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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Lane-swimming etiquette (grrrrr)

139 replies

RevoltingPeasant · 27/01/2011 14:00

Last night I was swimming in the lanes section of my local pool, and after I'd been going about 25 minutes these two blokes got in and lurked around end section for a bit. Just as I was approaching the end of the lane, they both pushed off right in front of me and started doing slow breaststroke, thus totally cutting me up and meaning I had to speed up massively to overtake or stop.

AIBU to think that this is really rude, and that getting into a swimming lane is like being at a roundabout - if someone is already going round at a decent pace, you wait till after they've gone so you don't make them swerve? If you know you're not a fast swimmer, shouldn't you wait if you see someone 5m away doing crawl at a reasonable pace?

Angry
OP posts:
TheSugarPlumFairy · 27/01/2011 14:03

YANBU. In my gym the lanes are marked for slow, medium and fast swimming. No loitering allowed in the lanes, that is what the free swimming bit is for.

It is just manners really.

DublinMammy · 27/01/2011 14:04

Totally agree, it is MADDENING when slow swimmers cut in front of you. Perhaps ask the pool guy to sort it out - our pool has slow, medium and fast lanes and people can be moved if they are in the wrong lane.

Always makes me want to overtake then passive-aggressively kick very hard to -batter- splash them.

DublinMammy · 27/01/2011 14:05

I meant to say batter splash them, still working on strikethrough!

renlovesyou · 27/01/2011 14:07

I think they were BU to start when they could see you were already at a good pace. However you were BU to have overtook. Id just have waited at the end for them to get far enough ahead to start the next length.

We have three lanes but I look at it objectively. If the medium lane is full of what I deem to be faster than me, I get in slow. If the slow lane is full of really slooooooooow people, I get into medium.

Original poster
RevoltingPeasant · 27/01/2011 14:07

Dublin Grin

Of course, esp with them being men, I had to put on a big burst of speed, go beasting past them... and then spend the next hundred metres practising my kicks...

It was more gratifying because they weren't wearing goggles....

OP posts:
Hassled · 27/01/2011 14:08

YANBU. Idiots who don't understand swimming lane rules bug the hell out of me. Men who don't understand that some women can swim faster than them bug the hell out of me. I race them - they don't actually realise they're in a race, but I still enjoy beating them :o.

Original poster
RevoltingPeasant · 27/01/2011 14:09

I suppose ren, but it pisses me off to have to break up my rhythm. If you are trying to do aerobic exercise you can't keep stopping.

Anyhow, they shortly decided that swimming in the sauna was more their speed...

[evil emoticon]

OP posts:
renlovesyou · 27/01/2011 14:09

And it is a roundabout, so you were going to come up behind a slower swimmer than you at some point.

renlovesyou · 27/01/2011 14:10

More infuriating are the people that kick their legs into your lane when you are next to each other on the inside! Wink

Original poster
RevoltingPeasant · 27/01/2011 14:16

Yeah or people doing breaststroke who think that that involves passing their hands gently over other people's bodies as they go by....

OP posts:
mrsshackleton · 27/01/2011 14:29

I'm just waiting for the first UK trial involving a bout of pool rage - the defendant most probably being me. I've suffered from it for years Grin.

All swimmers except me should be banned from public pools.

camdancer · 27/01/2011 14:31

YADNBU. There should be a test before people can use swimming lanes. I have a whole bunch of rants about people in swimming lanes which I shouldn't start but it does amaze me how selfish people can be.

  • If someone is faster than you, then let them go first.
  • Just because you are male, doesn't mean you automatically go in the fast lane.
  • Breaststroke is the name of the stroke, not an invitation.
  • If you want to stand and chat, go somewhere else. Don't block the end of the lane.

Ok, I need to stop now before I explode.

AngryBeaver · 27/01/2011 14:33

Oh,it's infuriating isn't it? I take dd for her swimming lesson on a sunday,the teacher corsones off a section of the pool.
This one woman is there and sticks like glue to the 'lane' nearest the rope. Fine. BUT,as the pool gets busier,people have to share laned and follow the swimmer in front.
I ended up swimming behind this woman,and as she got to the end doing a crawl,she immediately launched into a back stroke,without even looking behind!!
I just saw this arm coming down on me and jumped out the way.
I have noticed she does this every week,obviously so nobody dares swim in Her Lane...and am desperate to say something to her.

cakeywakey · 27/01/2011 14:35

Can we also mount a campaign for people who want to chat while they swim to go into the baby pool. There are two sets of women at my pool who do this, they swim next to each other - at a snails pace and taking up two thirds of the lane - chatting for the entire length as they keep their heads clear of the water so that they don't get their hair wet. My heart sinks when they arrive.

Mammie81 · 27/01/2011 14:36

I have a friend who asks me to go swimming every week. I just cant go with her because she does one length at top speed in the slow lane, then hangs about to chat at the ends!

I now go secretly Blush

MorticiaAddams · 27/01/2011 14:37

YANBU. We used to have one man that always went up and down the middle of the lane when there really wasn't enough room. He used to get a good kick when he went past me.

juneybean · 27/01/2011 14:42

A general swimming etiquette, don't chat with your mate all the way down the pool, have a chat at the end of the pool!!!

Sick of having to swerve around people going at a snail pace to chat (not confident enough to go into the lanes)

juneybean · 27/01/2011 14:43

Ooo just read what you said cakeywakey Grin

Joolyjoolyjoo · 27/01/2011 14:44

YANBU. Not a lane thing, but I definitely suffer from swimming pool rage!

Couple weeks ago, we all went to the pool. The top end was cordened off for lessons (including my dds') which I love, because it generally means that all the swimmers will do the sensible thing and swim widths instead of some doing widths and some doing lengths (which I've never really understood- why do you want to fight your way through all the families with small children at the shallow end, then fight your way back out again, when with a bit of sense we could all swim widths, harmoniously??!)

Anyway! About 6 of us doing widths in middle of the pool, top end cordened off, shallow end full of little people, then these 2 guys come in and start ploughing up and down the pool, not looking where they are going, so everyone has to dive out of their way. I was almost drowned! I got really mad 9much to DH's amusement) as it just strikes me as completely and utterly ignorant to have so little regard for the other pool-users. Got my own back though- next time hairy-back-man tried to bulldoze me out of the way I didn't move and he ended up swimming straight into my kicking foot- whoops!

And relax. Now, what was the question?? Oh yeah- YANBU!

Original poster
RevoltingPeasant · 27/01/2011 14:44

cakey - omg, yes! I swim at a gym pool mostly, and it is full of women who swim in string bikinis with full makeup on and keep their faces carefully out of the water.

People, this is not swimming! I want to buy them all giant lilypads to lounge on.

OP posts:
KangarooCaught · 27/01/2011 14:49

Got a thick lip after some moron backstroked across the lane into my path. Dh 'had a word' since my lips weren't working!

camdancer · 27/01/2011 14:55

Cakey - I call them sea horses. They are so upright they are almost walking. And why do they always wear loads of perfume? You have to swim through a massive fog of smell if you can get round them.

Honeybee79 · 27/01/2011 14:57

YANBU at all. Did loads of swimming when pregnant and that kind of behaviour drove me nuts. It's inconsiderate. I used to have angry exchanges with people over lane etiquette. It also drove me nuts when I would be swimming in the "medium" speed lane and some bloke would get in (and it nearly was always blokes in my experience for some reason . . . ) and swim really fast crawl up and down the MIDDLE of the bloody lane, almost colliding with everyone else. Why not just go and do it in the fast lane? Was he scared of the fast swimmers and needed to feel that he was the fastest in the lane he was in? FFS Angry.

JamieLeeCurtis · 27/01/2011 14:58

I can't bear swimming for many reason - getting wet, for example, but when I did go on a brief health kick I was surprised how stressful the whole thing was. In my case, it was people wanting to go too fast in the Slow lane and hassling me and overtaking each other so there wasn't much room.

JamieLeeCurtis · 27/01/2011 14:59

X post Honeybee - yes - that's what I was talking about. Show-offs!!