In Great Britain most pools have three lanes: fast lane(for free style), medium lane and slow lane.
Here in Germany pools aren't divided at all. People just swim anyway and anywhere they want to which makes it impossible to do proper work outs.
I had to join a private gym with a pool in order to do my work outs because public pools are a drag in Germany.
How are most public pools in the US? Do they all have a fast, medium and slow lane or does it depend?
You are correct, an otherwise perfect pool for swimming laps becomes an obstacle course for a swimmer who wants to use the pool for actually swimming. If there were at least two ropes for the minority to train in, there would be no problem.
Interestingly, on a military base in Germany occupied by US, there is no such problem in the pools. At least currently.
Could you persuade them to rope off just one lane? I swam at a pool in Munich that had just the one lane
I used to do that and sometimes they actually put up a lane. The private pool of the gym I go to is actually 22 meters which is about 25 yards. It is half empty most of the time and although there are no lanes I always have space. Sometimes I'm the only one in the pool so I don't go to public pools anymore.
Oh Lui - as a German, I can truly say the German pools are just horrible for lap swimming.
It's so "un-German" - usually anything to make things more organized gets studied by eight different groups and then implemented with 18 different rules....
I don't get it either. I just lived in Bolivia for 5 years which is the poorest country of South America and the least organized(cars don't even stop at a red traffic light) but their pools were better organized than any pool in Germany.
In most towns I have lived in, PUBLIC pools are splasharound sites for kids. Sometimes there is a lane marked off for lap swimming, which gives the lifeguards an excuse for yelling at the kids to "stop hanging on the lane lines."
PRIVATE pools, like the YMCA or at a health club, generally have 4-8 lanes.
Public pools here in Calgary are often divided into thirds and labeled fast, medium, slow. Two streams of swimmers go up the sides of each section and then both streams converge and swim down the middle going back.
I guess Ottawa swimmers are faster than Calgarians (here we have: Fast, Medium Fast, Medium and FREE-anything-goes) or have bigger egos. :)
Interesting comments about this kind of lane organization in Canadia... :canada: While I was up on Toronto, we (blue muppet and i) swam at the Etobicoke Olympium. For open swim, they had a milkcrate full of color-coded signs. The folks that get there first get to pick what speed and direction (clockwise vs. counterclockwise) their lane will be. I'm not sure how it works out in general, but it worked fairly well for us. I thought it was a wonderful idea and was the most sophisticated lane-speed system I've ever seen at a pool.
The problem with lane speeds is enforcement. If you're going to designate speeds, patrons need to be willing to accept that they may need to move - and the facility staff needs to support the staff members enforcing the speeds. I think that so many aquatic facilities are staffed by teenagers and patrons don't feel the need to follow direction from someone so young.
