Swim training at the Olympia-Schwimmhalle

Recently, friends of Herr J came to visit.  It was a high school friend with her husband and two boys.

When we take visitors around, it is usually a chance to re-experience the fun things to do in Bavaria.
But in this case, because of a specific request, we got to do something we had never done before in Munich! 

Both of the boys are on a swimming team.  Even though they are on vacation, they still needed to train.
So we went one morning to the Olympia-Schwimmhalle for them to get their laps in.  We have been to the Olympiapark many times, but interesting that we had never been inside the swimming hall, or used the pool there.

Here are the parents waiting for the boys to change into their swimgear, with a view of the entire hall:

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

Soon the boys were ready and waiting for instruction (they had a regimen to follow from the coach at home):

Three of the eight lanes were marked specifically for "sport" swimming -- lap swimmers:

The photo below (and above too) is their older son, S, making his laps.  It's a 50m pool, longer than what they typically use.  You'll see in the photos that they cycle through the different strokes (free, breast, and back).

Of course, I used this chance to practice "action" photography.  I need more training than they do swimming:

Mrs J was a competitive swimmer in high school anbd college, so she is the whip-cracker for the boys:

Here is the younger boy, M, taking a rest at the far end.  Behind him is the diving area:

This is S, approaching the near wall.  I was sitting in the stands, rather than poolside, so quite far away (using a 100-300mm zoom lens) and the viewing angle was higher -- couldn't get the water-level shots, but not too bad...

And below again is M, also coming in to the near wall:

After the workout, they took a well-deserved moment for play, and went to the platforms in the diving area:

Then they moved to the springboard, and M seemed to know that I was photographing him:

Not to be outdone, the older S did a front flip off the springboard:

Finally, they headed back to the locker room to shower and change:

I always like an opportunity to practice photography, and this happened to be in a place in Munich that I had never been!  Mr A and I sat in the stands, talked, and I snapped some pics.  My kind of morning.