Why is a LCM pool five times longer than SCY?

Former Member
Former Member
First day yesterday back in the local long course pool. That first LC swim is always a rude awakening. You get to concentrate on your swimming a great deal more, which is a plus, but wow, where is that wall??? Does anybody else feel like crap on that first day, or am I just a big wuss? (Yes, I know, these are not mutually exclusive statements; the "or" isn't really warranted. Humor me.) Have never swum a LC meet in my life, but plan to do several this summer. Anybody got any magic spells to shorten the pool?
Parents
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Yeah, it's pretty amazing how the shoulders can tell exactly where 25 yards is in the 50m pool. When I started swimming age 16 my HS team needed a butterflier and the HS coach was also coaching the summer AAU team. The closest 50m pool was 60 miles away so we only got to train there 2 weeks right before championships 5-6 am or so. I had to "borrow" Dad's car (not always OK with dad) to make the drive and sneak back home 80mph before he woke up. Coach would enter me in the 200m fly and 400m IM in meets that summer. I wasn't sure if he wanted me to just quit or if he figured that the time I would need to finish, he could go get lunch and still have time to get back before I touched. For a novice swimmer, crappy fly, no conditioning, I distinctly recall on the turn at 150m of the 200m fly getting so discouraged because I couldn't even see far enough to see the end of the pool. Somehow no DQs/DNFs but definitely DFL-ed. Thank goodness we got a transfer student that year who was a terrific flier. This year I didn't go through the switch from SCY to LCM with any difficulty on the arms, just on the barefoot kick sets. Our usual pool has a pretty good counter-clockwise current, so it is about 45m going downstream and about 55m upstream. When the bulkhead is mid-pool during SCY season, it's not quite as noticeable.
Reply
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Yeah, it's pretty amazing how the shoulders can tell exactly where 25 yards is in the 50m pool. When I started swimming age 16 my HS team needed a butterflier and the HS coach was also coaching the summer AAU team. The closest 50m pool was 60 miles away so we only got to train there 2 weeks right before championships 5-6 am or so. I had to "borrow" Dad's car (not always OK with dad) to make the drive and sneak back home 80mph before he woke up. Coach would enter me in the 200m fly and 400m IM in meets that summer. I wasn't sure if he wanted me to just quit or if he figured that the time I would need to finish, he could go get lunch and still have time to get back before I touched. For a novice swimmer, crappy fly, no conditioning, I distinctly recall on the turn at 150m of the 200m fly getting so discouraged because I couldn't even see far enough to see the end of the pool. Somehow no DQs/DNFs but definitely DFL-ed. Thank goodness we got a transfer student that year who was a terrific flier. This year I didn't go through the switch from SCY to LCM with any difficulty on the arms, just on the barefoot kick sets. Our usual pool has a pretty good counter-clockwise current, so it is about 45m going downstream and about 55m upstream. When the bulkhead is mid-pool during SCY season, it's not quite as noticeable.
Children
No Data