Your definition of "a lap"?

Every coach I have ever had referred to one length as a lap. So that's how I use the word. I think of a lap as one complete coverage of the course. On a track that is all the way around. Once you arrive where you started, you have completed one unit. In a pool once you get to the other wall you have completed one unit. Going back to the start is just re-covering the same ground. At least that's how I've thought about it. But people, and it's almost always people who never swam on a team (at least in my limited experience) insist on referring to a lap as a "down and back" and it just confuses me. Maybe it's one of those regional things. It just seems to me that a "down and back" isn't an actual thing to count. I'd never be able to keep track of where I was if I counted that way But this question has always intrigued me, so I'm interested to see what the forum decrees - I will be ruled by the will of the people on this one

The question is difficult to answer definitively, but the close reader shall find clues on the 6th definition of Lap, the verb, as outlined on the free dictionary: www.thefreedictionary.com/lap I made the part below easy to find via font size and color manipulation. However, I think this comes pretty close to affirming that a lap is two lengths. However, if you read down further, to the lap as noun section, 2b clearly states (in apparent contradiction 6 above) that a lap is a single length of a pool. lap 2 (limg.tfd.com/.../abreve.gifp)v. lapped, lap·ping, laps v.tr.1. a. To place or lay (something) so as to overlap another: lapped the roof tiles so that water would run off. b. To lie partly over or on: each shingle lapping the next; shadows that lapped the wall. 2. To fold (something) over onto itself: a cloth edge that had been lapped and sewn to make a hem. 3. To wrap or wind around (something); encircle. 4. To envelop in something; swathe: models who were lapped in expensive furs. 5. To join (pieces, as of wood) by means of a scarf or lap joint. 6. 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. 7. To convert (cotton or other fibers) into a sheet or layer. 8. a. To polish (a surface) until smooth. b. To hone (two mating parts) against each other until closely fitted. v.intr.1. To lie partly on or over something; overlap. 2. To form a lap or fold. 3. To wind around or enfold something. n.1. a. A part that overlaps. b. The amount by which one part overlaps another. 2. a. One complete round or circuit, especially of a racetrack. b. One complete length of a straight course, as of a swimming pool. 3. A segment or stage, as of a trip. 4. a. A length, as of rope, required to make one complete turn around something. b. The act of lapping or encircling. 5. A continuous band or layer of cotton, flax, or other fiber. 6. A wheel, disk, or slab of leather or metal, either stationary or rotating, used for polishing and smoothing.

I say this is like using the "word" irregardless. After a time, so many people butcher the English language that non-words actually become words and meanings change (and actually can be found in dictionaries). Length is one way (25 yard/meter or 50 meter depending on your pool or 13.33 yards if you are staying at the Holiday Inn). Lap is down and back. Anybody that thinks different is high.:)

So the noun definition #6 seems to agree with what I was taught...one complete length of a straight course is a lap. Thought so. But I guess just using "length" is more clear since there seems to be two definitions in play here, and no one can debate the definition of a length...I don't think

Let me try one more time to dance around the word lap. If lap is a verb, i.e., "to lap," it means Swimmer A out-swims Swimmer B by two lengths of a pool, in the process "lapping" him or her. If lap is a noun, i.e., "a lap," it means a single length of the pool. Thus, technically speaking, if you lap someone, you must lap them by two laps. Which may be why a "lap dance" is usually an exercise in frustration and is a misdemeanor in many municipalities. Please lap up the wisdom I have placed in your lap, be this one of luxury or not, and let us agree forevermore that the only thing we can know for certain is this: He who laps last does not lap best.

But I guess just using "length" is more clear since there seems to be two definitions in play here, and no one can debate the definition of a length...I don't think Evidently, Gigi, you have not followed the Enzyte commercials-- www.berkeleybrands.com/.../ -- I am almost certain that Enzyte corporate officers and FDA officials have entirely different definitions of length, with the former arguing that an object can become much longer without any change in actual measurement; and the latter subscribing to the more traditional view that an "increase in length" does, in point of fact, require a commensurate increase in measure. To over 3 million apparently trusting men (almost all whom, curiously, are named Goober), such semantic debates are little more than a Po-tay-to/Po-tah-to kind of thing.

Which may be why a "lap dance" is usually an exercise in frustration and is a misdemeanor in many municipalities. Is this the first time "lap dance" has appeared in a swim forum?:applaud:

A lap in swimming parlance is one length of the pool. Hence a 500 yard swim is 20 laps. Others may disagree, but they are wrong. Why would I lie.

Technically a lap brings you back to where you started...right? I've used the term lap more often to refer to a length of the pool. And, I think most coaches do the same. Still, I think a length of the pool is the more appropriate term.

Track people think full around SWIMMERS know it's to the other end of the pool !