How to Find Places to Swim in the Winter

How lucky for those of you who live in a climate where you can swim outside year round. This isn't so for most of us, however. Just as we’ve improved our speed and increased the number of laps we can do at each session, the leaves are beginning to fall into pools that will remain unused for eight or nine months. However, there may be places you can go to keep those strokes strong all through the winter so you'll be in even better shape when the pools reopen next summer.

Instructions

  1. How to Find Places to Swim in the Winter

    • 1

      Check out health clubs and gyms for price, facilities offered and hours. Although some of these can be pricey, you may be able to work out some kind of a deal if the only amenity you plan to use is the lap pool. Facilities sometimes offer specials in the fall or just after the first of the year, so watch for those. You might also be able to negotiate a lower price if you opt to come very early in the morning or later in the evening.

    • 2

      Find out if your local high school has a swim team and opens its pool to community members. In some cases these pools go unused much of the day; if you are able to come in over the lunch hour, for example, you might be able to swim at no cost. If interested in such a trade, perhaps you could offer to serve as an adult sponsor to accompany the team to meets at other schools. Maybe you could begin a swim team parents organization that would raise money for the team, and, as a perk, parents might be allowed to use the pool.

    • 3

      Ask at area motels and hotels with inside pools what they would charge to let you come in and swim a few laps every day or so. Some hotels use cards (like room keys) that admit swimmers once each day.

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      Look to nonprofit organizations, such as the YMCA, that have membership open to all for usually reasonable prices. As an alternate to a full membership, you might sign up for some kind of a swim class (or, in some cases, any class); with that enrollment you might receive access to the pool during hours in which classes are not being offered.