I don’t expect to be asked if I’m solo in the lane, but I do expect the person joining my lane to hang on the wall until I approach, so I know he/she is there. If I see someone on the deck that I’d rather not share my lane with, I’ll go into butterfly right down the middle. When it’s crowded and my lane already has two and a third wants to join, I never say no, but I grimace out a yes and usually switch to kicking since I’m typically the fastest swimmer at the pool. Sometimes, if I know my lane partner and it looks like someone may join us, I’ll try to set us up as if we’re doing a session together and pacing off each other - hoping the new person gets a clue and enters another lane.
Two of us were happily splitting a lane when a large bellied fading and thinning tan speedo man asked to join in. I grumbled a yes and grabbed my kickboard. Even with the kickboard, I was going faster than them and the big guy never got a hint to hang on the wall to let me pass. I ended up hanging until he came back around and took off in front of him, giving me a challenge to see how quickly I could get back on his feet. At one point, we were all stopped on the wall and he says, “We work pretty good together - same pace.” The other guy blurts out, “Yeah, as long as he’s just kicking.” I didn’t get much of a workout and got out.
Never ask, always jump in to the lane. If there are two people and they’re splitting, - tell them to please circle.
I wouldn’t be rude, - but it’s a public pool and they do get crowded. If Bobby Placek and Liza Hazen decide to jump in my lane while I’m swimming, - I know to move to a slower lane. If someone comes in to my line and I catch them every 3 lengths, - I sometimes say, - “excuse me, - I don’t mean to be rude, or sarcastic, but I’m catching you every 3, and I see that the people in the medium lanes are going the same speed as you, do you think that you’d be more comfortable over there?”
I only do this if my lane has 3 or more people in it, and I’m catching/lapping someone every 3 or 4 lengths.
I also never stop if someone is waiting. I do a lot of long distance swims, and I’m not going to stop and ask anyone who might be deciding whether or not they want to get in my lane, or some other, or to swim at all…
I can beat that, I remember 1 morning my wife and I went to my gym to swim and I was unaware there was a triathlon class taking up 3 of the 4 lanes. No big deal, it was scheduled, I just didn’t know about it. Anyway, so lane 1 is open and we decide to split it, my wife just starting swimming so we split instead of circle if at all possible. She is proficient and has a good stroke, just not too fast yet. Less than 5 minutes later another guy comes into the pool area. Probably early 50s, glasses on, no goggles in hand, trunk shorts, and a noticeable beer belly. I know right away he is no swimmer. I am not going to offer up the lane, unless he asks. I figure he knows his swim prowess relative to ours and she be able to see if he can or cannot keep up. So after about 5 minutes of watching and I am noticing he is becoming agitated as time passes on, he does the last thing I expect. As soon as my wife touches off the wall he hurls himself into the pool about 2 inches behind her legs and my wife jumps over to the side to avoid him and looks at me like “wtf, is this guy doing?”. He then proceeds to flail wildly with arms taking up 75% of the lane with each stroke for about 15 feet and stops and walks to the other end. He continues back and forth in the same fashion, taking up so much room that we have to wait until he hits the wall to take off in front of him and then stop in the middle of the lane when we pass in opposite directions. Seriously this guy, was not a bad swimmer, he couldn’t swim!! If you dropped him in a lake he would have drown in less than 2 minutes. Anyway, I decide to just do kick sets for a while, but eventually even that didn’t work and I said screw it. My wife did the same. We went to breakfast and just laughed our asses off about it. I never said a word to the guy.
maybe I am confused but I always thought it was 2 people and you split the lane in half (speed differential makes no difference ) and three or more counter clockwise circle swim faster swimmers tap feet to pass, slower people let you pass at the wall ? When joinng someone you ask more to let them know than to get permission. Is this only a local thing where I swim ?
I would agree…split if 2 that way if the pace is different you’re still pretty much okay.
I have had some a-hole actually tell me no he won’t share. Turns out this is a guy who does masters’ with me. He’s in the lane slower than me. He came over to our lane one time and insisted upon going in front of me (I guess because I am female). I tapped his toes the entire length of the 50 meter pool and he didn’t move or let me pass even when we got to the wall, so I stopped, and dolphined and went under him…ticked him off, but he hasn’t tried to go in front of me since.
If I’m swimming at lunch for extra and the lanes are all take w/ just one individual, I look for the person either going my pace, watching the interval clock (if they are, I look for 1:20 100s…sneaky sneaky), or the person doing the least amount of breastroke…or breastroke on their back. I hate getting kicked in the stomach.
I had one guy actually grab my foot in a flip turn one time to ask if he could share…I just about kicked him in the face! That is rude and not safe!
My pool has 6 or 7 of the narrowest lanes I’ve ever seen. Nobody shares because of this, there’s a little sign on the wall about being courteous and limiting your swim to 30 minutes if people are waiting. It’s pretty rare when someone has to wait more than 5 minutes.
I swim at a public pool with two lanes per lane divider. They also have each of these marked with little signs that say slow, medium, fast, with a picture of how to swim out on the outside and back up the middle. So it’s completely obvious that you’re expected to share. People are good about offering you to go if they’re resting even if you want to rest so it all works out fine.
I still bump into people by accident if I’m not expecting them but that’s because I’m not always paying attention and they may have just started. Everyone apologizes even if I’m at fault.
Now just don’t go and start asking me about elderly breast strokers in the medium lane!
I’m lucky in that I have a pool at my disposal that gets little use with wide lanes.
If by some chance someone doesn’t have their own lane (rare) everyone has always offered up an open spot. I’ve only seen 3-4 people wait ever, and they never wait more than a minute or two for someone to finish a set and offer up a spot.
I enjoy swimming with others, keeps me going and gives me something to think about other than the little 1" tiles…
The lane wasn’t just the 2 of us…there were I’d say 5 or 6 which isn’t bad on a 50 meter pool, but I have been swimming since I was 3 and I am pretty particular about my sets and such…but ya, that would’ve worked too! Just didn’t think of it at the time…ya know…heart pumping, adrenaline going, early in the morning…PRE COFFEE!!!
Thanks…unfortunately, at 5:15 in the morning, the clever switch isn’t always on! HA!
I had a friend do that to me and I was so pissed off. I was doing sets of 750m for time and she was late to our swimming date. Granted she didn’t know what I was doing BUT she grabbed both of my feet while I was flipping and flipped them back in the other direction so I ended up doing a backwards somersault. I was not pleased.
The point was, not that i know what I’m doing, but that I am very used to my sets and am used to flipturning and at 5:15 in the morning, sometimes the clever idea to do a uie isn’t popping into my head.
No need for your sarcasm. If you’ve been swimming since you were 2, then you can relate to how natural a flipturn at the end of a length comes, right. That’s all I meant by it.
i hate when people dont let you pass, crowds are one thing and slow people should be just as annoyed as fast people. when someone consistently doesnt let me by even with foot taps i pull a U turn early and get in front of them, if i am in a sour mood i will vary speed so they catch me on the straights but i take off and flip so they cant catch me at the wall.
The one time I had someone tell me no, said that it was “dangerous”, I just smiled and told him that his attitude was not in keeping with the christian ideals that the Y was founded upon - he looked at me like I was an asshole. The lady in the next lane heard the exchange and said that hers was the nice lane and asked me if I wanted to join in. Whole thing was very funny.
If I know they swim straight and fast, then I’ll offer. Or;
If they are standing around like a gumby and not asking, it appears clear to me that they expect a lane to themselves, as they have not asked to share. So, by default I don’t have to offer as they expect to wait for a lane to have all to themselves.
Would it be hijacking the thread to mention the people that aren’t even SWIMMING? I swim at a fitness center where there are frequently people doing some version or another of water exercises. Just sitting in one spot lifting their arms or twisting at the hips or whatever. Taking up an entire lane that nobody else can swim in… And usually the rudest people at the pool if you dare mention that this is a pool for swimming and you would like to SWIM.
I swim at a fitness center where there are frequently people doing some version or another of water exercises. Just sitting in one spot lifting their arms or twisting at the hips or whatever. Taking up an entire lane that nobody else can swim in…
Not to pick nits, or anything, but a pool at a fitness center is for…wait for it…fitness. For all you know, the person twisting at their hips is doing physical therapy exercises, or something…sounds like fitness to me. I know that, because they threw me out once when I tried to swim during a dancing hippos class.
That being said, I encountered a woman at the local gym one day doing said exercises, and asked, while standing on the deck in a jammer, holding goggles, if I could share a lane with her. “Sure, you can have that end.” I’m sure that there ensued a rather confused look on my face as i tried to figure out how she thought I was going to swim in just one end, as a woman in another lane, doing similar exercises said. “I know what she means. I’ll share with her, and you can have this one.”