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!
Former Member
I have an abject dread that this discussion will draw out the best or most accurate way to measure a pool crowd...the horror...
haha....a thread that just won't die!
I have an abject dread that this discussion will draw out the best or most accurate way to measure a pool crowd...the horror...
You don't mean "How many laps are in the stands"? Please say you don't mean it......
This debate is going to improve your techniques and strengthen your muscles!
Absolutely no doubt about it! Long live the idiocracy of the lap vs length debate!
Ha, actually, it will definitely make some people swim faster--those whose definition of a lap is the shortest length of all definitions. They can say "I swam xxxx laps in only xx seconds", while the others have to say, "i swam half of xxxx laps in xx seconds". :agree:
Sports To get ahead of (an opponent) in a race by one or more complete circuits of the course, as in running, or by two or more lengths of pool in swimming.
That's 1 more length than "down" or "back" depending on the end you start.
As in a complete cycle or loop, or back to where you started.
:D
Sports To get ahead of (an opponent) in a race by one or more complete circuits of the course
I'm waiting for someone to say they've heard someone use "circuit" on the pool deck. :banana:
For all practical purposes, we should just take a poll and the majority wins.
A majority believing something doesn't always make it right. Sometimes it just makes a lot of people wrong. :afraid:
I tend to count a lap as being two lengths, for the very practical reason that my poor oxygen starved brain tends to lose count towards the end of long swims and it's easier to keep track of the smaller number.
