Taking a dip in the neighborhood public pool today I noted that the jets, in addition to feeling pretty good, push with quite a lot of force., possibly enough to affect a competitive swimmer and make him/her lose a few hundreds of a second. For competitive swim meets, are the jets turned off, even temporarily during the heats?
Yep, that’s my question.
And I thought it was a decent one too. Don’t know the answer, but I can offer a bump…
Hey, wow- those years spent on the swimming team back in high school are finally going to pay off!
In my experience- no, the jets weren’t usually turned off. Yes, they do affect your speed- swimming against the jets is a bitch.
I don’t know why the jets weren’t turned off during the races, but there you go.
I’d be interested to know the answer as well.
As a WAG, maybe in competitive pools the jets are designed to push from the side of the pool, so they don’t favour any one competitor?
If the race has any turns, wouldn’t the jet forces cancel out? For example, a little help on the way down, a little harder on the way back.
Also, if the jets came in from the side, wouldn’t that give the inner lane swimmers an advantage?
As another WAG, could it be that there’s a jet in every lane, thus cancelling out the advantage?
The jets are usually aimed to create circulation. They’ll cause a clockwise or counterclockwise current throughout the pool which causes leaves and debris to circulate around the edge of the pool until they get sucked into a skimmer.
The jets shouldn’t ever be pointed straight out from the wall of the pool.