Hello! I'm a newcomer to swimming laps, and I'd like everyone's input on a debate I'm having with a friend who also swims.
What is technically a lap?
I say it's based on distance. If you're in a 25m pool - then a lap is down and back. If you are in a 50m pool - then a lap is the length of the pool one way.
He says a lap is the length of a pool.
Can someone solve this battle for us?
Thanks!
I learned it worked like the following:
An olympic pool is 50m. A "lap" is 50m. If you are swimming in a pool that is, say, 25m - then a "lap" is down and back.
Now that's just plain weird. I think you can make an argument for a lap either being a single length or two, but having it be dependent on pool length is nuts.
Down and back, no matter the length of the pool
Agree. One way--length. Lap--down and back. I think the term lap should be banned because everyone knows what a length is but for the last 35 years I have been swimming competitively, I have heard "lap" used to mean either 25 or 50 yards.
See - I'm starting to think this is the Ultimate Debate topic in Swimming
:argue:
:chug:
The world may never know - but please keep responding....it's fueling our debate here and it's making us both laugh that we're not alone.
:D:bliss:
In my 30+ years around and in swimming I've NEVER heard a coach call a "lap" down and back.
200 laps in SCY is 5000 yards
200 laps in SCM is 5000 meters
200 laps in LCM is 10,000 meters
So to me and everyone I've ever known in the sport a lap is "one length" of the pool.
Length - simple, it is what it says, you go one way and finish at the opposite end of the pool. Noodles or otherwise.
Lap - you finish where you started - JUST LIKE TRACK -
And NASCAR!
So when one is swimming a 500, and the guy in the next lane passes you around mid pool on his way back from the wall you are approaching, has he "lengthed" you? :shakeshead:
I don't know why this is a debate. The dictionary defines a lap regarding sports as the completion of one full circuit from start to start when there is more than one. Therefore, by definition, a lap in swimming is going down and back, since going down and stopping doesn't return you to your starting position. In track, a lap is when you go all the way around the track, but they still have races that are shorter than 400m. When you do the 100m, you aren't doing one lap and 400m is four laps, you're just doing a 1/4 of a lap. I'm not sure why this is so widely argued.
I've always referred to a length as a lap. Same with the coaches and officials.
But, what happens when you "lap" someone?
That's 2 more lengths than they swam.
Everyone I know says that one length of the pool is a lap, and so do I when talking to other swimmers. I just never understood where that came from, since it seemingly contradicts the definition of a lap.
I knew someone would bring up the whole track angle. Swimming isn't track and field and our playing field isn't an oval. Go on a field trip to any competitive swim club and walk up to the coach and say "how many laps in a 500?" I'll wager all of Hulk's casino winnings that 9/10 of them will say 20 and then look at you like "why such an idiotic question?"
I will take you up on that wager. I usually say "laps" as down when talking with fellow swimmers. But from several years of swimming at the Y, it has come to be useful to be able to understand and use both verision based on who you are swimming with.
Noodlers will consider a lap down and back. Swimmers usually consider it down.
