Above ground home workout pools

An interesting sidenote... At one of the Y's where I swim, one of the guards swims in the jet stream coming off of the childrens slide in the family pool when there are no kids in it. It works just like an Endless pool, and is even adjustable.

Kevin in MD. That's the one!! I knew about Endless Pools and had sent that info to my cousin. But this link for above ground pools was what I was remembering and could not find. Thank you!! Glenn:)

http://www.splashpools.com/ The asca newsletter a year or two ago said that the cost of a 25 yard practice pool would be about 50k.

Originally posted by dcarson I've had an Endless Pool for over 3 years, use it year round in my backyard in the Washington, DC area, and love it. I had considered doing a 20 to 25 meter lane pool but I'm glad I didn't. The cost of is too high for the lane pool options I was thinking of and the very easy maintenance of an Endless Pool is great. How do you keep this interesting? Do you alternate a workout in your endless pools with a time or two with a team?

I've had an Endless Pool for over 3 years, use it year round in my backyard in the Washington, DC area, and love it. I had considered doing a 20 to 25 meter lane pool but I'm glad I didn't. The cost of is too high for the lane pool options I was thinking of and the very easy maintenance of an Endless Pool is great.

I swim in both my Endless Pool and an indoor competition pool at the U. of MD. I'm lucky to live less than a mile from a great pool facility on that campus. Both venues have their strengths. I have my own masters team, although it's just a few folks that get together on occassion vs. a more formal team with regular practices. Outside of that I swim on my own a lot. The Endless Pool I have found great for stroke development, lungs capacity development, upper body strength conditioning (I find it works the upper body muscles more than a regular pool). All strokes except the backstroke are easy to adapt to in the Endless Pool. The backstroke takes a bit getting used to in order to stay in the stream. I use a simple solution of a clothes line above the pool to have something to focus on to stay in the stream. When I compete, I do spend more time in the regular pool because there is a different "feel" to the swim. Also, you certainly can't practice turns and dives in an Endless Pool. If I have been swimming in the Endless Pool a lot and then go over to the regular pool, the 1st few laps feel strange but then I'm back in the groove. I have used my Endless Pool quite often for training others. It really makes it easy to point out stroke techniques and see where folks are needing improvements. Endless Pools aren't cheap themselves (I paid $24k for a heavily loaded model (plus 2 feet wider, longer and deeper) and had quite a bit of finishing work done around it which was additional money I put out. However, it generally I think is cheaper than a regular pool installation and the upkeep is so simple (change filter every 6 months and just add a cup of bleach every 4 days). I never need to check chemicals or clean it out (I do keep it covered when not in use which is why it stays very clean). It did take me a couple of years before I made the investment but I found it worth it.

I have never tried an endless pool, but I can't imagine it very beneficial for sprint training. I suppose you could put a rubber bumper on you head underneath your cap.... :-) John Smith

Just stick one of these in any pool or puddle. http://www.fiberliner.info/

The Endless Pool can provide sprint speed current; however, it's definitely tricky to do short spurts of sprint training in such a pool. It's not that you might hit your head, but often people turn the current up to full blast thinking it would be easy to jump into the stream and swim but many times people are surprisingly blasted into the back end of the pool. I often allow people to do demo swims in my pool and it's fun to watch the overly confident swimmers give it a try and see them thrown into the back of the pool.

I have a rectangle pool I put in several years ago, I may have to swim more laps to reach a mile but it is so so pleasant to walk out the back door and swim. To bad for snow and cold here in northweatern Pa , today it is snowing and I must drive 30min, to swim .