Terse exchange with woman - lane swimming

I can’t believe you went to the manager about it 😂

2 m is plenty wide enough for two people to swim "side by side"

And as many of us have said repeatedly if you can swim circuits and pass each other then you can "side by side" style

OP did you think side by side meant next to each other at all times up and down the lane, maybe chatting to each other as you swim?? Otherwise as literally everyone is telling you, the passing points are the same whether you’re doing circuits or side by side. The way you’ve responded suggests it’s you that’s the argumentative person and the other woman was probably just like ‘why doesn’t this woman understand what I’m asking to do?!’

OP, how do you do circuits if the lane isn't big enough for 2 people to pass each other?

Exactly!!

OP, I have a diagram since different people are talking about different things.

How is it possible for the lane to be wide enough for two people to pass each other doing circuits, but not to pass each other in exactly the same way when swimming up and down?

im a club swimmer, so, like any club swimmer, the difference in speed between us and public swimmers (even the fast ones) is vast.
the unspoken etiquette is that the faster swimmer would watch out for the slower swimmer (a bit like on a ski slope).
so, I would always ask for side by side if there’s just one other swimmer because then I only have to think about switching to a narrower breaststroke or single arm fly to pass them if we’re side by side only once every 50m.
if we’re circuits I’m constantly gaging and switching strokes and speeds to work out when best to overtake. I don’t want them to follow the normal rules of stopping at the end to let me past, as it’s not fair on them, as if I’m going 18secs per 25m and they’re going at 1 minute per length I would still catch them up again as I’m doing more than 3 to their 1. So side by side is the only doable option sometimes.

Yes but these rules aren't laws. If the two people using the lane decide by mutual consent to swim a different way then I would not expect lifeguards to butt in.

In this case OP didn't want to swim side by side and that is fine, the other swimmer should have respected that. But she did nothing wrong by asking the question in the first place.

ETA this is in reply to NedIsHereNow

When people say “swimming side by side” they don’t usually mean swimming right next to each other like old ladies in floral hats chatting while doing breaststroke.

You are just sticking to your own side of the lane as you go up and down. You can swim in opposite directions (ie one swims up while the other swims down the lane) so you don’t end up swimming together. It’s no different to swimming circuits in terms of passing, it just avoids running into the back of the other person.

If there is space for two of you and nobody else there then I don't see why you can't? It just means you both swim at your own pace rather than having to kind of queue up while swimming?

No they don't if you have any awareness.

I swim regularly. If I am side by side with two people and a third gets in, the third begins swimming up the correct direction for circuits and the person in the other lane reverts to circuits once they are back at the "start point" of the circuit. It's not rocket science.

What IS annoying is the guy I call "rude guy" at my Monday swim who is oblivious in a busy pool. If there are 6 people in the circuit and I am waiting for the swimmer ahead to get a little way down the pool before setting off, rude guy if he reaches my end of the pool just launches into that space. He constantly overtakes people as a consequence, swimming down the middle of the pool at least half of the time, making the water very choppy. I wish the pool staff would have a word with him.

@arethereanyleftatall OP didn't know that when they had their exchange. She is the one abiding by the rules of the pool.

You realise the same way of making your stroke smaller exists regardless of which direction you are swimming whilst you pass them. The woman was faster she would only have passed the op side by side for a brief moment.

As everyone else has said, the general protocol is:

1 person - do whatever you want
2 people - side by side
3 or more people - circuits

It wasn’t and unreasonable suggestion from her. You are fine to say no, but she wasn’t doing anything wrong in asking.

If you are passing someone then you tend to make your stroke smaller, less wide arms if breaststroke, it is brief. If you are swimming side by side your arms and legs repeatedly hit each other.

You cannot possibly simultaneously have a lane that is not wide enough to have 2 people swimming in the same direction for a brief moment, but wide enough for those same 2 people to pass in different directions, ie circuits. They’re the same width of person regardless which direction they’re travelling!

But how, if the lane isn’t wide enough for two, do you swim past each other when swimming circuits? If someone starts at end A while you start at end B, even going in the same direction, or you waited at the lane end to let the faster swimmer through, you would need to swim past each other (facing each other as in effect) at points.

It's just not possible that you could swim in a circuit - up the left of the lane, down the right, fir example) but could not each swim one on the left and one on the right of that lane.

Were you swimming right up the centre?

The gym pool we swim in has strict circuit lane swimming no side by side, there are boards showing direction of the swim at both ends of the lane. The rules of OP's pool are the same. She was not the one breaking the rules.

If you are on Reddit swim board swimming etiquette is clear about what to do if you are faster or slower than other swimmers in your lane and where you stand if you are taking a break.

Dh swims every day at the gym, it is 1.2m deep all the way for 25m, one slow lane, one fast lane. All the regular swimmers know where to pace themselves against the people in their lane. Dh knows he is faster than "Fred" but slightly slower than "Bob" but they all work around it. They are all tracking their swim times too.

I cannot understand why you are getting such a hard time OP, you are right, it doesn't matter if someone wants to swim side by side, the rules are circuit. If I wanted to join a lane I wouldn't be able to if two arseholes are treating the pool as their own personal space.

2m is a standard lane width, and is wide enough for swimmers to pass (unless everyone is doing fly).

You swim clockwise in one lane and anti-clockwise in the adjacent lane so that swimmers are travelling in the same direction on either side of the lane rope to mitigate the risk of locking arms / whacking hands or head on collisions (all of which happen).

If you can't swim side by side then you cannot swim circuits because people still have to go past each other when swimming circuits. I've never seen a circuit lane that wasn't wild enough for two people to swim side by side for precisely that reason

It's weird you didn't mention any of this in your original post

The fact is you clearly weren't aware that side by side swimming is a thing. Hopefully now that you are you will consider those requests in a different light.