Pool Length

[Bill Sive]

Yesterday I swam in a pool I had never been to before. The pool is 30.5 meters (33.3 yards) long X 20 yards wide. Starting blocks were on the 20 yards.

Why would a pool be built at 30.5 meters? Would you change your workout to accommodate this unusual distance?

My normal 4000 meter workout, turned into 4880 meters. I would like to continue to use this pool,however I will have to put in some serious thinking into my workouts.

[jaadams1]

Yesterday I swam in a pool I had never been to before. The pool is 30.5 meters (33.3 yards) long X 20 yards wide. Starting blocks were on the 20 yards.

Why would a pool be built at 30.5 meters? Would you change your workout to accommodate this unusual distance?

My normal 4000 meter workout, turned into 4880 meters. I would like to continue to use this pool,however I will have to put in some serious thinking into my workouts.

You can swim in what you like, or have available. Just figure out what is comparable distances, or just make up something non-traditional and find a rest interval that works for different distances.

[knelson]

Why would a pool be built at 30.5 meters?

Maybe they wanted to make sure it could never be used for competition purposes. Sounds silly, but that may be the reason. Of course the fact there are blocks installed runs counter to this notion.

It's sort of goofy, but maybe that's what they had room for. The nice thing about a pool like this is you can put a bulkhead in and accommodate a 25 yard or 25 meter course, plus a small separate area for warmups or even diving. It's certainly more flexible than a 25 yard pool.

[sickfish]

My college pool was like that too: http://rpiathletics.com/sports/2010/...ab=facilities2 (halfway down the page). I've never seen it without the bulkhead.

[rtodd]

swim in a 33.3 yard pool every day. Three lengths per 100. A real nice compromise between SCY and LC. It's easy to come up with workouts for that distance. It was originally a rehabilitation pool that has a long gradual taper to the 1/2 way point before it steepens at the deep end.

[ElaineK]

Yesterday I swam in a pool I had never been to before. The pool is 30.5 meters (33.3 yards) long X 20 yards wide. Starting blocks were on the 20 yards.

Bill, I'm just curious, as a native of Long Beach with family still there. Is this pool in Long Beach (or in the area)? Which one is it? Thanks!

[swoomer]

There's one in Bellflower like that. I started my dubious swimming career there in 1958. I believe it is still there?

[ElaineK]

There's one in Bellflower like that. I started my dubious swimming career there in 1958. I believe it is still there?

I grew up in Lakewood and swam on Lakewood High School's team, 1977-1979. My mom still lives in the same house; very close to Long Beach.

[rxleakem]

My college pool was like that too: http://rpiathletics.com/sports/2010/...ab=facilities2 (halfway down the page). I've never seen it without the bulkhead.

RPI is where we always had big meets growing up (silvers/golds). The smaller pool was great for easy swimming between events. Still gets used a lot today for AD age group meets; too bad a masters meet can't be organized there.

[swoomer]

Elaine, I grew up in Downey, a very long time ago. My mother still lives there in our 1957 house! I visit often. Our small girls HS swim team competed against Lakewood. The summer rec team from the Bellflower pool (Caughran Park I think) competed at Mayfair. Small world!

[ourswimmer]

In the early- to mid-20th century in the US, 100 feet was a pretty common pool length. A lot of WPA pools were 100 feet, for instance. (Some were much, much larger.)

[aguins]

In the 50's and 60's lots of YMCA/YWCA pools were 20 yds., at least in OH

[Bobinator]

I have a pool in my backyard that is 22 yds long; lots of flip-turns!!! I agree with knelson, they built it like this so no one would want to rent it for a meet or use it for swim practice.
I'd think it would be fun to adapt your current workouts to work in this pool.

[ElaineK]

Elaine, I grew up in Downey, a very long time ago. My mother still lives there in our 1957 house! I visit often. Our small girls HS swim team competed against Lakewood. The summer rec team from the Bellflower pool (Caughran Park I think) competed at Mayfair. Small world!

My mom's house is vintage 1963. Another Forumite, Debaru, went to Jordan High and swam on their team at the same time my sister swam for Lakewood High (early 70's). It turns out that during our years growing up in Long Beach, we hung out at the same places (Belmont Shores and Alamitos Bay) during the summers. We didn't know each other then, but met up at Mesa Nationals and have been friends ever since.

Are you going to Mission Viejo and back home to see your mom? Debaru and I will be there and plan to see our families. If you go, let's all meet up!

[SuperChloe]

The pool at our local Y is 20 yds long. I'm glad I don't swim there; flip turns hurt my back as it is. No need to add an extra flip to every 100!

[Bill Sive]

I swam in the same pool today. I think mentally I've got my head around it now. I like the comment about a happy medium between SCY's and LCM's.

I've decided to do my same workouts and calculate them when I get home. I am swimming roughly 610 meters every 12 minutes. Not sure if this is good or bad, its just what I am swimming.

The pool starts at 3' deep, slowly goes to 4' then 6', then has a drop to 9', for a short distance, then back up to 6' then 4', then 3' again at the other side. No bulkhead possible in this pool Its a little crazy. I am glad I do not do flip turns as I would probably hit my head, or skin my back on the bottom of the pool. I worry about hitting my knees on my breaststroke. I believe its a good pool for working on distance swimming.

Elaine if you private message me I will send you the pool location.

[mlabresh]

The pool I swim in (only public indoor pool available) is 30m long. It's an L-shaped pool and if you swim toward the diving boards, it's 25y. But for lap/cardio swim times, they have us swimming the 30m length. They used to have blocks at the end of that length as well. They have a moveable bulkhead that sometimes is used to shorten it to 25m when they are doing swim lessons in the shallow end. It's an ok pool and it does make workouts require a little extra math (for us it's pretty easy though, # of laps x 10 extra meters added to the work out total). One thing I do like about it is it makes swimming SCY a little faster/easier, and it gives me a little transition practice before LCM in the summer.

[sunruh]

i once swam in a 50yd pool.

little known rules fact:

you can set an american and/or national record in a 55yd pool! (because its a hair longer that 50m).

[knelson]

you can set an american and/or national record in a 55yd pool! (because its a hair longer that 50m).

This may have been true at one time, but it isn't now. The USA Swimming rulebook states:

Dimensional Tolerance: Against the required length, a tolerance of plus (+) 0.03 meters (1 and 3/16ths of an inch) in a vertical plane extending 0.3 meters (12 inches) above and 0.8 meters (2 feet, 7½ inches) below the surface of the water at all points of both
end walls.

55 yards is 50.292 meters, so it's way over the positive allowed tolerance of 0.03 meters.

[sunruh]

no actually you are wrong.

according to the 2013 USA Swimming Rules and Regulations:

104.2
part C
(3) Long Course — Made only over courses 55 yards or 50 meters long
fyi thats on page 51.