"Man o' Tea" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Some time ago, I recall there was a post to the effect that, because of
insurance concerns, new pools are being built without deep ends for
diving. My pool consultant, however, claims that this can't be true
because new pools need deep ends for lifesaving training.I wonder if any of you have heard about new pools being built deep or
shallow?
There is some truth in it about the insurance concerns. Originally, elite
55m competition pools were being built with a 'deep' (about 6' or 2m) even
depth to accommodate major water polo events. Soon, elite swimmers started
to think that they were swimming faster in a deep pool and a theory was
developed that vertical downward 'waves' created by the swimmer would not
bounce back as they do in a shallow pool, impeding the swimmer's
performance. Nowadays, you are unlikely to see an elite swimming comp. in
anything but a pool with a minimum 2m depth.
Next came the awareness of many injuries occurring in pools with starting
blocks at shallow ends of the pool. Much of the statistics passed around
by the insurance industry was questionable (as they often included injuries
from elsewhere such as kids jumping off jetties etc.) but nevertheless, a
scale of desirable water depths compared with the height of diving blocks
was established. Allowing swimmers to dive into a pool that does not meet
those standards could now be considered as irresponsible or in insurance
terms - negligent. The irony is that very, very few injuries have occurred
to swimmers doing a dive start. Out of the hundreds of thousands of dive
starts over the decades - is that a problem? Many injuries off starting
blocks have occurred though - from the kids playing around, doing bombs etc.
during public sessions.
Another irony of the 'shallow' pool was that it became 'fashionable' for
swimmers to do a jack-knife dive start, that is they get more height from
the block to be able to dive into a small hole - the feet following the body
into the same 'hole' created by the hands. To avoid scraping the bottom of
the pool, swimmers then had to flatten out rapidly which some started to
believe it might cause damage to the spine over a period of time. I
understand that some studies supported this perception but the good news is
that jack-knife 'fashion' has now faded out in favour of a flatter entry.
KF