ZackC. wrote:
It's not that they're confused, necessarily--the distance is unambiguous, it's just that there is an issue in translating the yardage into the actual number of laps/lengths/whatever. For example, if your coach gives you a 3000 continuous, most people would have to translate that into 120 lengths of a 25yd/m pool. Beginners just have a hard time with the math on stuff like that. While using lap=down and back may be the "correct" connotation according to the dictionary and other sports, it is (what I consider to be) an unsatisfactorily complicated way of describing a set like this:
10 x (200 cruise, w/ the middle 50 sprint)
in translating that to "laps," it is much easier to say "3 laps easy, 2 laps fast, 3 laps easy" than it is to say "1 1/2 laps easy, 1 lap fast, 1 1/2 laps easy." People do well thinking in whole numbers.
Wow, I thought they only had this argument on BT.
Isn't it easiest of all to say 75 ez, 50 hard, 75 ez? At least it is to me...... I would get totally lost saying "laps." I never swam competitively but the one year in high school they tried to make us water polo players join the swim team, but I just always think of it in terms of distance.
All the beginners in the slow lane at my masters get this after a couple sessions.