I’ve done most of my swimming in a scy pool and now because of COVID and working from home my closest pool location uses a scm pool and have to say I like it better. Not quite as many turns and it feels like I can get more into a groove, particularly when pushing the pace.

Lcm still freaks me out for no real reason other than as a mental hurdle.

Depends on what I'm doing and how shape I'm in. LCM is great if you're feeling strong and are really in the flow. SCY is great if you're really wanting to work speed, or you're out of shape and need more walls for shorter repeats (25's, 75's etc). Sometimes I actually like swimming in completely odd length pools that have no frame of reference. There's a pool in Fullerton CA that has a 33m section, and the summer pool i'm swimming in now is 26.5 meters. In those pools you really just have to focus on what you're doing NOW and not worry about comparisons to anything else.

TLDR: horses for courses (courses for horses?)

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

SCM.

In university we did train in a SCY pool, probably one of the last ones built before Canada adopted the metric system, so it was fun to go that much “faster”, but really SCM is what I prefer.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Endless pool. Kinda cold & salty with varying waves and currents.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

I love LCM but do most of my training in SCY pools due to accessibility. LCM pools appeal to me more due to the fact that I feel the longer laps allow me to really concentrate on my form and get a good "feel" for the water with my catch.

In an ideal world it would always be LCM but my local pool 250meters away is SCM and I am too lazy to go to the local 50meter pool 16k away.

My nearby pool is scy. I think that I have only swam in a scm pool a couple times in my life. Same with a lcm pool-- only times were two pool Olympic triathlons I did. I think my favorite is sc-whatever, since that works well with the intervals I like to do.

Like others my local pool is SCY but I like a mix of SCY and LCM.

I only have access to LCM in the summer when the outdoor pools are open.

My folks threw me in the local club pool at age 4. Seeing that I could float semi OK the next year they signed me up for the swim team. That was in 1961. It was an outdoor 20 yard pool with only 4 lanes. Swam competitively there for seven seasons. No access to indoor pool while I was young. The other 5 teams in our league all had scy or scm. Every year our team got trounced by them. One team even rubbed it in our face by swimming one-armed butterfly against us at a dual meet in a 4x50 yd freestyle relay in the 15 and over age group. They still kicked our ass.

Fond memories otherwise.

Prefer lcm here. The more lanes the better esp. if there are a couple of lanes blocked off for water aerobics classes and/or water slides. All the activity creates some chop and maybe a little current which comes closest to open water conditions. Can't conveniently access open water venues for regular practice where I live nowadays, unfortunately.

Since I am 2/3 to 1/2 the ability of a real swimmer, the coolest pool length I have enjoyed are some old Victorian era 100 ft pool (30m) in UK and India. It's long enough that it feels like a pro would feel at LCM without constant turning, but short enough for that turn to help me (especially in breast, back and fly).

Right now I am 25m scm. Our local LCM is indefinitely shut down due to Covid19....not sure why it has the most "spacing".

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Yeah the pool where I learned to swim and raced every summer in Hong Kong as a kid was a 33m salt water pool.

For training I prefer SCY. Thats pretty much all I have trained in since I started swimming competitively a few decades ago.

For racing it doesnt matter much to me. I've mostly raced SCY, but have raced LCM a 2-3 times as didnt do too bad.

I'm in Canada, so SCM all the way. LCM when I'm training for a tri or feeling super fit - otherwise it just reminds me how out of shape I am.

I think scy is the best for developing raw speed and top end speed through about 100-125. scm is a better pool for distance training imo. LCM is great for triathletes but those first few days are always rough. It seems I always feel really fit and fast in the scy pool after a summer of lcm training

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

SCY fo' sho'... Grew up competitive swimming in 'Murica so that's what been permanently ingrained, and I can do flip turns in my sleep so more frequent walls is a welcome feature.

We do have a LCM pool that is closer by during the summer (outdoors in a northern latitude, so only open late May-Oct), which can be nice for getting somewhat used to fewer (i.e., zero) turns in OW events, but it does take some getting used to whereas going back to SCY is always automatic.

SCM is the red-headed step-child nobody wants; worst of both worlds. I thought us winning WWII was supposed to rid the world of that plague...

For some unknown reason, I have detested training and racing in long course pools, although I love swimming in the ocean and lakes. Not really the same I know, but either SCM or SCY are what I love. Both the same to me, just a stroke difference before the turns, and adjust the send offs about 10 seconds a 100. I guess I just like the whole dynamic of doing the flip, and thinking about the push off, break out, and streamlining involved with it. But the time you do all that and get to the surface, you have just a few strokes to count, and then rinse and repeat..

You post this question like we have a choice.

The only pools available are the YMCA and the college - both are SCM.

LA Fitness pools are some strange length and varies between locations - no one serious that I know swim in those things.

We do have a LCM pool in the area, but good luck getting access to it. Between local college meets, high school meets, and private swim club practice and events you are lucky to find 1 night a week where open swim is available, and half the time the pool is converted to a 12 lane SCM setup anyway.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

I suck at flip turns and seem to do much better between the flags, so LCM for me is the best. The only time that I like SCY better is when I’ve done a lot of SCY training through the winter and then we switch to LCM. It just looks so far from one end to the other that I have to mentally prepare for that switch.

I had both a LCM and a smaller pool in college. I ended up avoiding the smaller pool because it was always a bit too warm. But since then I haven't really had any opportunity to use a LCM pool.

This is my go-to pool for the summer! 150 yards! It definitely is a bit rough those first few swims each year (its only open May-September), but I think it makes a huge difference in swim fitness for triathlon.

My turns absolutely suck when I get back to SCM for the winter though. Luckily my competitive swimming days are behind me and I no longer need fast turns.

Well if you're doing that, you might as well do this:

https://unusualplaces.org/...san-alfonso-del-mar/

1km long!

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

That's next on the list! My co-worker actually has a contact there, so if I ever head down to Chile I'll be aiming to get in there for sure!

LCM, actually my preference is open water and LCM is nearest to that.. a sense of space and freedom, in LCM..
though as I get older fatter and slower, LCM gets unreasonably harder..

started swim career age 8 in SCM, then all the colleges I went to and worked for, had outside pools LCM which was very nice.
Moved to the US and felt like I was just spinning flip turns constantly in the SCY, got dizzy.. mostly used to it by now.

my favorite LCM is the London Olympic pool.. it's a public pool now, with lap times available. Don't exactly get to swim there often unfortunately.

The Glenwood Hot Springs has a pool 100 ft wide by 405 ft long and there are 100ft lap lanes available all the time. Those laps in 90deg sulphurous water are decidedly odd..

This.

scy.

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.