I’ve been there as well 
would have been early 80’s as I think Jedi had just come out.
There was also a drought with lots of water rationing around there.
We usually went to the ones at Filey (now closed) and Skeg Vegas 
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We took our kids to Butlins Minehead. Pool complex and waterslides good. Food dreadful. Accomodation had weird POW vibe. Running along the coast path and onto Exmoor was good.
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I also had a week at Butlins Minehead, must have been 10 or 11 overriding memory of it being freezing cold and wet, had to book the swimming and when we did it was too cold so didnt last long, and i played cricket in a club all week as i was bored shitless. Oh, and I won the junior darts competition winning a green keyring on a phone cable thingy. We never went back.
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I also remember another holiday camp, norfolk i think, they had a swimming gala, here we go i thought, , first event 2 lengths backstroke. Unheated outside pool natch, but didnt consider what that meant. Jumped in and nearly died. Won it easily mainly because after seeing me nearly die hyperventilating, 2 kids refused to get in, 1 nearly drowned halfway up first length, and i was so cold i just wanted it over with 
i didnt do any other events
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Not really looking for advice, maybe just a bit of a moan. So bear with me.
I’m trying to review my finances. Membership/club annual costs:
Run : £56
Bike: £99
Swim: £1072
Doh.
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How many times do you get to swim for that? Any group sessions?
Heating, staffing and maintaining a pool must be pretty expensive. Until last year I was paying £5 per swim, which was an absolute bargain as it worked out at, er about £20 per year haha
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It’s all my own doing.
I have member ship by work at the amazeballs pool at £40/month AND I have local swim club membership £21.60/month plus £3.20/swim and I swim twice a week with them… so £480+(£21.60*12)+(£6.40x52) = £1072
After Frankfurt I will need to rationalise. But the only reason I go to work is for the London Aquatic. Even swimming once a week at a £10 seems like a bargain, but it all adds up as they say…
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Yikes.
I pay £3.50-6 a swim. And psychologically paying a single session still puts me off going when I’m not on membership 
Been meaning to ask @joex how your butterfly is coming on? Every time I do 50m and die towards the end I keep thinking of your plan to do 1000m sessions
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No focus yet as I’m in IM training just a bit with club swims twice a week. We had 4x33m fly last week which was awful.
I think I’m going to have to learn to like single arm fly to learn technique better. I thought my arms were good but I think I’m just windmilling. My kick is awful - too quick and weak. If I go hard I’m only kicking once per stroke instead of twice.
Synchronising the two I have to massively slow down which makes it even harder.
In summary, awful.
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I wont deny it seemed an ambitious (…unusual) goal for someone with vastly different targets!
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£47 per month for my gym membership which includes the pool. Was definitely a waste of money the last few months but using it again now.
Think a council pool is about £5 per session
down kick as arms enter water, upkick during pull, downkick as arms exiting to help bring front up to breath upkick on recovery. Try biondi drill and single arm to build that timing and body “wave”. kick fly kick on back in WU, 200m min. Can break it down with 5secnds rest each 50 or something when you first start to make sure you hold form and dont just wiggle through it. Fins also help if allowed to use them.
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£6 a pop here.
paid my annual fee for hospital pool yesterday £325 this year, gone up £25!
Charlton Lido (50m) charge £11.50 for 50min sessions
Eltham Centre (25m indoor) is £4.10 for 50min .
LAC (50m usually) is £7.85 for an hour
Membership of Better (all pools) is £40 a month but they only allow one booking a day. they also do a £55 for gym/swim (not sure if i can book pool and gym in one day for that though as never did it)
Follow on thought, is that it’s remarkably and puzzlingly cheap when consider that each pool must have lowish numbers of users here, so I wonder how they break even. Especially after paying higher wages etc
For reference a population of 1.3 million people in the “city” (I accept that’s a rectangular area 90x18km so probably bigger than UK metropolitan areas)
We have ~15x 50m pools, and at least the same again 25m pools in schools that can be hired morning/evening for clubs.
Granted all but 3 of the 50m pools are outdoor and only open for ~8 months a year which must reduce costs.
But even now in winter I can guarantee a lane to myself between 9-3 during the day, and still be quiet enough outside this that I might only share with one or two other people in a 50m lane.
I always thought pools were what made gym memberships expensive, but it’s the opposite here (might be the swim culture).
Single swim is equivalent to ~£4 a session (plus discount for buying bulk passes) whereas a single gym (not incl swim) at the same places are £10.
Likewise centre membership is at least £40pm, so need to swim >12x a month before becomes worth it if not using the gym semi regularly .
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The council pools do offer a variety of paid for membership programs which gets you some discount. But it’s very difficult to get a decent swim in and often has bookings for clubs and classes.
The gym I use is total fitness, and yes running a pool is very expensive. A few years ago they started doing kids swimming classes 4 nights per week and Saturday AM, this takes up 2 lanes and often the small pool.
A lot of the members moan as it’s often peak time 3-7 on an afternoon, but in reality I think they’d have to close the pool or put the costs up quite a lot as the classes subsidise it quite a lot.
David Lloyd is about a mile away and charges double without racket sports I think.
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The “lido” above, it used to be a proper cold water lido, when i first joined my tri club an old man would open it just for us at 6am, and we’d stick a pound in the jam jar. it was unkempt, often debris floating in it and was a labour of love for a few individuals. When Better took it over and heated it in 2012 I was running the club and was in negotiations to make it our “home”, unlimited use, storage etc and one of the stumbling blocks was winter use as they would eventually only agree to open pool 3 days a week for a few hours. I didn’t get this (it must have to stay heated throughout anyway id have thought) but they said the pool cost (at that time) £5000 per day to keep heated in winter and they could turn it off for the days not used. I’m not sure how true that was, (50x20m pool at ~24c) but they said the pool is a loss leader and just gets people in on memberships for the gym, it was always underutilised and could see their point to a degree.
Since March 2021 and the end of Covid when outdoor pools opened first, the lido attracted a lot of people who have hung around and its always busy now ( it was also a fiver a swim until june 2021 when they thought, lets double the price for summer). As a member its ok, only need 1 swim a week but for the price/business Id rather pay 7.50 for the crystal clear lake and do my “training” indoors for a fraction of the price.
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My local 22m swimming pool which is like a bath put their price up from £3.80 before Christmas to £5.50, it was tolerable for the quality at £3.80 but at £5.50 it is a total rip off.
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Finally! (Edits plan, adds in more bike)
I’d rather have the club membership and be pushed/coached a bit but it’s a big chunk of Sunday afternoon.
Putting personal biases aside, does the club/coaching element trump the big difference in FS volume to self coached?
Realistically the max volume I can get with either membership is only 4500 a week anyway I suppose in two sessions. So maybe it doesn’t matter at all.
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Really want to start swimming again, but with my shoulder still crook crawl is out. So it will be breaststroke, but I have a problem with it.
I can swim it quite well but I cant seem to be able tk swim fast enough to get the heart going. It just doesnt feel like a workout.
Any body got sny tips, appreciate its hard without seeing how I swim. Will probably have a 121 with our coach at some point.
I did hear either Phelps or Peaty say that they time their kick when their arms ate in recovery do they are always moving forward. Is it worth working on that?
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