Friday 31 July 2015 — This is close to ten years old, but it's still good.
My exercise is swimming, and it’s an important part of my day. I track my distance. Usually I swim a mile or so. To swim a mile in a 25-yard pool, you have to make 36 round trips.
I say this as, “36 laps.” The sign at my pool says a mile is 36 laps.
I was listening to the How to Do Everything podcast, and they had a question about whether a lap is once across a pool, or there and back. I smugly thought to myself, “there and back, of course.”
To answer the question, they asked Natalie Coughlin, an Olympic swimmer, who said,
In swimming, the lap refers to swimming from one end of the pool to the next. Without a doubt, it’s one end of the pool to the other. It’s not back and forth.
What!? How does this make sense? We already have a word for one end to the other, “a length.” Are we really going to use both words to mean the same thing, and then have no word for there and back?
In any other sport, a lap takes you from a starting point, out some distance, and then back to where you started. Why should swimming be different? I thought this was supposed to be an erudite sport?
Looking for a higher authority, I consulted the glossary at USA Swimming:
Lap: One length of the course. Sometimes may also mean down and back (2 lengths) of the course.
Thanks a lot... This definition both exposes the absurdity, by defining lap to mean precisely “a length,” and then throws out there that some people use the word differently (in the useful way), so we really don’t know what we’re talking about.
Can we do something about this? Can’t the universe make just a little more sense?
Comments
s/25 meters/25 yards if 'Muricah
@Alexandre: this is an interesting point, and might provide some hope that there is at least a modicum of logic somewhere in here.
1.1 A stage in a swim consisting of two lengths (or one length) of a pool.
‘everyone did ten laps of the pool’ So it does not really help
In a 25 yard pool, it tells me a length is one side to the other side is a length. It tells me a lap is swimming to the other side and back to the starting side. I have checked with swim staff also.
So I swimming it’s the same
A lap is two lengths. Any one who says otherwise is a moron
As many have already so clearly pointed out, a “lap” equals a single length in swimming; it’s just a fact. As defined, it’s about the completion of a course, and not all courses are circular. If you still think otherwise, you’re either too stubborn or too stupid to realize when you’re wrong.
Important test: When you say (in a short course pool), “I just got lapped,” do you mean that someone is 25 yards or 50 yards ahead of you? If you mean 50, then lap and length are two different things. If you don’t mean 50, you are insane. Ergo, a lap is down and back.
This confusion with comparing “length” & “lap” and saying they’re the same in swimming makes ZERO sense. As a swimmer for my entire life and a swim coach I have had this debate for decades and I have come to the conclusion that swimmers are the ones responsible for this confusion because they are trying to swim less distance (LOL) In a 25 yard pool a lap is 50 yards but by making the two different words synonymous swimmers will swim 25 yards and say they swam a lap. SMH
If you were asked what the length of a car is you would measure from one end of the car to the other, you would not measure from front to rear then do it again in reverse and say the car is twice as long as it really is.
A lap is when you have a starting point and you return to it as is the case in track & field or auto racing. In swimming, that’s down and back or two lengths of the pool.
The two words are not the same . Why do some people get to change the definition?
One part of the confusion is a 50 meter pool versus a 25 meter pool. I have always been taught that a lap is down and back (2 lengths). For a standard 25 meter pool that would be 50 meters per lap.
If however I had access to a 50 meter pool I would just use the term “lengths”.
I could see how a person swimming in a 50 meter pool however would want to use “lap” interchangeably with lengths.
Basically whenever I say a “lap” it would be 50 meters.
A lap is down and back. Any other definition makes no sense, regardless of the length of the pool.
1 lap = 2 lengths.
by the logic some of you are using, a lap is the completion of a course. So by that logic, if i swam a 500 (course) it would be one lap. If you disagree with this statement, then make it make sense.
https://athleteapproved.com/one-lap-in-swimming-defined/ Perfectly explained…..
I think the lap = 2 lengths is the more traditional usage. Those who want to say it the same are coming from some more recent usage in the Olympics, where various reasons (less audience confusion, and the 50 versus 25 m pool difference) have driven the modern fad of calling them the same. But if you are a traditionalist, stick with the normal usage and tell the grommets to pound sand.
A lap is not there and back - it’s one end to the other. I swam on a club team, a country club team, high school, two colleges, division 1 and 2, and I swam Post college - it’s from one wall to the other. When I was 6 and swimming 25 yds or meters (pending On the pool) in a race I swam one lap or length. And they always announced it as 1 lap- and when I swam the 200 fly, in a 25 yard pool it was 8 laps and in a 50 meter pool it was 4. And when you swim the 1650 the counter they stick in for you reads lengths as laps - it’s a lap counter. Sorry I know it’s confusing and it’s something that should be clarified by the authority. Reality is coach didn’t say do 10 2 lap swims, he/she said swim 10 50’s on the 45.
I agree with Ellen. Since I began swimming competitively as a 10 year old in 1968, a “lap” in swimming was one “length” of the pool. Non-swimmers have tried to argue otherwise, based on common understanding of the terms, but it is just a quirk of language for swimmers. Of course, they assume I have swum double the distance, making me look very impressive indeed!
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