Wow. That was a while ago. I think the pool had 4ft walls. It was plenty deep to roll. But, the kiddo figured out that he could stick his hands down and move to the pool edge that way. Even though he could roll he just kept using his hands on the bottom. It was a bad habit he couldn't stop. That, and hating pool maintenance, made the pool only last one summer.


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Thanks, not exactly the answer I was hoping for, but I am concerned with this being more trouble than it is worth. It is also sort of a bribe to help interest our daughters into the sport.

Thanks again.

 

I see you are in PA...no local lakes nearby to do this?

 

Back in college we made a pool with just some lumber and a heavy duty liner. For what you are looking for it doesn't have to be pretty but as catwoman mentions, you will have to treat the water and the volume would be significant enough that you don't want to be emptying and filling.

I'm a rafter so I can't speak to how much actual space you would need in order to acccomodate some float and be able to roll without being able to touch the bottom. Obviously, some of it will be related to the height of the person.

 

Cost is not an issue (within reason). I was looking for an assessment on how effective it was, especially for teaching kids, and size. I'm trying to determine how permanent I want to make it.

 

Something I've heard about, but never tried, is that you can "carve" a deeper area in the dirt within the footprint of the pool, before setting it up. Obviously, you'd want to pay attention to detail and slope it gently, and probably not over about a foot deep, and probably want to leave a couple of feet from the edges. Anyway, might be a way to get an extra foot of depth.

Good luck!

 

I've played around in mine, it works. The fact that you can hit the bottom helps teach you to keep your paddle shallow. This is how I figured out my weak side roll.