmers to fend for themselves.
You suggested that the actions of one lap swimmer affects how people would see all of them. You also said in a previous message that lap swimmers, as a group, gave you more problems than anyone else. Here's something for you to consider: how much of that perception is your own bias?
There is a certain legitimacy afforded to members of an organized group that is denied to individuals operating outside group boundaries. What I have seen, at this pool and others, is that when lap swimmers have complaints, they are largely swept aside. If a swimmer on a team has a complaint, however, he will tell his coach, and the coach's complaint will be taken seriously. The same complaint will not be handled the same way coming from a coach or instructor and from an individual swimmer, because our voice is viewed as less legitimate. The attitude seems to be "Oh, he's just a lap swimmer. We can't keep them happy anyway."
In order for a lap swimmer's complaint to have the same weight as the coach, it has to be coordinated with other complaints with other swimmers. If the coach of a team of 30 complains, the staff thinks that he speaks for 30 people. If a lap swimmer complains, his complaint won't be taken seriously unless he can gather thirty other lap swimmers to corroborate his statement and go in a group to complain. That's nearly impossible.
Suppose that a number of lap swimmers go individually to complain. Since it isn't a coordinated effort, they'll probably have a variety of complaints. If the swim coach were to come to the staff with the same set of complaints, they would still be taken more seriously, while the group of individual complaints would be dismissed as the ramblings of malcontents who would never be happy. "Yeah, those guys will complain about anything. You can't make them happy. Why bother."
Many of us have seen our requests and complaints ignored so often on this basis that all that's left for us is to defend our rights, sometimes taking matters into our own hands. If you see a lap swimmer acting in what you consider an uncivil manner, it's quite possible that he or she has been ignored, or at least perceives the situation that way. You think it's antisocial behavior, when in reality it's frustration at the staff's failure to do their jobs.
Try ignoring complaints or suggestions from an organized group the same way individual complaints are handled and see what happens. I don't think that lap swimmers are any more uncivil than other people; some of us are just fed up with being treated as the pool's red-headed stepchildren.
Originally posted by kaelonj
Maybe I can shed a little light and help redirect some comments. First off the saying "If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem"really holds true. If you have a problem with the water aerobics (We call it AquaX) you need to bring this to the facility managements attention (maybe you have I'm not sure - and if you have and they haven't changed then you know where their priorties are). Shaky, have you tried talking to the instructor about the equipement and having participants too close to the lane line, the instructor might not be aware of this, they obviously have a duty to ensure they are conducting their class in a safe manner, also let the lifeguard know, once again they are there to ensure everyone's safety.
Aquageek, last I checked water aerobics was exercise not a sport.
Complaining about a change in water current/conditions because of there exercises, what's next complaining about a wake from a fast swimmer next to you. And your last comment about how they look at you when they get splashed which annoys them, just as their vortex bothers you.
Your comment about the fitness level really bothers me, as if all Master swimmers look like they should be on the cover of fitness/shape magazine. The reason maybe someone can't get in or out of the pool by themselves could be injury or other health problems, if you have been to swim meets not every master swimmer gets in or out of the pool by themselves yet they still let them compete.
The fact that people are getting in the water and trying something, any movement is good. Have you ever tried any of the exercises you might be surprised, some of them really do work on that important core strength and body balance. Some of the exercises do look easy but if you work on controling your body properly they do become more difficult. The other fact that maybe these people aren't as adapt to having fun, or they see their workout as a little social time, whats wrong with that ?
The pool temp will always be an issue (I agree 84 is too warm) most swimmers like to see 80 or so, AquaX people (and swim lesson) like mid 80's so keeping at 84 is a bit of a compromise leaning more towards the AquaX and Lesson people - but they probably make up the bulk of the pool users, not the lap swimmers.
These are my personal and professional opinions. I am an aquatics manager, I don't manage a Y but the pool at another fitness center. All of our AquaX instructors are certified (AEA) some are even land based aerobic instructors. Not all facilities have the luxury I do, well trained aquatic professionals and the resources and freedom to ensure we provide quality aquatic programming. I used Aqua exercises to recently rehab knee surgery (ACL reconstruction from a hamstring graft and repair of a torn medial meniscus) I was able to start running slightly in under 4 months and was back playing water polo in just over 4 months. My first day in the pool I could barely get in and out because of the knee surgery but within 2 weeks it wasn't a problem - I give a lot of credit to a fast recovery because of doing some of the exercises that are done in what some people would deem useless water aerobic classes.
Originally posted by emmett
It has been my experience that lap swimmers tend to be the most demanding (in some cases, militant) patrons in the facility.
My experience has been (and when facility operators compare notes I see the same trend) that the people who cause the greatest headaches for the operator generally come from the ranks of lap swimmers.
WOW, this says a lot! Maybe we should try to examine why this experience?
In the three county pools our team swims in, we have no problems with the aerobics. Everyone gets along for the most part.
However, our experience has been that the lap swimmers are the greatest headache because they complain more, because pools are generally set up and operated to be least accommodating to them.
Also, if the lanes are lose, the lane wrench is kept in a place we have access to, so we can tighten the lanes ourselves.
There are so many different groups using pools these days. Back in the 1970's many pools mainly ran only summer programs for kids to learn to swim and had free rec time. The only people that workout were age group AAU or summer league swimmers and of course there were few masters teams and almost no water exercise classes or lap swimming The rec pool I workout is great for the lap swimmers since there are no masters team or age group team and the water aeorbic classes usally workout at a different time and there is only a summer league team for the kids. Also, rec swimming in the summertime is on different hours than lap swimming. Lap swimmers are not all that bad at swimming some of them can swim better than some of the adults on master teams. I understand that maybe some of them get out of hand but not all of us can swim on masters teams because of our work schedules or the nearest team is 20 miles plus from where we live. I'm a lap swimmer and workout on my own and have done about 3 masters meets since I join masters mainly to do that and like the Swim Magazine.
