yards, set, etc.

I am not a competitive swimmer, but swimming every day as my exercise. I'm around serious swimmers, and am curious about their lingo and terms. How many lengths of a pool would it take to equal 6000 yards? Also, some folks refer to "sets". What are those (I assume a certain # of lengths) What actually is a lap? Is that one length, or up and back? Sorry if this is very basic. I love to swim, but have never been on a team, and would like to learn what the swimmers mean. Thanks, Sylvia Is there a website that you can refer me to?:p Some good questions here: 1) 6000 yards in a 25yd pool would be 240 lengths. 2) A set is referred to a group of repetitions. For example 6x50 Free on 1:00 would be a 'set' that consists of swimming 50 Free 6 times, each time (or repetition or rep in this case) takes you a total of 1 minute. The minute interval means you begin each rep 1 minute after starting the previous one. So if you can swim 50 Free in 45 seconds, you get 15 seconds rest before having to start the next 'rep' 3) I have always viewed lap and length as the same thing but technically a length is the distance from one side of a pool to the other and a lap is the distance from one side to the other and then back to your original starting point. 4) Try here: www.usaswimming.org/.../DesktopDefault.aspx Or here: www3.nbnet.nb.ca/.../SwimTerminology.htm or here: ruthkazez.com/SwimmingGlossary.html Hope this helps. And of course there are many very helpful folks here to answer your questions also. Welcome to the board!!! Paul

I thank you very much for some very good information. This is a great forum, and I feel very comfortable here among some real "experts". Sylvia

I am not a competitive swimmer, but swimming every day as my exercise. I'm around serious swimmers, and am curious about their lingo and terms. How many lengths of a pool would it take to equal 6000 yards? Also, some folks refer to "sets". What are those (I assume a certain # of lengths) What actually is a lap? Is that one length, or up and back? Sorry if this is very basic. I love to swim, but have never been on a team, and would like to learn what the swimmers mean. Thanks, Sylvia Is there a website that you can refer me to?:p Syvia, don't apologise, I have asked more basic questions before!:blush: I'll answer your second question first because it will make more sense that way. A length is one distance of the pool i.e from the shallow end to the deep end. A lap is there and back. Assuming you are swimming in a 25yard pool then four lengths would make 100yards. (i.e. 4 x 25) 40 lengths makes 1000 yards and if you wanted to swim 6000 yards then you would have to swim 6 x 40 which is equal to 240 lengths of the pool. There is a thread that covers some basic questions about swimming somewhere on this forum but I can't seem to find it right now. I'll look again later. Syd I see pwolf and I must have posted at almost the same time...I'll leave it up anyway.

Both answers so far have been excellent. I do, however, want to clarify the meaning of a "set". If you consider your "practice" to be everything you do from the time that you get into the pool to the time that you get out of the pool, then a set is a part of your practice. For example, your first set might be a 500 yard swim, your second set may be kicking for 200 yards, your third set might be the 6x50 Free on 1:00 that pwolf66 mentioned, and your final set might be a warm-down. Accordingly, a set is a defined part of your workout.