Michelle Chow sent me a PM: Hi Ande, Love the lane threads! Will you start one more - not sure what to call it - but for ideas of what people do "on the deck before getting in" or "in lieu of being in any lane!" I'd love to hear pre-water warmups!
Which inspired "The Pool Deck" It isn't a lane, It's where folks wait for practice, sitting or standing, doing something, doing nothing, stretching, telling stories, getting ready to get in, Conversation, Procrastination, communication, Coaches, guests, swimmers,
There's those who dive in early, on time, or late.
Those who arrive early, on time or late.
It's where teams meet & friends greet.
Wecome to the pool deck. Please share your stories.
What happened today on the Pool Deck?
the breastroke lane
The Middle Distance Lane
The Backstroke Lane
The Butterfly Lane
The SDK Lane
The Taper Lane
The Distance Lane
The IM Lane
The Sprint Free Lane
The Pool Deck
I'm not the first person in the water
Not only am I the first one in the water, I also move to the warmdown area (even if it's the therapy pool or diving well) once the competition pool gets crowded. Competition pools that have a shallow end get really crowded because so many people just stand around down there. After about 25 minutes I'm fully warmed up so I stand around waiting for sprint lanes to open. Hey I'm hanging out on the pool deck again! :banana:
Stretching gently while waiting for the rats and other debris to be removed from my lane. Sometimes I get in early just to count the hairballs on the bottom. Some of them have been there so long they receive mail.
This morning the pool deck was 42 degrees, so it was where we all scrambled to get our clothes off, caps/goggles on and into the warmer water as quickly as possible.
At meets, I'll usually get in the water about halfway thru the warm-up. I like to get a feel for the pool and do some good block starts/sprints/turns before warm-up ends and I move to the other pool to cool down.
Stretching gently while waiting for the rats and other debris to be removed from my lane. Sometimes I get in early just to count the hairballs on the bottom. Some of them have been there so long they receive mail.
This does not sound like the beautiful Rose Blow we all know and love!
When I am on time, which is about half the time, I like to do "active" warm up movements, similar to whatever I would do behind the block at a meet. These includes stretches, torso twirls (aka my wonder woman arms), jumping jacks, and swimming in front of the mirrored glass to watch my arms.
With limited time, I now do my other stretching in the evening. I'd like to do a nice relaxed stretching session right afterwards (some people do; they grab a mat and do situps, stretching, you name it), but I simply don't have the time with pickup in 1 1/2 hours and I budget that time for grocery shopping and housekeeping.
I'll talk to whoever shows up on deck, which is usually the coach or other swimmers in my lane. Usually about swimming but just as often about our kids. I do not like to talk about work.
The Pool Deck is a mixed bag of everything - it's often my social time, relaxing yet preparation time, and one of the few moments of the day which are all about me!
I like to show up quite early into the warm up, confident that no matter what everything will go well anyway. I swim and adapt to how busy the lane is. I show up with no solid expectations. Worst case I just book some no board fly kicking only, slow and fast, swimming a sprint here and there when I have the opportunity.
Then prior the race, arm circles and other dryland movements, focusing into the zone and that's it. For me, the most important is the wake up swim the day before the meet. If I skip this, I usually under perform.
My team swims in the deepest end - 6.5-13 feet end. The pool claims that they can't get the vacuum down to the deepest part so you can imagine the stuff we see on the bottom of the pool at the deepest part! I only see them vacuuming maybe twice a month and yet we are there before the pool opens so it is the ideal time for them to do so. Once it opens to the public, the lanes are too full to vacuum. There has literally been crap in the pool overnight with out anyone noticing.
I like to do some stretching and shoulder rotation before I get in.
It does not happen much in masters, but what about the person who jumps in quickly and then splashes people on the deck. It happened this morning at 7:00 a.m. - air temp. 62.
