Interesting occurrence at the Pool this noon. I’m a regular MWF lunchtime swimmer at out community mid-size Y pool where they schedule only lap swimming from 11:30 to 12:45. I get in…get my work out done… and get back to work in an hour and a half. Typically there are a maximum of four (4) swimmers at any given time. Today there were nine (9) plus the guard allowed two fathers with their infants to play in one open lane. I arrived at the same time as a new/unfamiliar 30/40yr old female prepared to enter that last open lane we were to share. As the guard was informing the fathers that they would have to leave, I mentioned that I didn’t want to kick anyone out and walked to their end of the pool to a choruss of “It’s lap swimming only sir…Sir…SIR”. I offered to the Dad’s and the guard that if we could work together and share half a lane I promised to co-exist. I returned to glares and attitude about misbehaving kids from the new female. Everything worked out fine and one of the dad’s thanked me later. The way I figure, in times of budget cutting, the Y is more likely to keep the pool open for a dad and their children rather than a bunch of whiney complaining lap swimmers who complain when they don’t maintain ownership of their precious swimming lane. Let’s encourage anyone and everyone to get in the pool.
As a “serious” lap swimmer (former competitive swimmer) I hate having to dodge the slow, the weak, the obese, the kids, etc. However, I would never begrudge anyone the right to get in the pool and will gladly swim under, around, away from, and WITH anyone who happens to show up at my Y in my lane. I try to be respectful and work with others in my lane so that we can all get our “workouts” in. I am always shocked when I encounter people who do not want to share a lane or complain about circle swimming and expect others to wait until they’re done to get in the lane. A pool is not an elliptical machine!
Gee, when I go to the lap swim lanes, I expect people to be lap swimming. Not walking, floating on noodles, or playing with 3 year olds. Whats wrong with people obeying the Y’s lap swim rules? Nothing is wrong with that idea. But there a lot of people who do not think rules apply to them. I wish my Y had life guards like yours who would enforce the rules. I’d be in heaven.
I’m happy to swim with anyone of any age who is actually lap swimming.
Good on you, I typically don’t let non lap swimmers in my lane. In fact I snapped at a guy for jumping in my lane. I’m doing freestyle laps, then all of a sudden my forward hand bumped and brushed up on something. I looked and it was some hairy old dude, and it looked like I brushed him in the gut. I had no clue he was there, and it pissed me off. I got up and said, ‘what the fuck?’ he just gave me a stunned look and got out.
It’s all your state of mind.
When I have slow lap swimmers, non lap swimmers, kids, water aerobics participants, floating human whales and pool tourists taking up space in my (“my”) lane, I just use the opportunity to get better at sighting, dodging, weaving and changing pace to accommodate them.
Rubbin’ is racing, right?
Ben
As far as “Budget Cutting”…Pool closure was threatened at this facility. Are any other venues facing similar horrible options?
My Y has a enough money which is a good thing. They opened about 3 years ago and had 20,000+ members the first day. Our monthly fee is $58/mo for individuall / $78 for family. And they are building another Y in a nearby community so they must be making some money.
I never thought too much about how high the fee is until last week. I was talking to someone who just moved into the area. Their old Y in California was only $20 for an individual.
I’d rather share a lane with a parent & kid, or a rubenesque gal doing some sort of bouncing and bobbing workout
because I know where they’ll be generally. My worst case scenario in a lane is the oblivious breaststoker with long
toenails. They are swimming laps, but because they often rest on the wall it is impossible to know when to expect them.
One day in a circle swim situation, I swam through a cloud of bubbles and ended up with my hand grabbing a woman’s inner
thigh rather far above the knee. Neither one of us was at all happy about it… I spent the next 15 minutes with a head-high
water polo stroke until a different lane opened up.
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As a “serious” lap swimmer (former competitive swimmer) I hate having to dodge the slow, the weak, the obese, the kids, etc. However, I would never begrudge anyone the right to get in the pool and will gladly swim under, around, away from, and WITH anyone who happens to show up at my Y in my lane. I try to be respectful and work with others in my lane so that we can all get our “workouts” in. I am always shocked when I encounter people who do not want to share a lane or complain about circle swimming and expect others to wait until they’re done to get in the lane. A pool is not an elliptical machine!
I agree with you. THe one issue i’ve had lately is the dude that shows up at 6:45am in board shorts during masters practice expecting to get a lane. Not sure if he’s actually a paid member of masters, because I’ve never talked to him. I’m waiting for the day that all the lanes are filled with 2+ people and he just jumps in doing his 2:30 100 yard pace. Dude doesn’t even try and socialize with anyone, just gets in, swims slow, and leaves.
I’m often guilty of not being social at the pool, but I only have so much time and I’m there to swim.
My local YMCA wants $60/mo for a membership, of which I’d only use the pool. I did a 2 week trial, and it’s a nice 25m pool, but on the weekends they only leave 2 lanes open for lap swim. And on weekdays from 3-7, they only have 1 lane open while the swim teams practice!
I ended up finding a 50m pool at a local Navy base I have access to. Huge pool, but I often have to compete with Marines and sailors getting in their PT time. God bless 'em, but I’ll just say…good thing they have those boats to keep 'em afloat, cause most can’t cut it in the water.
I can’t believe so many of you want non-swimmers in your lap lanes. I have people doing this every other day and I get tired of running into them. How do you keep from having head to head collisions with floaters and others who don’t follow rules when you are swimming with your eyes on the bottom. The pool is not good place for people to break rules that are there to protect you.
As for breast stokers, I share lanes with them often and have only had a rare kick. It does get tricky when circle swimming.
Word.
Its not the anti social aspect, its the half way through masters practice showing up part. Everyone else shows up at designated times. Either 6am or 730am. But that’s the lifeguards fault as much as anything. I’m holding back, trying not to be a dick. But there will be a day when i can’t keep my mouth shut. I just hope the confrontation occurs in the water and not out of the water. Cause, water polo skills, he can’t touch me in the water.
I have it good in that my gym is not kid friendly meaning very few of them in the pool. There is a warm water pool also so that eliminates a good chunk of water aerobics aka heffa aerobics. I generally avoid asking to share a lane with non/weak-swimmers (95% of swimmers at my gym). Most are quite intimidated by good swimmers.
I once got yelled at for doing flip turns… I was told I make too much splash :<( Also today I noticed a posting on the pool bulletin board that said the Red Cross recommends not holding your breath for an extended period of time - you might pass out. Hadn’t considered that. :<)
My gym has 4 lanes for lap swimming and a large heated “family pool.” What frustrates me to no end is the time that is most convenient for me to workout is sometime between 6-8pm. 5 days a week there’s a water aerobics class, and rather than using the HUGE family pool which remains empty, pretty much every evening, they take up 2 of the 4 lap lanes making those 2 so crowded I’m forced into the family pool and swimming in 2-3ft deep water. This just doesn’t work for me and is one of many reasons (member cost as well), I’m looking into switching facilities. I’m just lucky to live in an area with lots of other options.
Good on you for having a good attitude about the whole thing. I’m really fortunate that our local Y has a large “competition” pool for lap swimming, swim team workouts and masters as well as an activity pool for water aerobics, learn-to-swim lessons, and family swim (parents playing with their kids). The only issue I typically face if I swim during lap swimming is 3 to a lane with 2 slower swimmers. But that’s very rare.