I would do what ever you would want the person in the pool to do if you were in their
shoes.
Dave
Unless you have the pool area mostly to yourself, even if you are the only person in your lane you still need to split the lane.
If you are by yourself, take one half the lane. If someone else jumps in, they can clearly see what half of the lane to take.
If a third joins, you swim in circles.
In the years I’ve been swimming, I think I’ve never swam in the middle of a lane. Just by default I pick a side when I am alone.
No, actually, it depends on the rules. The rules that are clearly posted at every pool I’ve been to in the DC area clearly state that if there are two people, the lane is SPLIT and when a third joins you go to circle swimming. This makes so much more sense.
Maybe the culture is more of a regional thing.
I used to always circle, because that’s the way the pool worked and people could get in and out without asking permission.
Then I moved to another pool and some sloth would always stop me, mid anaerobic set, to ask if they could split the lane.
So now I always take a side. It’s more antisocial but at least I don’t get interrupted.
No offering. They take it or they don’t.
You realize in a circle swim you would get interrupted, too - when you lap him.
He’s not a ‘sloth’ - that may just be the the custom in the pool. Usually when I go to the pool outside of masters I either hand-signal or something. I mean - I’m sorry your workout was ruined by someone extending some common curtesy to you.
And how can you criticize something as being ‘antisocial’ in one sentence and then complain express your own anti-social behavior (referring to somoene interrupting your set to ensure you can both use the lane safely) in the previous paragraph?
You realize in a circle swim you would get interrupted, too - when you lap him.
He’s not a ‘sloth’ - that may just be the the custom in the pool. Usually when I go to the pool outside of masters I either hand-signal or something. I mean - I’m sorry your workout was ruined by someone extending some common curtesy to you.
And how can you criticize something as being ‘antisocial’ in one sentence and then complain express your own anti-social behavior (referring to somoene interrupting your set to ensure you can both use the lane safely) in the previous paragraph?
I’ve found the best pools (the ones where the most people can swim at once and with minimal interruptions) to be where lanes are segregated by speed (and people respect that) and people circle, regardless of speed.
In a pool where circling is the norm and people segregate by speed, there’s little interruption due to passing, because there’s little passing and everyone understands that passing happens. There’s also no need to be polite when you get into a lane, because everyone knows that you’ll try to stay out of each other’s way and it’s understood that you’re nearly the same speed.
He is invariably a sloth (or “slow swimmer”, in less derogatory terms). Maybe I should have mentioned that this commonly happens when every other lane is occupied by someone swimming down the middle of the lane. This is also a pool where the pool can get crowded and no one will start circling; if you do start circling, new swimmers of slower speed will not ask people of similar speed to start circling, but will join your lane because you are circling; and if you ask people to circle you will sometimes be answered with an, “I can’t.”
I wasn’t trying to refer to other people as antisocial, it was more about me circling (which, to me, means actively sharing and inviting more than just one other person into the lane) as opposed to me swimming on a side (which is all about don’t interrupt me, this is my space/that is yours/never the two shall mix). I don’t think it’s a safety issue. I think that the custom of always swimming sides and only grudgingly circling leads to people of widely varying speeds sharing the same lane on a routine basis, a “pool culture” that sees circling as a pain in the ass and only to be done when asked (not as an automatic courtesy to others), and leads to angry people of varying speeds circling together, which, I think, is more of a safety issue.
That all being said, I routinely ask people who are already swimming a side if I can join them - although I won’t stop them if they’re clearly on a side, I’ll just jump in. I appreciate it when people ask if they can share when I’m on a side, but don’t think it’s necessary (I didn’t like it when I was circling because they could have just jumped in or shared a lane with someone else, instead of interrupting). If someone’s plowing down the middle of the lane I’ll wait two laps to see if they stop, then get in the water and stand by the wall so they can see me and alter their swimming pattern without stopping.
No offering. They take it or they don’t.
Bingo.
Another option that I enjoy when lap times are busy is to circle swim anti-clockwise. You end up circle swimming providing the option for anyone to join, but very few will because your “going the wrong way”. It’s a great way to weed out the pretenders!
I’m sure someone will find fault with this, but if I can swim either way, why can’t others. There is no posted circle direction at the pool. The positive is that you don’t smash hands with the person in the next lane, as the hand direction is the same - it should actually be preferred.
When I swam in university, we always swam with adjacent lanes circling in alternate directions. It made it a lot easier doing fly sets, thats for sure. Drove me nuts when I went back to my club in the summer and everyone would circle counterclockwise, and then get upset when arms collided.
If people dont ask to share, are you supposed to offer?
I don´t ask and don´t expect others to ask me, but i do wait by the wall so the other person knows i´m there. In the towns i´ve lived we often only have 1 lane for freestyle and 2-3 lanes for slow breaststroke. That means that you WILL have slower swimmers in your lane and i just try to do the best of it. If i see that they don´t know the basic rules i will tell them and 99% of the times they appreciate it. It´s about give and take, i rather do 90% of my work out happy than 100% of it in a fight with the other swimmers.
One time when i got to the pool the “freestyle lane” was closed and there was 3 lanes for slow swimming. In the slow section there was 5 or 6 swimmers and the did breaststroke in a circle. Up and down on lane 1 and 3, leaving lane 2 completely free. I wanted to do my work out and figured i could take half of lane 3 and the could still would have plenty of room. There was a sign that said that you should go in circles but i thought my plan was perfect since there was plenty of space.
Before i started to swim i asked the people in the slow section if they thought it was ok and everyone said yes without any arguments. I started to swim on lane 3 and after just a couple of 100m i was stopped by the lifeguard, and he told me that i had to go in circles. I told him i asked everyone if i could swim freestyle in lane 3 and they could swim breaststroke in lane 1 and 2. The guard looked at me and told me that the same people i asked 5 min ago had when to him and complained b/c i didn´t go in circles…WTF!!! I got really pissed and the next time the ladies passed i stopped them and told them that they was pathetic losers that couldn´t say no to a direct question and had to go behind my back. Some people are just idiots…