It all kicked off in the swimming pool

[Poppystone]

Session times have changed because of the school holidays. There's no lane swimming during the day, only general swimming, which is making the early morning and evening swimming very busy.

My friend is a big man, well over six ft (ie takes up a lot of space) and a very good swimmer. He's gone into the fast lane and done his thing. There were two women also there swimming much too slowly for the fast lane. The target times for a length are published, so fast is not subjective, although they didn't appear to be aware of this.

Anyway they've objected and said they think he's very rude to be ploughing up and down. He thinks that's what the fast lane's for....

This is very nearly poetry.

Was it a swimming session or a lane swimming session @Poppystone ? I wasn’t sure after reading your first post. Presumably as you mentioned ‘fast lane’ it was an actual lane swimming session, in which case, they were being ridiculous. If it was not a specific lane swimming session then he was being completely unreasonable. Frustrating as it is, he needs to approach the pool team about the reduced number of lane sessions.

Yes it was lane swimming.

It is very frustrating that the lane swimming opportunity for regulars is reduced over the summer, but it's a council pool and it's only right, I think, that they provide opportunity for families and young teens over the summer holiday.

"I suspect there was contact. Not deliberately agressive, but not taking too much care to avoid them, possibly out of frustration."

So a "big man" deliberately made physical contact (but not deliberately aggressive so that's all fine...) with women out of frustration, and your biggest concern is whether they were in the wrong lane?!

What does this mean?
You’ve said there are no day time lane swims due to school holidays, so morning and evening lane sessions are busier.
Thus people ARE lane swimming in the day.
I lane swim during the day - WFH, hour round trip door to door, swim 1k.
You seem to be implying that only busy people enjoy lane swimming.
Anyway, he should have told the women they were in the wrong lane not just express it by ploughing up and down with his big body. Or asked the life guard to speak to them.

My local pool does not (as far as I am aware) have speeds for the lanes and actually I’ve never swam somewhere that does, so I can understand people not expecting this. If there is only a fast and a slow lane it can be challenging for medium paced swimmers. The slow lane is often far too slow for me (especially if I want to swim front crawl) and I am a slightly slower than I should be for the fast lane (based off how fast others are swimming - there is no speed guidance). Mostly, I will swim in the fast lane if it is not too busy and just make sure I let people pass me st the ends and be considerate. If the lane is busy or super fast that day then I won’t.

I don’t think your friend was wrong to swim in the fast lane but he should be being considerate of the other swimmers and maybe asking the lifeguard to intervene if they are too slow.

I’m an early morning (6- 8 am) lane swimmer and I’ve never heard of length time targets being published - a great idea for places where lane etiquette isn’t being observed. Our life guards do have a word with people in obviously inappropriate lanes, for the peace of all concerned. We have 6 lanes in the early morning - 2 slow, 2 medium and two fast. In the rest of the day it’s 3 lanes plus a general area. In the early morning the fast lanes are really fast and the slow lanes genuinely slow - it’s the medium lanes that cause confusion amongst some. There’s also an unofficial but observable convention of there being a fast fast, a faster medium and a faster slow within those pairs. I’m generally a fast medium but sometimes the other medium.

Really annoys me when people complain about people swimming very slowly or taking breaks in the slow lane. They may be there early rather than in the later general area because they are working later or they can feel safer knowing they aren’t going to be in anyone’s way or have tutting or eye rolling.

Well he’s not helping himself by using his size to assert his presence whether it be aggressively or just going about his day.
If he knows his size can be intimidating then he needs to modify it.

I obviously haven't expressed myself clearly.

The pool is given over to play sessions i.e. no lane swimming, during the day, for the summer holidays.

Therefore those who would normally lane swim during the day are all having to go to early morning or evening sessions.

Surely theres more shit in rivers these days?!

this is a non answer to the other persons post, like this is a non problem. ‘The fast lane has speed thresholds, you should be in a different one’

It's pretty clear that people who usually lane swim can't go during the day (during the holidays) because lane swimming is only being offered in the early morning and evening sessions, and the day session is all general space without lanes.

The women were in the wrong.
The lifeguard should also have taken control of the situation earlier.
Where I swim I was politely corrected by the lifeguard for not giving way to a slightly faster swimmer in the slow lane!

I thought this! I was expecting to read about a mass brawl, a royal rumble in the swimming pool.

At ours when you book the session on the app it says what the expected time is. Under 30s for 25m for fast, 30-45s for medium and 45s+ for slow.

Your first post was perfectly clear to me!

i can’t work out who you know here. If you know the ladies you say ‘swim in the suitable lane and this won’t happen, so it’s a choice. It must drive fast swimmers bananas to have to put up with people in their lane who shouldn’t be.’

Not the ones I swim in

https://datahq.sas.org.uk/sewage-data-hq/

It's the reason the lane swimmjng sessions are busier than usual.

I really didnt need all that. I was joking.

I just meant if he is bothered, he needs to talk to the Manager. Our pool has fewer in the holidays but it wouldn’t bother me as I know it’s give and take over that time period. To be honest, I don’t think there are enough ‘family’ sessions!

Edited this because I had written complete nonsense when I re-read it! The women were completely wrong to be in the fast lane.

There was lane swimming at the time they were there. They were in the wrong lane. Your friend should have got the lifeguard to tell them to move rather than use his size to try to intimidate /punish them.

If he used his physical presence and strength to bully them rather than having a word with them or having a word with the lifeguard then he is the unreasonable one

No one knows from what you have published. I can tell you - from someone who spends 8 hours every day in/around a swimming pool - that there are very very very men (far more than women) in the fast lane who are extremely arrogant, don’t stick to lane rotation just barge up and down the middle, don’t let anyone past etc
were the women in the wrong lane - possibly yes, it sounds like it.
Does he swim like an arsehole - on the basis on statistics and what I see - there’s a 50/50 chance it’s yes

This is what puts him firmly in the wrong.

One of my sons is a big man but he'd be mortified to be touching random middle aged women accidentally - on - purpose in a passive aggressive attempt to get them to move. How embarrassing of him and intimidating for them!

If the women were objectively in the wrong he should have used his words and directed them to the published lane time targets you mentioned.

Otherwise swimming in a crowded lane is shit for everyone unless everyone is courteous and everyone compromises - that doesn't mean everyone except the big men, it means everyone.