I'm back at school now and it feels so much better swimming at my schools pool than at my local Y becasuse my school pool has a 13 feet deep end. the Y is shallow, its 3 feet on one end.
Deep water is so much better than shallow water.
Parents
Former Member
My guess is that the main affect of a deeper pool is that the water will be less turbulent. Water pushed downward by your kicks for example will largely head off into the depths, being damped out by viscousity along the way, while in a shallow pool it will be bouncing off the bottom of the pool and creating currents that you have to swim through on your return trip. Unless you have a large scale current flowing in your direction of travel, you will usually swim fastest in still water. In a way all that water down in the depths is acting like an anti-wave lane line but in a vertical plane. In a really shallow pool, after you turn it will be difficult to get under the water that you were dragging toward the wall before the turn, and especially to get under that moving water and still attain a full range of kicking movement without hitting bottom.
My guess is that the main affect of a deeper pool is that the water will be less turbulent. Water pushed downward by your kicks for example will largely head off into the depths, being damped out by viscousity along the way, while in a shallow pool it will be bouncing off the bottom of the pool and creating currents that you have to swim through on your return trip. Unless you have a large scale current flowing in your direction of travel, you will usually swim fastest in still water. In a way all that water down in the depths is acting like an anti-wave lane line but in a vertical plane. In a really shallow pool, after you turn it will be difficult to get under the water that you were dragging toward the wall before the turn, and especially to get under that moving water and still attain a full range of kicking movement without hitting bottom.
