New sports pools coming?
 

I'm wondering if there are any new sports pools for lap swimming coming in the new villages in the south. Or maybe even an indoor pool in the Eastport area? I haven't seen any announcements.

A sports pool is planned at Eastport.

Believe it when you see it. Up and running. Not before.

There's also a nice new olympic size pool at the new charter high school Given that we let the high school use the Laurel Manor pool for many years, I'm sure they're going to reciprocate with us......

Something. I might have asked when I was looking for a house.

Don’t plan on an indoor pool.

I understand there aren't many plans for regional rec centers to be built in the south (Which have sports pools) except Eastport. But that like everything will probably change. I wish they gave us lap swimmers more time. Most of the sports pools give limited lap and water walkers pool time. Between water volley ball.and water aerobics it's hard to get a lane. I personally go to ezell at 6:45 am to get a lane. It would be nice to have a couple dedicated pools for walkers and swimmers. I don't mind going further north for it if it's not going to happen south. Have found limited lanes at all the sports pools.
(Look at the schedule in the paper..
) At least give us a couple of days a week where we don't have to vacate the pool for water aerobics or water volleyball. I have limited mobility and swimming laps and pool walking is the only workout I can do.

Have you shared your thoughts with the Rec Dept?

Yes I have...I asked them why we had to exit the pool at 8 15 when it says combo swim is till 8 50. Was told they need to prepare the pool for water aerobics. Btw those poor people wait an hour or more in the sun to get into those classes! I feel for them. The rec center told me it was a safety issue. I am not sure the designers of the sports pools were aware of these pools are needed especially for our age group. Ps. I have tried swimming laps in the adult pool ad the rec center suggested. That was quite an interesting challenge !

Swimming is great exercise as we age, good for muscle building and cardiovascular health.

I am surprised by the lack of sports pools, even north of 44. Agree, there should be more time for lap swimming.

Couldn’t agree more, lap swimmers get the short end of the stick. Available times mostly limited to sunrise and sunset (especially during the time of the year with shorter days), while everyone else gets the prime time of the day. Not being an early morning person, my wife gets very tired of me swimming just about every day when most people are having dinner.

Probably the best thing that happened during the 9 years we have had a home in the Villages. Lap swimmers in the northern section finally get to use the Laurel Manor sports pool : )

I asked about an indoor pool since they will be including indoor pickleball courts at Eastport. It's true that you can swim easier than you can play pickleball when it's raining, but it's harder to get motivated to go for a swim than to play pickleball on the colder days.

I agree that the sports pools should offer more opportunities for lap swimming. There are many days when water volleyball takes over all the pools in the south (Ezell, Everglades, Spanish Moss, Rohan) in the noon to 3pm time. They should stagger the timing across locations so there's always at least 1 pool nearby for lap swimming at any given time of the day.

I have shared my thoughts with many people at the recreation department, including going straight to the top to John Rohan, offering multiple reasonable and well thought out suggestions to help increase lap swimming opportunities. I would have been better off utilizing my time banging my head against a wall. The only result I have seen is lap swimming time continuing to get squeezed out. It’s very frustrating, the sports pools are in very high demand and organized group functions like water volleyball and water aerobics are always given priority over lap swimming.

Can you tell us where that info came from. I would like to have a look. We are looking at moving south and are researching everything we can get our hands on.

Just take a look at the map
https://www.districtgov.org/departme...ges/recmap.pdf

I see 3 sports pools south of 44.
Sure, more are planned, but to date (it’s been 5/6/7 years), they put 3 in

Don Wiley (Gold Wingnut - YouTube) who is a very reliable source has mentioned this several times. I even asked him straight out and even though he isn't 100 percent sure that was his answer. I highly recommend you watch his channel as he covers the growth in the south very honestly..

I so agree! And the morning hours are very short.

Thar is exactly what I was wondering. Do they really need to practice everyday? Give a little equal time. Especially in the winter where swimming at noon to 2 pm is warmer than 630 am.

I bet money is the issue as they build less and less pools. They are expensive. Even more reason to change the scheduling of current pools to be a little more balanced...

That link stops at Ezell... I think they were interested in future plans no?

I used to lap at Seabreeze, then Colony (swimmers were very happy to see new comers) then Eisenhower. I agree it would be nice to have 3 hour blocks with full lanes for laps, then 3 hour block net games ( that is so over crowded many don’t get in).

But I don’t ever see that happening. Lanes have always been a prime since 2007. Would love to see a 6am lap start, yes, it’s cold getting out in January but one can suck it up.

2 years ago we just gave up built a house with room for pool. We didn’t add a lap lane, but a pool to enjoy, adding a tether for laps. I actually find i am stronger by tether, than swim short lap. Not an option for all, but well worth it for us.

We have a swimpro tether in our pool. It’s definitely better than nothing and I use it for short swims almost daily, but I very much prefer to swim laps in a regulation length sports pool, with lanes and swim flags, for my cardio exercise. I do enjoy a quick 20 minute tether swim before golfing, to loosen up all the muscles, I find it as good or better than stretching.

And what’s up with those stupid combo swims, put in all the lanes. There are over 90 neighborhood and family swimming pools where people can water walk and hang around floating on noodles and socializing. Lap swimmers need a regulation length 25 yard pool with lanes and swim flags, which is only possible at the sports pools.

It's bang out of order when people actually expect to be allowed to swim in a swimming pool.
When will all this trouble making end? :shrug:


:icon_wink:

So agree! It seems like it's all combo swims now. While the lap swimmers are trying to share a lane the water walkers are standing in a circle running in place just talking. Maybe divide the pool at least 3/4 swim laps...

Thank you. I actually do watch his videos but did not pick on this.

What's a "tether" in your pool? How does that enable lap swimming? thanks.

Yes, there’s a sports pool coming to Eastport/Olympia Regional Rec Center according to the plans that have been submitted and permitted. Will there be more Regional Rec Centers? Considering the amount of property owned by The Villages of Lake-Sumter and the various over holding companies operated by “the developer” there is little doubt that there are many more to come. None however have been announced and probably won’t be announced for at least a year or two, if not longer. The RRC are a rare breed, currently only 13 exist (I still question calling Fenney a RRC) and because of their size and features, they are very expensive to build, Olympia (#14) will be the largest and most expensive built because of the new and added feature that they are adding.

An indoor pool is very unlikely to occur. It is a very expensive facility because of the water and high humidity the building and all the support equipment must be able to withstand. The operating and maintenance cost are also extremely high due to the corrosion caused by the chemicals and the humidity. And don’t even go down the road of “the developer can afford it”, the developer doesn’t now, never has, and never will pay for it, the residents have to pay for it through their amenity fees, it’s called “a business” not a charity, and they own none of us anything other than what was included in our contract to purchase our homes here. You bought a house not a rich uncle to take care of your every want and need.

I agree that more time maybe could be allocated to lap swimmers, but how much? How many lap swimmers are there using the pool to swim laps each day, based on my own personal observations, it is a very small number. Is it fair to the rest of the residents to have to stand around and wait to use the Sports pool (not called a Lap pool) to play water polo, water volleyball, or water aerobics while it sits empty or 1 person is using it to swim laps or may want to swim laps. I think not. I know John Rohan and many of the staff at the parks and recreation department and they make their decision based on facts and data. If the demand was higher they would, without doubt, allocate more time for lap swimming, the fact that they haven’t is evidence enough to support there not being sufficient demand.

The rec department could simply combine all the house allocated to lap swimming and apply it to one facility and reserve it for 8 hours a day 7 days a week for lap swimming. But then that would disenfranchise many more residents that live around that RRC, and of course the complaints would start here on ToTV and on NextDoor about how unfair it is that they have to drive “all that way” to get to the only pool that allows lap swimming.

It’s a balance and no matter what, someone is always going to be unhappy and complain.

Well said, as always, although the “water polo” made me laugh…won’t the horses drown???

As a lap swimmer I can share in the frustrations, but it really comes down to efficient use of the available space. An hour of lap swimming at one of the sports pools will accommodate at most 8 to 10 people. The same hour for water volleyball will get at least 72 people and water aerobics 50-70, depending on the instructor’s class limits. And from my observations trying to swim after either of these, they are almost always full and many times turning away people.

Yes we get the short end of it in the winter months when there are fewer hours in the day and we lose those open swim slots in the late afternoon/evening.

But like everything here (such as the crowded golf courses in the winter), we aren’t willing to pay to have available capacity all the time for every person and activity.

I think the rec department does a decent job of balancing the needs of everyone with the available facilities. Sometimes we have to wait our turn - not something we Villagers do very well sometimes.

sport pools having Sunday rentals of 5 hours is too much

Not sure where you are swimming but I go to water aerobics every day. The pools I go to we are not allowed in the lanes until 850. Rohan. Seabreeze. Colony. Eisenhower

Bang out of order :-)
 

I read the comment before noting who the commenter was. My surmise was accurate. :-)

Speaking of trouble making, I long ago gave up on trying to have diving boards added back at pools. However, I recently learnt of their presence at that fancy indoor pool up in Ocala - a bit west of I-75 - in the precise middle of nowhere we found when we went by to finally check it out recently. Amazing place, though seems rather under-utilized.

Actually *does* include several great springboards, both one and three meters. Interestingly, the fulcrums (fulcra?) are all bolted into their "least springy" positions. Matters not, as it appears to be essentially impossible to gain access to them - or to even get a response from the guy who manages them. :-(

thank you for the information. I personally always appreciate your honesty and knowledge as many of us are simply guessing on what is next up the road. The developers simply don't like to share this information!

I wish the rec department WOULD come around during "combo swim times" (they no longer seem to have just lap swimming times anymore) to the sports pools and watch the activity for a few days. They will find at least with my own experience a dozen or so people walking the pool (Half of the pool) while chatting away, some of them even just hanging around in a circle gossiping and running in place. (which can easily be done at an adult pool etc) and 5 or 6 people standing waiting for a lane to be available. I have checked out the pool different times of the days trying to find the best time to go without waiting and I have never found an empty pool. Even at 6.45 in the morning when it is 40 degrees outside! Especially in winter when all the snowbirds are in town.
It gets pretty crowded! Some will share the lap lane, some will not, depends on how comfortable they are with sharing a lane. Swimming laps is the only option for many of us who have medical issues that does not allow us to do high impact sports like pickleball. My doctor recommended swimming laps to me and it has been a huge help in my own issues. We feel we should get at least that consideration. I know it seems like complaining, but the balance ISNT there. We aren't asking for much, maybe give those couple of hours in the mornings to just lap swimmers instead of dividing up the pool for half walkers and half swimmers.
Not all of us can afford to put a pool in our backyard, or install fancy spas. We are just asking for a little equal time.

Agree! It has been an on-going problem for years. Sadly we lap swimmers are outnumbered. The majority rules the pools.

I guess Ill have to see if I can join the water polo...

:crap2:

Sorry I could resist. The visual of that post about horses in the pool still has me laughing.

Seriously though I hear the same complaints from pickleball players who can't get courts and golf players who can get t times and Cardio Drummers who can't find a class that isn't full. I guess its just part of the fun....

I used to water-walk daily...went to Colony for it. One time the lap-swimmers actually forced me out as ALL of the lanes were taken up. It was a combo-swim time. I will share with others but it's difficult to do with a swimmer. So I finally resorted to a family pool and it worked out well. We'd go 1st thing in the morning before it got busy with kids etc. Once in a great while someone would come and do laps but they soon found it difficult to do since we were in. Going the width wasn't what they needed and we were in the way despite trying to accomodate them. I agree with Don Wiley's accessment. People will complain no matter what. I NEED to get back to the water-walking after a long hiatus, due to my medical issues. It's a very good exercise!!

I remember the volley-ball players coming early and taking over. The attitudes reminded me of the hiarchy in high school. Which, by the way, is how it seems with many things here in T.V.

Don't know the reason for the 'dusk' closing times of the pools. To help accomodate more lap swimmers, there could be at least one sports pool in each region (North, Central, South) open late nights for lap swimming only. Nothing like an invigorating swim sometime between dinner and bedtime...!

You know, if the rec people ARE aware of the activity balance at the sports pools, they REALLY need to revisit. I feel so much for the water aerobics. I see people standing in the sun for an hour waiting to get into a class (and some get turned away!) Those classes seem far more popular than water volleyball from what I see.

It's called the "Olympia Regional Recreation Center". There have been numerous emails, videos, announcements about it. If you drive by it, I believe you will see the location of the sports pool (and the tennis, pickle ball, etc) as it's far along in construction.