Yesterday I tried out a new health club near my house on a guest pass. It sounded so good ... 5 minutes drive, open 5 am to midnight weekdays, 8-8 weekends ... 25 yard pool with laneropes and stripe on the bottom ... promised 82F temp ... hottub ... plus the usual accoutrements of free weights and aerobic equip and weight machines. The fees were reasonable. I was hoping to cancel a membership at another club and join the new place.
It was a little disappointing. The stripe on the bottom of the pool had no "T" at the end and went all the way up to the wall so I almost bonked my head on the first turn. There was nothing on the ceiling / no flags for backstrokers. No pace clock or wall clock with a second hand. I would swear the temps were more like 86F. The laneropes were very loose where they weren't very effective -- and it appeared to be because the pool was actually a little short of 25y long. There were no gutters so it was sloshy. They've handled the "noodler" problem by not allowing lap swimming during the Aqua-Aerobics class "for safety reasons". Happily right now that's only during the day when I'm at work anyhow.
For very little cost, they could have done the tiled stripes correctly, hung either backstroke flags or some ceiling "decoration", and hung a paceclock on the wall. Why do people spend all that money to put in a pool and not do it right for people that actually want to swim in it?
There were a lot of plusses - the lockerrooms were great, everything was clean, and there were large windows so it wasn't like being confined in a box. But I'm really going to have to think about it. I'll take my own portable paceclock and see if I get yelled at for breaking some rule and try it again. :) The worst part is that solitary black-line patrol is just so much less fun than having a coach and teammates.
Yesterday I tried out a new health club near my house on a guest pass. It sounded so good ... 5 minutes drive, open 5 am to midnight weekdays, 8-8 weekends ... 25 yard pool with laneropes and stripe on the bottom ... promised 82F temp ... hottub ... plus the usual accoutrements of free weights and aerobic equip and weight machines. The fees were reasonable. I was hoping to cancel a membership at another club and join the new place.
It was a little disappointing. The stripe on the bottom of the pool had no "T" at the end and went all the way up to the wall so I almost bonked my head on the first turn. There was nothing on the ceiling / no flags for backstrokers. No pace clock or wall clock with a second hand. I would swear the temps were more like 86F. The laneropes were very loose where they weren't very effective -- and it appeared to be because the pool was actually a little short of 25y long. There were no gutters so it was sloshy. They've handled the "noodler" problem by not allowing lap swimming during the Aqua-Aerobics class "for safety reasons". Happily right now that's only during the day when I'm at work anyhow.
For very little cost, they could have done the tiled stripes correctly, hung either backstroke flags or some ceiling "decoration", and hung a paceclock on the wall. Why do people spend all that money to put in a pool and not do it right for people that actually want to swim in it?
There were a lot of plusses - the lockerrooms were great, everything was clean, and there were large windows so it wasn't like being confined in a box. But I'm really going to have to think about it. I'll take my own portable paceclock and see if I get yelled at for breaking some rule and try it again. :) The worst part is that solitary black-line patrol is just so much less fun than having a coach and teammates.
