Whats the worst pool you have trained in?

[Kaci]

At the moment the main pool in the island is closed for 6 weeks and the only other indoor pool is closed for 3 weeks. One of our sessions is at a primary school pool and it is terrible.

There are not flags, the lane ropes are basically ropes, there is a bar on the wall at the end of the pool so you clip your feet and the pool is above ground level so the water fligs back at you as there are no drains. Oh and there is no clock and the pool isn't the right length.

The session there is 2 hours and its certainly not ideal for our Commonwealth swimmers!

Can there really be worse pools to train in?

[swimusa]

Harvard University's Pool in Cambridge Massachusetts, Brown University's Pool in Providence, Rhode Island and George Mason University's Pool in Fairfax, Virginia (just outside Washington, DC).

[mammamedley]

Farnborough Recreation Centre!!

[pippie]

i hated it when i swam at Eton (but at least it wasnt the main pool i swam at )
ANY WAY IVE MOVED CLUbS NOW !!!:rocket:

[dasc]

Originally posted by Kaci
At the moment the main pool in the island is closed for 6 weeks and the only other indoor pool is closed for 3 weeks. One of our sessions is at a primary school pool and it is terrible.

There are not flags, the lane ropes are basically ropes, there is a bar on the wall at the end of the pool so you clip your feet and the pool is above ground level so the water fligs back at you as there are no drains. Oh and there is no clock and the pool isn't the right length.

The session there is 2 hours and its certainly not ideal for our Commonwealth swimmers!

Can there really be worse pools to train in?


well we train at a school pool monday, thursday and friday nights for 2hours at a time. The pool is 20m and has bars on the sides, as well as having a broken pool heater which means the water can either be fairly hot or ice cold! :mad: Also the chlorine they use makes you itchy, and when you and ruins your hair! As well as taking forever to get rid of the smell! Having said that we do train in a 25m 10 lane pool for the rest of the time which was once voted best leisure centre in the Uk! :eek: But i do feel sorry for you and we only have to look at our competitors aka america and australia etc who have state of the art 50m and 25m pools.

But most swimming clubs in the Uk have to train in small 20m or even smaller pools, it just means more chances to practice turns:D

Even worse is the cost of hiring such poor quality training pools - but i won't even go there!

| end of rant |
:chainsaw:

[Aussiebabe]

Whilst I admit I hate training in bad pools, there are surprising success stories of peolple performing despite their training conditions.

I believe Michael Phelps swims in a 25 yard pool all the time and I know for a fact that Kieren Perkins trainied for the Moscow (? Not sure which one it was exactly) Olympics in Mr Carew's (his coach) baby training pool which is 20m long and about 35degrees. He won the Olympic title with a new world record time!! No-one in our club ever dares complain about the pool we train in, or if we have to swim in the 20m pool as we do from time to time, 'cos Mr Carew just retells that story!!!

[Steve]

Originally posted by Aussiebabe
I believe Michael Phelps swims in a 25 yard pool all the time and I know for a fact that Kieren Perkins trainied for the Moscow (? Not sure which one it was exactly) Olympics in Mr Carew's (his coach) baby training pool which is 20m long and about 35degrees.

I think that phelps swims about half of his sessions in a 50m pool cut down to 25 yards with booms (there's an article by Terry Denison about it at britishswimming.org and James Hickman mentioned it in his interview on pullbuoy) so the quality of the facility is still much higher that your average school pool!

As for perkins, I'm guessing it wasn't the moscow olymnpics (they were in 1980 :eek: - maybe barcelona?) but if its a true story that's amazing!

[Aussiebabe]

OK my facts were a little confused - I though Phelps trained full time in the 25 yards!! I am also confused about which olympics - didn't think Moscow sounded right, but was too lazy to go and work out which one it must have been!! The rest of the info on Kieren Perkins was straight from the horse's mouth - well from his coach anyway!!!:D

[swimusa]

With Phelps, it makes sense. 1/2 of the American swimming year is raced in 25 yards and the other 1/2 50 meters. Most clubs in the situation of North Baltimore Aq Club (Phelps's club) put up bulkheads to create a 25 yard course during the winter so we can train that course. Come April, the bulkheads are removed. I can tell you Tom Dolan swims 75% of his practices in a 25 yard pool. He only trains 50 meters in the morning from April until October, because of the lack of 50 meter pools in Washington, DC.

[Bazza]

We'd all love to be able to swim in new, clean pools with a nice atmosphere, temperature, etc. However alot of people don't get such opportunities (even the world's best - though maybe not quite so much these days). Facilities are not the be-all-and-end-all!

[swimmer]

Facilities are not the be-all-and-end-all!


But they sure help!

[dasc]

Originally posted by swimmer



But they sure help!

i agree...

if you train in a small, poor condition pool you tend to be less enthusiatic to training than swimming in a modern state-of-the-art pool. - well i am anyway!

[Unfit]

i used to do most of my training in a really old victorian swimming pool and i loved it. i much prefered it to swimming in the new school pool we moved to which was state of the art. i think there was character in the old pool which made me feel really comfortable. i always trained much better there!

[dasc]

Originally posted by Unfit
i used to do most of my training in a really old victorian swimming pool and i loved it. i much prefered it to swimming in the new school pool we moved to which was state of the art. i think there was character in the old pool which made me feel really comfortable. i always trained much better there!


that is true, however many other old pools do not keep their 'character'. instead they deteriate, and infact become health & safety hazards! i would love to train in any pool which was kept clean and up to date, however this only applys to a minority of the pools in the UK due to lack of gov funding in sport grass roots. i mean its brilliant to build lots of new 50m pools however old pools need funding to keep them fully functional and safe.

in conclusion new pools 'for me' give me an extra thrill when training, over old pools which are in desperate need of repair. i also recognise that be it 20m, 331/3m or 50m size pool that you will only improve by the amount of effort and determination you put into training!

well thats my opinion anyway!

:rolleyes:

[mammamedley]

Nothing better than pulling out all the dead spiders in the pool during your early morning warm-up!

Why do dome pools make mine and my husbands sinuses play up?

[nsswimmer]

i love training in state-of-the-art, new, fresh, clean pools that give you a sense of happiness. lol i am soo weird. i hate dome pools tho, cuz in backstroke, i always get dizzy when i swim in dome pools and i swerve back and forth in my lane.

[swimusa]

Mama, it could be because of the amount of chlorine, or the maintanance of the pool area from mildew/mold spores.

[Timekeeper Taff]

The worst pool i have trained at was Binswood pool in Leamington Spa. I dont train there now because i have moved clubs, but it was 17m long! It also was either boiling hot (like a bath) or freezing cold!!!! This either way gave you a terrible headache. My older brother really liked swimming there because he could just push of at one end of the pool, do several fly kicks and he had done 1 length. There was just 1 bench at the end of the pool where you could fit about 6 spectaters!!! Also the pool water tasted really salty and if you had too many people in the pool you couldnt see where you were going at all.

[water_babe_2003]

At my old club, i remember we used to train in this school pool, it was totally gross!! Flies....leaves.... floating about! YUK!! To my knowledge they still train there now!!!!

[BigFish]

Yes we certainly do, but we have lane ropes now!

Hi Chrissy.

[water_babe_2003]

Yeh Dave, it's nice to know Doncaster's standards have risen!! (owch, i'm so sarcastic!) lol. By the way, i'm off out 2 the cinema with a good mate of mine from work (& an ex g/f of yours) :)

[sub24]

Why do dome pools make mine and my husbands sinuses play up?

The reason for this is your years of swimming have resulted in extra sensitive sinuses. They are reacting in the same way our eyes react to chloramines. The pH of the pool must be right to allow chlorine to sanitize well. Once a pool's chlorine has been used up the pool should be super chlorinated or the pool will have a build up of chlorimines (non sanitizing chlorine). It is likely that the pools which are called dome pools are used by a lot of children peeing in the pool and using up the free chlorine.

Chlorine in a solution of water at levels found in swimming pools pose no danger for swimmers. Allergic reactions to chlorine are rare, however some individuals may experience skin irritation. Chloramines, sometimes found in poorly balanced water, are the cause of occasional red eyes when swimming.

http://www.poolcenter.com/chlor.htm

[tinie]

:mad: RAF Brize Norton i train there ever thursday night and it horibule they dont use clorine they use something else and it always merkey and its horibule when u cant see were ur going

[swimmer]

chloramines ahhh thanks lane 4, that was the name of the chemical i was searching my brain for in a post on a differnt thread!

[Katie]

Emma what was that pool in Jersey the reeeeeeeeeeeeally cold one? Was it haute valley sch or something? I was so freezing, u just didn't warm up in the whole session! Even after ron's 1 million mile TOTALLY UNNECESSARY walk!

[swimmer]

hehe yeh thats it, Haute Valley School - up a hill! it was sooooo cold! esp with the cold water tap in my lane! we had a 3 hour session there once and we just didn't warm up at all!

[super_fish88]

A pool that i train at is the exact opposite, it's far too hot! You can't do any sets properly because the pool temperature is just too hot to swim in.

[swimmer]

we have that in one of our pools some of the time. i prefer it cold than hot i guess, becuase when its hot it zaps all of my energy away and i feel lethargic and tired

[croberts]

the worst pool ever forced to train in was an above ground, temporary 4 lane 25 yard pool. the lane ropes were literally just ropes and the temp was always pretty close to the air temp because it had no heating mechanism. those were some tough practices

[sisclub]

We have a pool just around the corner that we sometimes train in and it's 17 and a half meters long. We go there for turn practice but it's such a useless pool.

[tinie]

the RAF pool we tranin at on a thursday is yuck they dont use clorien they use somit else and it can be clear as any thing one week and then misty the next and its either freezing or way tooooo hot to train in

[Coach]

Who remembers the old pool at Millfield.

Many champions came out of that pool, including Duncan Goodhew 100m Br Olympic Gold Medalist (that was Moscow!)

[Top10ranking]

Post edited.

[adamlelean]

Never trained there, but I once competed at Bottisham pool. I think it was a school pool and may now be closed. The water was green.
This was in the old days where most races started at the shallow end of the pool. They switched races to start at the deep end, it was just possible to see the black lines on the bottom of the pool at the shallow end. There might have been plasters, or spiders, or dead sheep at the bottom, there was was no way to tell.

[Top10ranking]

Never trained there, but I once competed at Bottisham pool. I think it was a school pool and may now be closed. The water was green.
This was in the old days where most races started at the shallow end of the pool. They switched races to start at the deep end, it was just possible to see the black lines on the bottom of the pool at the shallow end. There might have been plasters, or spiders, or dead sheep at the bottom, there was was no way to tell.

ok you win :king:

[ruthcp]

Edited by Chris

I personally think your comment here is racist, and if I were a moderator, I would ask for it to be removed.

[Top10ranking]

I personally think your comment here is racist, and if I were a moderator, I would ask for it to be removed.

racist?? i dont mean anything by it. what shall i call them then?

[GettingFaster]

I personally think your comment here is racist, and if I were a moderator, I would ask for it to be removed.

Ruth, you're assuming anyone actually reads anything our young friend posts...
:read: :devil: :music:

[Top10ranking]

funny man gettingfaster

[ruthcp]

Ruth, you're assuming anyone actually reads anything our young friend posts...
:read: :devil: :music:

I would be offended if anyone happened to glance at it even - think of what people would say if on this site we were allowed to make such comments about other races?

[ruthcp]

racist?? i dont mean anything by it. what shall i call them then?

This admission of your shortcomings in the brain department does nothing to alleviate the unpleasantness of your post.

I find the comment at the end of your posts quite funny - access through the mind indeed, though in your case I wonder whose?

[Top10ranking]

I would be offended if anyone happened to glance at it even - think of what people would say if on this site we were allowed to make such comments about other races?

it happens to be a fact that in our area there are alot of these people and yes they do sneak through

[taxi service]

Might take the quote more seriously if the spelling was correct.....

[Chris]

Posts edited.

Watch it Top10ranking ..... you're asking for trouble.

[Top10ranking]

amersham was very bad this evening. we had to get out early because of the chlorine. I wont be going in the morning. :rocket:

[Top10ranking]

amersham was very bad this evening. we had to get out early because of the chlorine. I wont be going in the morning. :rocket:

it is now wednesday night and the pool is still closed. No training for 3days after tomorrow. :rocket:

[geochuck]

In 1956 Melbourne Olympic pool. When they constructed this pool they forgot to mark the bottom of the swim pool with the "T" to warn the approach of the turn. They took lead weighted black rubber pads and placed them on the bottom of the pool. My times were very good and I figured I would be in the top three, if not first.

Three days before the heats I was taken to the hospital with a temperature of 1:04 which stayed with me for two days. It was the first time I ever prayed for god to let me live. I got out of the hospital and went to the trials. I got on the starting block. When the gun went off I went to the front ahead of Gary Chapman from Australia. As I approached the turn I saw the marker on the bottom of the pool figuring two more strokes and turn. One stroke and I went head first into the wall (the rubber marker on my lane had been moved three feet closer than it should have been) I was dazed and came off the wall last behind Ron Roberts of Great Britain. I tried as hard as could and I got back into 4th for the heat.

I was 1 tenth of a second behind the last qualifier. So did not make it past the heats. The day of the final I swam 110 meter swim in another pool and was faster than the winner.

Was it bad luck or did someone move the pad. Guess what that's the breaks. I have hated that pool eversince and was happy when it was torn down.

George

[westie]

Hmm, the worst pool i have been in is one i train at, West hill park school or Fareham lesuire center. Both horrible pools!!

[Bazza]

Ooh Fareham, that brings back memories. Not the worst but pretty bad...

[rubber ducky]

Did anyone ever go to the old Downham Market pool???? The bottom was slimy, it was like an old greenhouse, water dripped from the ceiling, there were frogs in there one year.....need i go on??

[RobertBS]

Queen Elizabeth's Boys School in High Barnet wins my vote. 33 1/3 yards long (always an interesting distance!). A boys' changing room that has a window in the door, next to the entrance, so that anyone walking in can take a good look.

The floor covering can be described as "slime covered concrete". No proper lane ropes. In autumn, leaves come in from outside and are deposited on the poolside. There is no clock. There are no blocks.

Enfield Lock pool used to be an experience too. One lane for you, one lane for the cockroaches. A whacking great trough making lanes 2 and 3 shorter (only 4 lanes), giving an advantage to the middle swimmers.

On reflection, I spent most of my career swimming in honkingly poor pools.
Arnos Pool prior to refurbishment! Now with added paint chips!
Winchmore Hill pool! Now with worse chlorine control!
Edmonton Green Swimming Pool! Now with added cockroaches!
Wood Green Swimming Pool! Now with added Gothic Horror!
Tottenham Baths! Now with added overhanging balconies!
Albany Swimming Pool! Now with added 'wave to yourself reflected off the roof' excitement!
Hatfield Swimming Pool! Now with 'Kill all the backstrokers' roof design!
Arthur Hill Swimming Pool! Now with added "Unique 27M length"!

And lets not mention the Speedo League London venues.

(Disclaimer : All this info is at least 7 years old. Some is over 10 years old. Enfield Lock Pool was closed in 1988).

[lozswimmer]

Did anyone ever go to the old Downham Market pool???? The bottom was slimy, it was like an old greenhouse, water dripped from the ceiling, there were frogs in there one year.....need i go on??
one of the pools in nottingham that i swam a gala in had slime on the bottom and was freezing cold! another had a nice little suprise left by a baby for us....

[Katie]

was the one in Nottingham the Victoria pool?? I am training there at the moment, they don't clean it v often!!! It's something random like 36 yards! :)

[lozswimmer]

was the one in Nottingham the Victoria pool?? I am training there at the moment, they don't clean it v often!!! It's something random like 36 yards! :)
yep thats the one!

[Natasha]

Has anyone ever swam at Birkenhead? It is a nasty pool! We used to swim DEVA Leagues and once a year we would go to the 25 yard pool at Birkenhead. The changing rooms are just rickety wooden cubicles that surround the poolside! And it's not even separated into Male/Female so me and my friend spent half an hour after one of the galas cowering in our towels while these guys kept clambering to the top of the wall to try and spy on us!!!!

[icelolly]

we train some of the time in a public school pool and its pretty horrid but we tend to put up and shut up as we are grateful for the pool time . the other night it was 36degrees it was like a bath !!! another night it was so cold the kids were blue within ten mins guess it makes them appreciate there other venues more though

ref nottingham pool is that victoria park pool just outside of nottingham ???

[bred]

geochuck - that's some story, commiserations!
Worst pool I've trained in was my 20m school pool, but I don't find training in a 20m pool to be too bad. In S1 we had a swimming match against another local school though - in a 15m pool!

[Gina]

Worst pool I've trained in is our wed night school pool. It's 18m long and, at a push, is 4 lanes wide (using those useless rope lane ropes). It's normally just over 30 degrees C which I find bad enough when training. There was one day in particular, I looked at the thermometer and it said 31.5 and the deep end. However, there was HOT water being pumped in at the shallow end so the shallow end was much more than 31.5! All this on a hot summers day. A nightmare when you are pounding up and down.

[Martin-Y]

Sadly our pool near Guildford is always that temperature, they try to aim for 30 degrees but it invariably creeps up. It affects the older swimmers the most although my son prefers it warm. Apparently the old folks get cold during their aquacise.

[Taxiandbank]

Has anyone ever swam at Birkenhead? It is a nasty pool! We used to swim DEVA Leagues and once a year we would go to the 25 yard pool at Birkenhead. The changing rooms are just rickety wooden cubicles that surround the poolside! And it's not even separated into Male/Female so me and my friend spent half an hour after one of the galas cowering in our towels while these guys kept clambering to the top of the wall to try and spy on us!!!!

Swum there 25+ years ago. It was dire then. But we got good gala results ther because we told the little kids on the team that unless they swum really fast the big grating on the bottom of the pool would suck them down!

There are probably loads of 30 somethings wandering around on the Wirral mentally scarred because of this early form of child crualty. Apologies if anyone of you are reading this.

TandB :clear:

[Leprechaun]

I think Christchuch (Dorset) is pants. Too warm and inlets nicely positioned where you do your tumbles. Shame

[NotVeryFast]

My previous health club (a Holmes Place) was too warm (often 32C, which made me feel like I was going to explode after around 200m), and wasn't the claimed length (they claimed it was 20m, but admitted when provided with evidence of my consistently too fast times that it was more like 18m).

My current health club (an Esporta) is at least the right length, and a good temperature, but appears to be a deck level design yet they always have the water several inches below deck level, so the waves are really bad. And it has lights underwater right where you turn, so I worry I'm going to smash one with my foot one of these days and cut my foot to pieces. And it has rubbish lane ropes which do nothing to help with the waves.

But really, I have never come across anything to compare with the pool my swimming club trained at when I was very young - the Victorian Gannow Baths in Burnley. Absolutely freezing cold, I dreaded going there. It had big staircases leading down into the water, which several people could stand on together. It needed this because you had to pause for a minute on each step to acclimatise before descending further into the freezing water. Then of course you had to avoid swimming into this huge staircase once the training started. And it had poles along all the pool walls if I recall correctly, not good for turns. I think it closed recently, amid much protest from people who clearly saw it in a different light to how I remember it, though as it isn't being directly replaced I do have sympathy for the local people who no longer have a local pool.

[Swimhelper]

My husband used to train in the 60's in an open air pool at Kingsbury in Middlesex all year round before school (he was a 1650 yds swimmer and no-one wanted to train with him). :cry:

[lifeguard]

The reason for this is your years of swimming have resulted in extra sensitive sinuses. They are reacting in the same way our eyes react to chloramines. The pH of the pool must be right to allow chlorine to sanitize well. Once a pool's chlorine has been used up the pool should be super chlorinated or the pool will have a build up of chlorimines (non sanitizing chlorine). It is likely that the pools which are called dome pools are used by a lot of children peeing in the pool and using up the free chlorine.



http://www.poolcenter.com/chlor.htm

When free chlorine destroys a nitrogen or ammonia containing compound a chloramine (or combined chlorine) is the result and it's this that produces the smell of chlorine in some pools. If you can smell chlorine, the balance is wrong. And yes, you can watch the results of your water tests change after a morning of school swimming lessons! If the pool is run well, then superchlorination is seldom required - it's possible to maintain a free chlorine residual in the presence of combined chlorine. This will continuously destroy chloramine compounds. The chemicals used to treat pool water will determine to an extent the Ph you aim for - we use Calcium Hypochlorite as a chlorine donor and aim for between 7.2 and 7.6 (ideally 7.4) - higher would be better from a chemical point of view but would prove irritating to bathers.

As for the worst pool - the old salt water pool in Nairn was aweful - cold, salty and with seaweed floating about in it. The fact I almost drowned there doesn't improve my memories of the place.

[Saffer]

The worst pools I have experienced here in the UK are:

Cowley in Oxford

Vale of White Horse - Abingdon

The temp of the air is about 32 C, I asked the manager why they have the temp so high and she said "cause we trying to create a tropical atmosphere".

When I walk in my lungs close up and the air is so dry - by the way I am from the tropics and it ain't like that there.

Have a look at these articles to see the damage you do to your lungs training in over chlorinated water.

Strange that in a country obsessed with Health and Safety (http://erj.ersjournals.com/cgi/content/full/19/5/790)


and another one (http://www.respiratoryreviews.com/jul03/rr_jul03_pools.html)

[Vicki]

Worst pool i have ever swan in was LSU in Southampton - its mainly a school pool but open to the public. We used to have swimming sessions there when i was in secondary school. Its truly disgusting, it is so murky you can hardly see you hand in front of your face and there used to be so much hair and toilet paper floating around at the bottom of the pool - YUK! and the little foot bath, you sometimes get before you walk onto poolside, used to be slimey!! I used to get ill everytime we swam there so in the end my coach wrote to the school excusing me from every school swimming lesson ever!! lol!

[swim247]

When our main pool was closed we trained at a school where it was full of human hair, human excrement was fished out of the pool with someones flipper and the algi on the walls matched the green paint!!

Nobody has been right since !!

[swim247]

Best pool has to be Loughborough - why didnt anyone think to make it a competition pool - it would be ideal for Midland Districts, beats minging Coventry anyday!

[Pandi]

:fingers: When our main pool was closed we trained at a school where it was full of human hair, human excrement was fished out of the pool with someones flipper and the algi on the walls matched the green paint!!

Nobody has been right since !!
Why train in a pool like this.School caretaker needs the BOOT,he won't need a degree in Physics or chemistry.Algae on walls alway's a no-no.Bad circulation of disinfectant.No shock dosing of the pool when not in use,Seems as tho there has been no backwashing with the filter's.Crap in pool usually comes via Ickle ones.PH test depending on usage,should give pointer towards how much chlorine/bromine to use.:)

[Pandi]

I think Christchuch (Dorset) is pants. Too warm and inlets nicely positioned where you do your tumbles. Shame
That sound's like the Two river's meet leisure centre.
if you found that hot try out Ferndown,Tried it once, should have taken a tea bag,nice cuppa brewing while you swim.

[Chris]

Didn't really like training in Ballards pool in Plymouth .... from what I remember it was V E R Y warm with buckets of chemicals!

[Backstroker88]

Kentish Town.. a disgusting pool

[lindsay]

In my family town, Bytom Poland, there are only two pools. Both equally terrible. Water is freezing. And it is too dirty for the pool-floor to be visible. There are human hair and some other unidentified tiny objects carried in the water. The amount of chlorine is such that one sneezes after workout.

By the entrance to one of these pools there is a (probably ironical) inscription saying that the pool meets European standards. Of course, what the European standards are is not explained.

[selkie]

We used to go to meets at Adrian College- cement pool bottom, cement pool deck, and technically indoors because someone had put a WWII-era quonset hut over all the concrete.

The year after I graduated, it was judged to be in such disrepair that it was condemned and later demolished.

[400IMer]

Anyone swum at Bristol North - it's a unique experience. BTW well done to Crawley and Norwich - Fantastic pools!!!

[400IMer]

If your down in the South West - Taunton have a 33m pool. A **** up when it was being built as the builders didn't see the need for the extra 1/3rd metre!

[Bowly]

I'm not a big fan of really shallow pools, of which I believe Waterlooville is a prime contender! (forgive me if I'm wrong)
I'm always worried my knees will hit the bottom in breastroke, especially at the turn and I like to be able to get a good deep push off the wall without smacking my head on the bottom!!!

Probably cos I swim like a monkey! :p

Bowl

[ruthcp]

I'm not a big fan of really shallow pools, of which I believe Waterlooville is a prime contender! (forgive me if I'm wrong)
I'm always worried my knees will hit the bottom in breastroke, especially at the turn and I like to be able to get a good deep push off the wall without smacking my head on the bottom!!!

Probably cos I swim like a monkey! :p

Bowl

From (recent) memory, Waterlooville is indeed very shallow - kids always complain about scraping the bottom at the turns!
Last time we swam there, a group of littlies had been in before and chewed up the kickboards and floats, so that there were masses of bits of foam floating everywhere - horrible!! :eek:

[SwimKrusty]

Dorcan school pool in Swindon - 2hrs every Sat am in the 80s/early 90s
- 20m, 3 lanes with basic ropes conveniently suspended above the water at throat height. The surrounding area was so small and poorly ventilated it would regularly steam up completely, reducing visibility to zero and you had to dive blindly into the mist. Swimmers often found clamouring around open fire doors in an effort to breathe some air. The pool was raised level and you had to climb over slippery plastic bathtub sides to get in - many a swimmer (and occasional coach) known to slip in off the side.
- Once you fell in, water was wildly varying in temperature and the effects of the chlorine(/chloramines, whatever) were worse than any pool I have known.

No dead stuff or poo, though.

Apparently the pool is still in use? :eek: .

[cougar]

u

[Spidey]

On the ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland. About 3 metres square.

[gogs]

Any number of school and worse still hotel pools............Too hot, too small, filthy, no proper lifeguards

[Ludo]

On the ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland. About 3 metres square.


If you were dissappointed, you had a much bigger pool quite close by!:)

[inthepit]

With Phelps, it makes sense. 1/2 of the American swimming year is raced in 25 yards and the other 1/2 50 meters. Most clubs in the situation of North Baltimore Aq Club (Phelps's club) put up bulkheads to create a 25 yard course during the winter so we can train that course. Come April, the bulkheads are removed. I can tell you Tom Dolan swims 75% of his practices in a 25 yard pool. He only trains 50 meters in the morning from April until October, because of the lack of 50 meter pools in Washington, DC.

funny swimusa, i thought phelps swam in michigan with coach bowman and therefore he swims for club wolverine??! he swam for nbac before that though......

[Knowley]

Who remembers the old pool at Millfield.

Many champions came out of that pool, including Duncan Goodhew 100m Br Olympic Gold Medalist (that was Moscow!)

Yup... it was disgusting! I have memories of the coach fishing out a mouse that was swimming round and round in circles one morning

[Bully]

Yup... it was disgusting! I have memories of the coach fishing out a mouse that was swimming round and round in circles one morning

I can only guess that one sides pull was significantly better than the other hence why it went round in circles :aarrgghh: do you know if it was ever picked for the speedo team?

[Knowley]

Haha the school didn't do the speedo when I was there.... not enough kiddies to make us competative or something?

[in-exile]

Priory school pool dorking, when my daughter swam there the inside of her swimming costume where the water went down her front and out her belly filled up with black mould from the water and a newt was found swimming in there one week later, the water is green and smelly and there is a crappy green house on top of it so loads of condensation in the winter YUCK what a dump!!

[in-exile]

And some at the club seemed to feel this was all ok :cry::cry::cry:

[SWiMMeR-GHiRL]

our 50 pool occasionally manages to make itself 25 absolutely roasting, 20 freezing and the last 5 so cold you turn blue :) another pool i swam in had a really amazing underwater ventilation system that would blast out air into the pool so hard you would find yourself being pushed back no matter how fast you kicked or whatever :cry:

[zanshin]

our 50 pool occasionally manages to make itself 25 absolutely roasting, 20 freezing and the last 5 so cold you turn blue :) another pool i swam in had a really amazing underwater ventilation system that would blast out air into the pool so hard you would find yourself being pushed back no matter how fast you kicked or whatever :cry:

Where are these pools?

Welcome to the forum

[SWiMMeR-GHiRL]

glasgow!!!

[zanshin]

glasgow!!!

Glasgow Scotland or Glasgow Kentucky?

[SWiMMeR-GHiRL]

scotland

[LAZy]

Picton Road baths (Liverpool for all you Southerners) - too many cockroaches.

When you shut the cubicle door - no lights inside - all the roaches came out.

One went up my leg when I was getting changed and at 10 years old, it well revolted me. - even when having to dissect the roach mouth parts in A' level biology.( 8 yrs later)

Now 48 and feel sad it's been? or going to be ? pulled down but glad I don't swim in it anymore.

[Dunc]

Picton Road baths (Liverpool for all you Southerners) - too many cockroaches.

When you shut the cubicle door - no lights inside - all the roaches came out.

One went up my leg when I was getting changed and at 10 years old, it well revolted me. - even when having to dissect the roach mouth parts in A' level biology.( 8 yrs later)

Now 48 and feel sad it's been? or going to be ? pulled down but glad I don't swim in it anymore.

Eh, eh.

Is dat worst dan Wezzy Rowd?

When it went to the local canoeing club for a peppercorn, they didn't use the shallow end much, so they happily let the water level drop.

The pool was shared with the Liverpool masters club, and you couldn't turn at the shallow end, in 10" of water.

[Stevie_k]

our 50 pool occasionally manages to make itself 25 absolutely roasting, 20 freezing and the last 5 so cold you turn blue :) another pool i swam in had a really amazing underwater ventilation system that would blast out air into the pool so hard you would find yourself being pushed back no matter how fast you kicked or whatever :cry:

AHA I KNEW IT! Just knew someone somewhere has a crappy water inlet system in their pool like mine.

It totally SUCKS!

[LAZy]

Eh, eh.

Is dat worst dan Wezzy Rowd?

When it went to the local canoeing club for a peppercorn, they didn't use the shallow end much, so they happily let the water level drop.

The pool was shared with the Liverpool masters club, and you couldn't turn at the shallow end, in 10" of water.

No wonder they talk about a north / south divide - I can't understand 99% of what you ever write !
on any thread.

[zanshin]

Newland Homes’ orphanage pool, Hull. Very dark and dismal

Dunc, I understand you even though I am from the north:wave:

[missjackiechan]

This summer I swam in a pool in Bucharest, where you couldn't see through the water at all, it was kind of whiteish and also fizzy!!...I didn't stay in it very long!

[zanshin]

This summer I swam in a pool in Bucharest, where you couldn't see through the water at all, it was kind of whiteish and also fizzy!!...I didn't stay in it very long!

Sounds like some one had put some plink, plink, fizz in it.:wave:

[Pandi]

AHA I KNEW IT! Just knew someone somewhere has a crappy water inlet system in their pool like mine.

It totally SUCKS!

Inlet system Blows Stevie,am quite suprised peeps do not complain about water quality in pools to duty managers be it public or private(health clubs).:read:

[Cagri]

I trained in a hotel pool for some months. It had a broken tempreture stabilizing thing for weeks and they kept pouring ice cold water over us with hoses! And of course they always forgot to turn off the hoses and half of the pool was 25 degreees and the other half was 30 degrees.. I feared I'd break down like a glass.. The dress rooms were also very hot, how I hate that pool! And the stupid staff.. I can't believe I kept paying hundreds of liras for months :( The pool was big though..

[Osiris]

the old pool in Hull, beverley road! awful, plus one of my team mates was held at needle point for her trainers as we boarded the coach!

had a few bad swims in the leeds international pool, and was always put off when i was young by the cockroaches that ran along the bottom of the lane as you warmed up!

[missjackiechan]

..I have never seen any..but then again I am short sighted!..cockroaches and pool about to be flattened in the next few weeks!

[zanshin]

the old pool in Hull, beverley road! awful, plus one of my team mates was held at needle point for her trainers as we boarded the coach!

had a few bad swims in the leeds international pool, and was always put off when i was young by the cockroaches that ran along the bottom of the lane as you warmed up!

I was in charge of the Beverley Road pool in Hull in the mid to late 80s. It had a lot of character. Since then it's been renovated and is a first classs facility.:)

[LAZy]

[[I]/I]QUOTE=zanshin;103462]Since then it's been renovated and is a first classs facility.:)[/QUOTE]

Seconded - it's real history restored to former glory but better technology.

(obviously must have only been grotty when Zanshin was in charge.)

[Stevie_k]

I hate any pool that is shorter than 25 meters, has inlets pushing water into your swimming direction, the water is constantly warm, or is too foggy.

I did a few lengths in my superwarm local yesterday as im competing tomorrow. The temp was was absolutely vile.. Couldnt do more than 100 meters without stopping.

Some people say my morning swimfit pool is sh*tty because the building is old fashioned and thats true, but thats why its the best pool around.

Inlets are gushing upwards from the floor, ive never ever felt it too warm, its 33/12, always clear as a bell, old fashined shower system so you can wash properly, none of this unisex shower rubbish, that would only be cool if we were allowed to get naked with the girls.

There are so many crap pools about its untrue.

[zanshin]

(obviously must have only been grotty when Zanshin was in charge.)

yes it was, two of the swimming pools were empty and the large pool was 33 1/3 yards long. It wasn't tiled and had cracks in it from nearby bombs exploding during the war.:wave:

I think, however, what lazy means is that I added to its grottiness, which I suppose I did

[EricTheRed]

The worst pools are the ones they have built over last 25 / 30 years. I don't mean the classy pools like Stockport, Manchester Aquatics etc. I mean the rectangular featureless pools that are just about 6 feet deep and have room for 4 or 5 lanes. Or the ones they build for kids to play in that you cannot even swim in - Blackburn, Stoke etc. they are called things like Waterworld and so on. So warm you start feeling sick after 10 minutes.

Oh for the memories of school trips to Sharston, Wythenshawe and the high diving boards. The old Urmston Baths with a high springboard that launched half way across (or so it felt). Its now an old folks home.

Last I heard they planned to take the springboard away at Irlam, Salford and chop the pool from 33 to 25 and create a paddling pool. I cannot confirm this has happened but saw the plans and closure dates and I have not been back with the kids since.

[Neversink]

Themsmead!

[Juicy Lucy]

Rolfe Street, Smethwick. Too many cockroaches for my liking.

[Improving a lot]

Gordonstoun School...
25 yards, rail round the edges of the pool to smash your feet on when you tumble, tiles coming loose, heaven knows what was growing in the pool, all sorts of creatures crawling around poolside, lights full of flies/wasps, walls really damp, when it was sunny it was like training in a greenhouse but when it was cold you were lucky not to get hypothermia. And let's not even mention the changing rooms...

[Pandi]

Rolfe Street, Smethwick. Too many cockroaches for my liking.


They made nice alternative snack to the usual bagga pork scratchings tho.Not many pools offered all you can eat buffets,even if you had to catch it yourself.:zip:

[broomhillsaved]

Rolfe Street, Smethwick. Too many cockroaches for my liking.

There were cockroaches in the changing rooms at this pool at Clapham, I remember - but that's going back about 28 years.

My eldest daughter nearly drowned by trying to swim through the gaps in the handrails that went down the steps and getting stuck. I was luckily right nearby in the water and hauled her out.

[Warm Water]

Olympic pool, Tashkent Uzbekistan. I used to swim 3 times a week there, it had no filter system, the water was still. To clean it they drained it, scrubbed the bottom then refilled it. It would be ok for a while then strat to grow green. When you couldnt see the BLACK lane lines on the botton, they'd drain it and repeat the process. It was the best pool in the country......

[dampflippers]

Tynemouth outdoor pool- about a year before it was closed for good and filled in. It must have been fantastic in it's day, and I'm sure it could have been given a new lease of life.
I went there to do cold water triathlon training- you couldn't see the bottom ( a sort of murky green) and there were rumours that there had been a dead cat in it!
Apparnetly this is how it used to look: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2133/2263107566_e82ddf79fe.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/24592131%40N00/2263107566&h=975&w=1468&sz=160&hl=en&start=2&um=1&usg=__ffpU2A3ddvZKiVj0b_4fuOIYyvI=&tbnid=9Ek8W8nTxjnG6M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtynemouth%2Boutdoor%2Bpool%26um%3D1%2 6hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-Address%26rlz%3D1I7ADBF%26sa%3DN
This is what it looked like when I went: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/317218035_6b1f59eb7a.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/thoburn/317218035/&h=318&w=500&sz=96&hl=en&start=59&um=1&usg=__4MBLUDp4rv57w584Z1OiUIFMH8I=&tbnid=Dd47bOw6Q3yY5M:&tbnh=83&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtynemouth%2Boutdoor%2Bpool%26start%3D 42%26ndsp%3D21%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.micr osoft:*:IE-Address%26rlz%3D1I7ADBF%26sa%3DN
Or this: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://lh5.ggpht.com/_OcdgoFWMVLY/R0sA4aEwXlI/AAAAAAAABAQ/bJxYBWBIbt8/SL270613.JPG&imgrefurl=http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/IrFDv1gqM8JcHmKH4yv57Q&h=1200&w=1600&sz=13&hl=en&start=10&um=1&usg=__a_oK8umpnb4SbLHD7fQOsIjc_Lc=&tbnid=PMN6W8vm0GBcDM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtynemouth%2Boutdoor%2Bpool%26ndsp%3D2 1%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-Address%26rlz%3D1I7ADBF%26sa%3DN

[Slid]

The worst pools are the ones they have built over last 25 / 30 years. I don't mean the classy pools like Stockport, Manchester Aquatics etc. I mean the rectangular featureless pools that are just about 6 feet deep and have room for 4 or 5 lanes. Or the ones they build for kids to play in that you cannot even swim in - Blackburn, Stoke etc. they are called things like Waterworld and so on. So warm you start feeling sick after 10 minutes.

Oh for the memories of school trips to Sharston, Wythenshawe and the high diving boards. The old Urmston Baths with a high springboard that launched half way across (or so it felt). Its now an old folks home.

Last I heard they planned to take the springboard away at Irlam, Salford and chop the pool from 33 to 25 and create a paddling pool. I cannot confirm this has happened but saw the plans and closure dates and I have not been back with the kids since.


Urmston baths, eh? I used to swim there lunchtimes when I worked for the Co-op at the Cascade Motors site in about 1985,6 &7. There was a low key Masters club on Friday evening I went to as well.

Old folks home, you say. Outrageous.

[speedo]

Bangor,Ards and Larne. they are all rubbish!

[kitty cat]

has anyone mentioned carnegie pool at leeds met?25yards, steps in lanes one and 5 that are build into the pool very painful, i've hit my ankles in them a few times, to hot, bar across the shallow end all in all grotty

[Big Nev]

Chayka Pool in Moscow.

Freezing cold and the water had a definite green tinge to it. City of Liverpool's hosts in Moscow thought it was wonderful.

To be fair they took us to the Moscow Olympic Pool the next day.

[mike_lamb]

Kings Meadow, Reading in the early 1970s.

River water, no heating. Floating leaves. Could not actually see the bottom of the pool!

[dampflippers]

Leys Scool Pool Cambridge used to be pretty bad.
Nice and warm, but sooooo much chlorine. No goggles then so your eyes were bright red and so sore afterwards.

[swimmer_hoop]

by a long shot it has to be the Gus Healy Memorial pool in Douglas, Co.Cork. shocking pool with shocking facilities.

The pool in New Ross, Co.Wexford, is fairly poor as well to be honest. tastes horrible in your mouth if you're unlucky enough to get a mouthful, almost like sea water!