Ohh 58 foot pool means 219 laps for you! Thank you sir may I have another!
Sure, but if you leave your bike at the other end of the pool, you can ride it back to your stuff and then run to the showers for a full brick workout!
LOL!!! I am SO going to do that!!!
I just realized that I don’t know if my pool is in meters or yards. All these years and I may have been doing too much or too little of a workout.
“There is no such thing as an agreement among hard core swimmers on whether a lap is one or two lengths. Never will be either.”
of course there is. A lap is when you swim from one end of the pool to the other. Any hard core (or ex) swimmer knows that the 200 free is 8 laps.
Now, an agreement between hard core swimmers and triathletes…?
first of all, real swimmers and triathletes will never agree on ANYTHING about swimming.
At all of the swim meets around here, the official says “200 freestyle. swimmers will swim EIGHT LENGTHS of the pool.” not eight LAPS, eight LENGTHS. Or, “500 yard freestyle. swimmers will swim TWENTY LENGTHS of the pool and this is a GUN LAP event.” Meaning, when the leading swimmer is coming into the wall with fifty yards left to go, they ring a bell or something over your lane.
it’s like on a track!!! one lap is all the way around!!! round trip! A lap means round trip in the pool too 
I just realized that I don’t know if my pool is in meters or yards. All these years and I may have been doing too much or too little of a workout.
but you should be able to feel the difference (well, if you’ve swum in other pools), meters are longer, you get to swim more and it’s not so interrupted by turns! our pool is 25y x 25m and is always strung in yards (for no apparent reason, either. don’t get me started on that, I bug the lifeguards and swim coach constantly to string it in meters.) BUT IT WILL BE IN METERS ON SATURDAY!!!
‘a LAP is down and back…’
and here I thought you were a swimmer ;^)
At all of the swim meets around here, the official says “200 freestyle. swimmers will swim EIGHT LENGTHS of the pool.” not eight LAPS, eight LENGTHS. Or, “500 yard freestyle. swimmers will swim TWENTY LENGTHS of the pool and this is a GUN LAP event.” Meaning, when the leading swimmer is coming into the wall with fifty yards left to go, they ring a bell or something over your lane.
And a LAP Counter for the 500 yard free goes to what number?? 20! That’s 20 laps! (edit - lap counters have odd numbers - so 19 or the big orange “you only have one more lap till your done!”)
As soon as I read the title of the OP, I knew this would be a funny thread. We (some friends from an old masters team and I) tried to see if it was a “region thing”. I grew up in Nor Cal, and they were laps, midwest for college they were laps and lengths - there is never a consensus!! Once I do a turn, I have done a lap!
“length” = the longest extent of anything measured from end to end
“lap” = the complete circuit of a course (which means you have to end up where you began).
Uh, no. Look it up in the dictionary, there’s a reason why it’s not quite so clear cut. “Lap” can mean either:
One complete round or circuit, especially of a racetrack. One complete length of a straight course, as of a swimming pool.
“it’s like on a track!!! one lap is all the way around!!! round trip! A lap means round trip in the pool too”
Only if you’re swimming circles. Otherwise one lap = one length.
Whether or not the officials “around here” call the 500 free 20 lengths or 20 laps, you will never, EVER, hear an official call the 500 free 10 laps.
I’m relatively young (29) but still swam competitively from age 4 at Mission Viejo until age 22 at Foxcatcher Swimming (until John DuPont shot a guy) and Lafayette College. I swam the 500 free at every friggin dual meet for 4 years (damn that sucked!). Maybe things have changed, but I doubt it.
This is only a debate with people who didn’t grow up swimming competitively, regardless of what the dictionary says.
Let’s move this debate along and give all you newbie swimmers something else to work on changing-why do we park in driveways and drive in parkways? Why is it called a ‘boxing ring,’ shouldn’t it be called a boxing square? Why are there no nuts or grapes in GrapeNuts? Why do we call something sent by car a ‘shipment’ and something sent by ship a ‘cargo’? And why are they called “stands” when they’re made for sitting?
;^)
what do you mean? in a 25y or 25m pool, one lap means push off swim flip turn swim back.
if that’s true, i’ve never swam a lap in my life!
do you mean that you don’t do flip turns?
fine. you could swim down open turn swim back
why is everyone around here so picky today 
Eganski, I love you man. You are so right on the money in your answer!
"Let’s move this debate along and give all you newbie swimmers something else to work on changing-why do we park in driveways and drive in parkways? Why is it called a ‘boxing ring,’ shouldn’t it be called a boxing square? Why are there no nuts or grapes in GrapeNuts? Why do we call something sent by car a ‘shipment’ and something sent by ship a ‘cargo’? And why are they called “stands” when they’re made for sitting? "
Yeah, and why is braille found on drive through ATM’s?
I love you too, but only as a friend…:^P
I will never forget standing at the line in Clearwater and yelling out ‘which one of you bitches is Flanagan’ and having you turn around right in front of me and say ‘Eganski!’
.
If I LAP someone, that means I am passing them again on the LENGTH of the pool, so a lap must mean 2x up and down the pool
(ok so I am the one that usually gets lapped but hey its my example)
.
That made the whole trip worthwhile. The race itself sucked big balls.
why does Sour Cream have an expiry date? How does Teflon stick to the pan?
do you mean that you don’t do flip turns?
fine. you could swim down open turn swim back
why is everyone around here so picky today
yeah. that’s what I meant.
progress, though - did 3 somersaults in the pool on Tuesday. maybe i’ll be a swimmer yet.
Have you tried this? Just curious of how it feels on the hand while swimming, etc. In general not an issue, but when doing 1000m TT to test fitness, I sometimes lose count as I’m pushing it and occasionally do an extra 50m.
Post: There is a lap counter available from www.kiefer.com. Of course, you can also count lenghts (half laps).
