[bowlingal]

the schedule for use at the sports pools are listed on the bulletin board outside of the locker room, or in the rec news in the sports pool page. Each group or session has the pool for themselves for the allotted time. These groups have a permit that they must fill out every April / October ( winter and summer sessions) to have use of the pool during their times. It doesn't matter if their session is full or not. You water walking during their time is not allowed. You can walk during combo swim times ( this is for water walkers and lap swimming) Respect the rules please.

[Hendrick22]

Agreed. Walking in the sport pools is during combo swim.
If you want to walk when you want to suggest you use the neighborhood pool.

[NavyBoy]

Originally Posted by mazbarth

i like to walk mid-day in the sports pool near me. Often there is a water volleyball game in one-quarter to one-half of the pool during the middle of the day. The other half of the pool is totally empty while they play.

I was in walking in the pool last week and somebody with a village rec shirt came over and told me i had to get out of the pool while group was playing.

I have been water-walking in this pool for almost two years. This is the first time i've been told i had to get out - immediately.

This rule makes no sense to me. I am not bothering them, & the players are not bothering me. We never intersect in this large pool & sometimes i can fetch their wayward balls.

Can somebody please explain why this rule exists? It seems rather silly and a waste of perfectly good weather, etc. For no explainable reason. (the guy who chased me out could not explain it either. Just kept answering "it is the rule!" )

thanks for any knowledge you have on this!
Michele
fenney

yes....very stupid indeed

[sallyg]

I am astounded that you were asked to leave. Since when does the Rec department ever enforce any rules, or even have an employee on site? I have seen every type of violation at the sports pools, from La Hacienda to Spanish Moss without any intervention. Somebody must have complained about you. Volleyball rules the sports pools. The large number of players outnumber walkers or lap swimmers. When a group or class reserves the pool it's theirs for that time slot. Doesn't matter if half the pool is empty, you are not permitted to walk or swim. They are also not permitted to play when their time is up. They used to continue playing at Everglades for another 45 min after their schedule, funny how that works.

[NotGolfer]

I stopped going to my nearest sports pool for my water-walking because I'd been doing that for 2 yrs until one day (it was the open or combo time) when ALL the lanes were taken over by lap-swimmers. I'd been there for awhile until someone didn't want to share my lane apparently and took over. It was obvious to me that they didn't want anyone else "infringing" on their time, though I was in that lane first. My friends and I ended up going early (emphasis on early--before the sun-bathers and families began to show up) to our family pool and it worked out pretty well.

[garrykolb]

Originally Posted by mazbarth

I like to walk mid-day in the sports pool near me. Often there is a water volleyball game in one-quarter to one-half of the pool during the middle of the day. The other half of the pool is totally empty while they play.

I was in walking in the pool last week and somebody with a Village REC shirt came over and told me I had to get out of the pool while group was playing.

I have been water-walking in this pool for almost two years. This is the first time I've been told I HAD TO get out - immediately.

This rule makes NO sense to me. I am not bothering them, & the players are not bothering me. We never intersect in this large pool & sometimes I can fetch their wayward balls.

Can somebody please explain why this rule exists? It seems rather silly and a waste of perfectly good weather, etc. for no explainable reason. (The guy who chased me out could not explain it either. Just kept answering "it is the rule!" )

Thanks for any knowledge you have on this!
Michele
Fenney

You don't mention what pool, what time, and on what day. If it was at Colony Cottage, that's where advanced water volleyball plays every day from 1-3pm.. Advanced intermediate plays at other pools on different days and times. Either of these groups have players that hit the ball hard enough to do some damage if they hit someone, even on the other end of the pool. The rule is for your safety because you can't be watching every play on all courts all the time.

It may seem silly, but the rule is there for a reason.

[Carms]

From what I heard, someone was walking and was hit in the head with a volleyball and knocked unconscious. It became a liability issue and the decision was made to have no walkers.

[SKBandME]

well, if you had taken the time to reserve a pool for your activity and someone infringed upon your time slot you would want the rec staff to support your time also. Rec staff was doing their job enforcing the volleyballs time slot. All these times are listed multiple places.

[HJBeck]

My guess it’s purely a legal issue. We live in a very litigious society. If you were to get hit with a hard spiked ball that hit your head and you lost an eye, caused a concussion, or worse, would you sue? Have you signed the liability waiver? Too complex to manage. Follow the rules!

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by SKBandME

well, if you had taken the time to reserve a pool for your activity and someone infringed upon your time slot you would want the rec staff to support your time also. Rec staff was doing their job enforcing the volleyballs time slot. All these times are listed multiple places.

I agree, when a pool has a reserved time slot for an activity it should be respected and not infringed upon. What gets my goat is that reserved time slots are sometimes not used, leaving the pool empty during the time slot, effectively leaving a valuable amenity underutilized. If someone doesn’t show up at an executive course for a t time that others could have utilized, they are accessed points that lower their priority for getting another t time. If a water volleyball or aerobics water class decides to cancel because it’s too cold, rain is forecasted, or some other reason, there are absolutely no repercussions. It very much annoys me to drive by an empty pool knowing that if people knew the pool was going to be empty they could be water walking or swimming laps.

[fdpaq0580]

Walking in sand is good exercise. If you can't walk in the pool while a volley ball game is in progress, maybe the golfers will let you walk in the sand traps. (Wear a helmet).

[Bellavita]

Yes this is a rule, another dumb one is you have to be out 10 minutes prior to the next event.

you can ask the volleyball players if you can walk and if they approve you are ok, but if no
one spoke out to say you were ok, perhaps someone in that group reported
you.

Hey what can I say, one day I went to the sports pool to swim laps and it was so full, one guy was in a lane and swam about every 5 minutes while he caught his breathe. I asked if he would share the lane and he said no, then he told me I could kill someone and that another villager let someone swim in the lane and then he sued him.

Its the Villages, not everything makes sense. I would find another pool close, there are 100 to choose from and you can walk anywhere.

Originally Posted by mazbarth

I like to walk mid-day in the sports pool near me. Often there is a water volleyball game in one-quarter to one-half of the pool during the middle of the day. The other half of the pool is totally empty while they play.

I was in walking in the pool last week and somebody with a Village REC shirt came over and told me I had to get out of the pool while group was playing.

I have been water-walking in this pool for almost two years. This is the first time I've been told I HAD TO get out - immediately.

This rule makes NO sense to me. I am not bothering them, & the players are not bothering me. We never intersect in this large pool & sometimes I can fetch their wayward balls.

Can somebody please explain why this rule exists? It seems rather silly and a waste of perfectly good weather, etc. for no explainable reason. (The guy who chased me out could not explain it either. Just kept answering "it is the rule!" )

Thanks for any knowledge you have on this!
Michele
Fenney

[jjombrello]

Why be antagonistic? Ask the Rec Department what the rules are and get it settled without controversy.

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Bellavita

Yes this is a rule, another dumb one is you have to be out 10 minutes prior to the next event.

Not a dumb rule, it takes that time to put in or take out the swim lanes and flags, volleyball nets, etc… (can’t play volleyball with the swim flags and can’t swim through volleyball nets) to prepare the pool for different scheduled activities. Plus it staggers the times when the participants in the various activities use the changing rooms. It’s a necessary rule.

[Reynoka]

I live out of state but when I took a water aerobics class, the time in the pool was reserved at the gym I attend and no one could use the empty end of the large pool. We were told that our instructor was CPR certified but not responsible for watching people swimming in the deep end who weren’t in the class…but if someone drowned, they could be sued. It seemed goofy since there weren’t any lifeguards on duty at the pool any time, but our instructor needed the training to teach the course, so no one else could be in the pool at the time of the class. If someone had a heart attack in the deep end while our instructor was present and wasn’t watching the person not in the class, the gym didn’t want the liability.