My wife is pushing for a pool. I’m looking at doing something with it that might help my training. Such as: Endless Pools has an add on unit that provides a stream of water to swim through (for $7000). There are also other much less expensive options like the Riptide strech cord system. Is it even remotely possible to get a good workout in a backyard pool or am I dreaming/wasting money?
gosh that endless option cost 7 grand? geesh! that’s expensive! try the cords, but ultimately, the pool will be what it is…a backyard leisure pool. not a training pool. accept it for what it is and you’ll enjoy it much more 
my bad…it’s $6000. Probably close to 7 large after shipping/install though. I’d consider it if it were useful and somewhat realistic.
Don’t know about the endless pool unit, but don’t waste your money on the cords.
don’t use cords. Stick to pool and open water training. Backyard pools are virtually useless and endless pools are
easily beatable therefor not making them endless.
my husband is always talking about getting a pool in our next house. in the past i’ve felt that if we get one i’d only want it if it were big enough to train in. now i see that’s just not realistic, but it sure would be fun to have one for parties and just general summer fun. so i’ve let go of the idea that i would somehow train in it because ultimately it would just be a letdown, even with the endless. for me i’m better off just going to the training pool.
i just wonder how well that endless unit works. it would suck to install it and have it be a disappointment…
what do you mean by beatable? that the current isn’t fast enough to keep a swimmer engaged?
My wife is pushing for a pool. I’m looking at doing something with it that might help my training. Such as: Endless Pools has an add on unit that provides a stream of water to swim through (for $7000). There are also other much less expensive options like the Riptide strech cord system. Is it even remotely possible to get a good workout in a backyard pool or am I dreaming/wasting money?
Unless you are building a 50 yard pool…forget it…the cords are useless…endless pool?..dunno?
I had a pool built last year…41ft long and 38 ft at the widest point…you can do a few strokes…do a turn…thats it. GREAT for the kids…and having a few coctails with friends.
If your yard and wallet are big enough…build it then sell memeberships…
I would suggest going to the endless pools website and ordering the free dvd… It is very informative. I think that is going to be your best bet if you are really looking for a useful way to train in a back yard pool. Really, are you going to be content tying cords to yourself and swimming all summer? Uggh…
Get the cords. But don’t use them as your main training tool. As mentioned before, to most of your swimming in a regular 25 yard pool or open water. Use the cords is you can’t make it to the pool that day or to add some strenght-type workouts. We used cords sometimes for training when I swam competitively.
Does anyone out there have a 25m backyard pool? We are looking into getting a pool this year and are thinking that we want to have a “normal” pool but with an off-shoot lane that will extend for 25m. We have the yard room. I don’t know how much extra something like this might cost. Any ideas? Anyone thing that endless or infinite pool would be better? Thanks.
I have an inground pool in my back yard. It is not long enough to swim laps in. However I use the stretch cords that are available through the Keifer catalog and find them to be adequate. I probably use them 4 or 5 times a week for 20 to 30 minutes a shot. It takes some discipline though to make sure that you are swimming hard enough to make it a workout. It is important to note that I swim at a 1:40/ 100 pace with hardly any training at all. This is fine for me, so I choose to spend more time biking and running in the summer.
The Endless Pool should be adequate for anyone save the best swimmers. The pool insert from Endless Pool is essentially the same thing as the guts of the original. So it should be the same.
Bernie
Maybe build it longer and narrower? Squeeze as much length as you can out of it. At the very least, you’ll get great at flip turns!
I know there are places where you can demo an endless/infinite pool.
Where are you located Kittycat?
I can get you a demo in a Fastlane or Endless Pool. Trust me when i tell you you’ll be surprised at how much is DOESN’T suck.
-Lee
Nothing can replace real swimming. If you have the space (and money) to put a 25m lane in, I would go for it. I think even at Xantusia they finally built a real pool. Ask Dan or Monty. Make sure your lane is deep enough for flipturns and also wide enough. If I would have the space I would have done it already in a heartbeat.
“Nothing can replace real swimming.”
Agreed…good thing swimming in an Endless Pool or Fastlane IS real swimming.
Before you disagree…have you tried one? If not, speak not of what you do not know. PM me with your location and I’ll set you up to try one. Then you can decide.
that’s perfect. I would do that if I didn’t already have a pool.
Here’s a link to some video to give you an idea af what it’s like in a Fastlane (Endless Pool for existing backyard pools)
http://www.endlesspools.com/fastlane/videogallery/index.html
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I bet the offshoot lane would cost approximately what the rest of the pool costs, since 25m x 1m x 2m is about 13000 gallons, which is about the volume of water in a typical backyard pool.
When I was house hunting in my new area (I recently moved) my realtor threw out $40K as the cost of constructing a typical backyard pool. I haven’t shopped that number around, and have no direct knowledge (other than what my realtor said).
Since I did find a home with a pool, large enough for a FastLane, I am seriously considering getting one.
Easy out there! It is not my style to speak of what I don’t know.
I am not dissing Endless Pools or any other manufacturer of such devices. I was a former customer of yours (did I mention that I owned a Fastlane?), because I had the alternative between not swimming at all or driving an hour to a pool.
However a major turn off for me was the noise and that I had to stop my stroke to adjust the current (did you finally develop the wireless “finger-remote” to adjust the current on the fly?), because a constant current is not optimal to swim easy/hard sets.
So if I had the choice to built a real pool, with being more quiet, allowing easy/fast paced swims without stopping and adjusting the current and being able to train turns (-I know, Triathletes don’t do turns-), I would prefer that in a heartbeat, even if it is a little bit more expensive up front.