Too many "restrictions" ...

So I haven't been swimming for over a decade and I am guessing this is part Covid, maybe part of the area I live (SoCal)  - but the rules for lap swimming and the pool availability is just silly. These are the different things - not all pools but what I have seen so far ... sorry, this isn't a political statement but there are people in "charge" making life "easier" for them instead of just having a pool for us to swim.

- Online registration for lap swimming ONLY, can't just drop in

- Almost all pools have time limit on lap swimming ... like 30 min some of them  - I like my sprints but 30 min limit ???

- Closed for "maintenance" over the Xmas holidays ... thats complete nonsense ... have one pool closed for a month for maintenance starting today ... yeah, they are gonna do "work" this weekend ...

- No lane sharing, or no circle swimming

- No "early" mornings on weekend... nothing available before 9am on Sat Sun ...

- kids have all priority everywhere ... I have 3 kids, and yes they need sports but who has greater benefit swimming for exercise - a 12 year old or a 62 year old ?? Its not even close ...

  • You’re preaching to the choir here. Or at least you’re not alone in what you’re experiencing. But I’ll comment on your observations. Not that I agree or disagree with them. I guess that’s just how things are now.

    - Online registration for lap swimming ONLY, can't just drop in 

    Through COVID I swam at a few different pools. And have friends who swam at others. It seems just about all pools employed some sort of reservation system to control attendance. For whatever purposes, some pools have continued using it post-COVID. My experience is that you can actually “drop in” if you haven’t made a reservation. If there’s a lane open, they’ll let you swim. That includes the possibility of people not showing up for their reserved time. Unfortunately there are people who’ll reserve time well in advance (sometimes days in advance) “just in case” they want to swim. But then they don’t swim, and fail to cancel their reservation. Consequently a lane reservation goes unused. Usually if a reservation person isn’t there by ## minutes they’ll open the lane.

    - Almost all pools have time limit on lap swimming ... like 30 min some of them  - I like my sprints but 30 min limit ???

    The reservation systems I’ve used do go in :30 increments. And, they’ll allow you to make two back-to-back adjacent reservations. 

    - Closed for "maintenance" over the Xmas holidays ... thats complete nonsense ... have one pool closed for a month for maintenance starting today ... yeah, they are gonna do "work" this weekend.

    Seems like a common practice everywhere, every winter. I don’t get it either. Pool management seems to always want to schedule maintenance when they’re the busiest. At the very least why don’t they do it in the summer when the open water is available. (I know this doesn’t really work for swimmers wanting to do sprint workouts. But it’s ‘something’ anyway. I’m an open water swimmer myself.)

    - No lane sharing, or no circle swimming

    Seems like this is a holdover from COVID. No pools I know of currently have those restrictions.

    - No "early" mornings on weekend... nothing available before 9am on Sat Sun ...

    This might have something to do with the staffing of lifeguards. In my case, and other pools I know of…pools lost guards when hours were restricted during COVID. Guards went and got other jobs, and now there’s difficulty finding replacements.

    - kids have all priority everywhere ... I have 3 kids, and yes they need sports but who has greater benefit swimming for exercise - a 12 year old or a 62 year old ?? It’s not even close.

    Are you saying they close off the entire pool for kids/play/open swim…and don’t have ANY lap swimming during that time? My pool does have open swim play time for kids/parents/families. But there’s always at least three lanes also available for lap swimming.

    If your above comments are a result of what you’ve seen online. I’d suggest that you talk to the pool manager. It might be that they just haven’t updated their webpages. Talk to them at any rate. Maybe they’ll find a way to accommodate you.

    Dan

  • Thanks Dan - good to have more experiences and views. ... that "control attendance" comment -- yes thats rings for me so much. 

    The no lap swimming part / too much focus on the "little ones" ... I have access to some 5 pools plus .. almost all have either no times for lap swimming or super limited after 4pm - one pool in Pacific Palisades - nice area near Santa Monica - I think 14 lanes available plus a learning swim pool , not a single lap swimming time after 1pm during the week - no adult team - nothing ... Santa Monica College - huge pool -- very very limited evening times - must do reservation - very strict on 50 min - and 2-3 kids per lane in "club swimming" 

    anyways - I do appreciate just being able and willing to "complain" about this again after not swimming for so long - so maybe its partly a good problem to face after all Slight smile