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Lap vs. Length........DING
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This is happening.


This came up the other day at tri club practice, and being a lifelong swimmer, I assigned the set in yardage, but gave a "lap" equivalent for the beginners in the group because I've found that many beginners have a hard time mentally/physically processing what it means to swim a 100, or a 200. Some people confused the matter by perpetuating the notion that they acquired in their PE swimming class here at NC State that a "lap" consisted of 50yd in our 25yd pool. I am frustrated that this idea persists and introduces confusion, so here is my take:

Since the debate specifically concerns the meaning of the word "lap" as it applies to swimming, why not defer to the meaning connoted by the majority of true swimmers? For anyone that grew up swimming club/year-round or even summer league and high school programs in the United States (so far I have found zero exceptions, but that doesn't mean there aren't any), one lap in swimming is equal to the distance between the two ends of the pool. A lap in a 25yd pool is 25yd, a lap in a 50m pool is 50m, and that is that. There are plenty of words that carry different meanings in different sports, or apply in one way to one sport, but not to another, so I propose that everyone should accept what some people believe to be a nuanced meaning to the word "lap."

Can we say, for the sake of eliminating confusion, that the word "lap" is interchangeable with "length" for the purposes of defining swimming distances (at least here in the US)?

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Last edited by: Slowman: Sep 13, 11 16:33
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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Yes.

And as the acting president of Canada, I endorse this up here too.

Done.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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This is going to be really hard for me to accept.... its a lot easier for me to count 30 laps (there and back 1) than it is to count 60 (there 1, back here 2?)!
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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I think the confusion is that a lap in everything else is one circuit so a lap in a 25m pool would be 50m and a length would be 25m since that is the length of the pool. This is my nonswimming view. Its much easier just to say a distance though since that is understood by all.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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I have always understood a Lap to be down and back (50 yds.). A length is 25 yds. So we will continue to use that thank you anyway.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [xtremrun] [ In reply to ]
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Yeah, I don't do flip turns either.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [xtremrun] [ In reply to ]
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xtremrun wrote:
I have always understood a Lap to be down and back (50 yds.). A length is 25 yds. So we will continue to use that thank you anyway.

Me too and I grew up as a swimmer, albeit it a Canadian one. Mind you, I don't really care - counting by yardage is way easier...
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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BUZZ!

If you mean "length", and you think that when you say "lap" that there is some chance that the listener will use the dictionary definition of lap (one circuit of a racecourse or track), then use the word length instead of defining lap as a 1/2 of a circuit.

Maybe that's the terminology that has always been used, but that doesn't make it right. Is it any harder to say "length", and does it cause less confusion? If so, then ditch the confusing term lap and use the less confusing word length.

Either that, or don't be surprised when people assume you need to get back to where you started before you can call it a lap.
Last edited by: JoeB: Sep 13, 11 12:03
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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According to my Total Immersion book lap = length and is widely accepted by all competitive swimmers / coaches.

24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [xtremrun] [ In reply to ]
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xtremrun wrote:
I have always understood a Lap to be down and back (50 yds.). A length is 25 yds. So we will continue to use that thank you anyway.

Here here! Agreed - all in favor say "aye"

Everyone, return back to your business.

Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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ZackC. wrote:
...because I've found that many beginners have a hard time mentally/physically processing what it means to swim a 100, or a 200. ...


Really? If that's the case, I think you've got much bigger fish to fry than worrying about lap/length.


Steve

"If you ain't first, you're last." Reese Bobby Talladega Nights
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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The most cogent argument that I have heard on the subject is that a lap = a single completion of the course. In swimming, given that the course is a straight line, that means a single length and therefore 1 length = 1 lap. However, those of us in the US live in a Nascar world, where completing a lap means you end up where you started ... this is further supported by track and field where laps result in ending where you begin ... (unless you're running the 100m or 200m but why quibble). Also, I have a good friend who has been a competitive swimmer his whole life (not primarily in the US), and to him a lap means 50yds in a 25yd pool.

As a result of the confusion potential, I have personally excised "lap" from my vocabulary when I'm talking about specific quantities of traversing the pool and only use it in the general "I'm going to the pool to swim laps and hate every minute of it" ... when specificity is required it is: "I'm going to swim 80 lengths and hate every one of them"
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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Lap does not equal Length.

What is this Brave New World? Let us maintain the definition of words!

Let me ask you a question... What does it mean to lap someone in your swimming language?
Last edited by: SH: Sep 13, 11 12:08
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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I prefer lap to length, and width to lap.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [SH] [ In reply to ]
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SH wrote:
Lap does not equal Length.

What is this Brave New World? Let us maintain the definition of words!

Let me ask you a question... What does it mean to lap someone in your swimming language?

well, i suspect in a 25yd pool that would mean being 25yds ahead of them...........sorta/kinda........


Tim
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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More importantly... if your pool is 25m and mine is 25y in length can you give me the equivalent break down.

How can you expect us to really agree on lap versus length when my pool is really only 22.86m long?

You get all the pools either 25m/50m or 25y/50y and then we can figure out what is a length and what is a lap.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [JoeB] [ In reply to ]
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I take a "circuit" to mean the shortest non-fractional distance offered by a particular course, that is to say that a circuit involves covering the distance between the beginning and the end.

The relation between the starting and ending point is relevant, but the running convention can't and shouldn't be applied because THIS ISN'T RUNNING. Pools aren't round, and swimmers don't necessarily swim a circular race. Like I said, in different contexts, words have different meanings. Real swimmers know a "lap" to be the distance between the beginning and the end of the pool.

Question for those of you that say a "lap" is down and back:

When my little summer league swimmers race a 25m freestyle in a 25m pool, is their race 1/2 a lap?


That said, the swimming parlance breaks down when discussing whether or not a swimmer has been "lapped." To be lapped in swimming means that a competing swimmer has completed two more lengths than you.

Like Jack says, I think it's a weakness/deficiency in our language--it almost seems that the word "lap" shouldn't have even been applied to swimming at all.

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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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ZackC. wrote:
Question for those of you that say a "lap" is down and back:

When my little summer league swimmers race a 25m freestyle in a 25m pool, is their race 1/2 a lap?

Sure. The same way that a 200 meter race on a 400 meter track is 1/2 a lap. It is what it is.

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Like Jack says, I think it's a weakness/deficiency in our language--it almost seems that the word "lap" shouldn't have even been applied to swimming at all.

I'll agree with that. Length seems to be much less confusing and very descriptive.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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I know you don't race with more than one person in a lane but for traininig if there are more than two of you in a lane then you are swimming circles? Does this mean if there are more less than 3 people a lap could be 25 and 3+ a lap is 50?

And yes I would say a 25 free would be 1/2 a lap just like the 200 on a track is 1/2 a lap.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [Goosedog] [ In reply to ]
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Goosedog wrote:
Yeah, I don't do flip turns either.

Fuck 'em.
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [triLA] [ In reply to ]
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To: I prefer lap to length, and width to lap. .................I perfer my wife in my lap, she perfers my length, niether on of us want to change our width
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lap
1. one circuit of a racecourse or track
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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When you are done here, please move on to the definition of the word "strength."

Thanks in advance.

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"Go yell at an M&M"
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Re: Lap vs. Length........................DING [ZackC.] [ In reply to ]
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I still remember when I raced my first 50 as a kid and the announcer stated that the race was to be 2 lengths of the pool. It counfused the heck out of my 7 year old mind because we always called them laps.

But if you think that a beginner is confused by using 100's or 200's, why would you ever think that laps would be better? You now have a choice:

A) Use the term length.
B) Be stuck you your ways and insist on using the term lap and try to rationalize it some how.
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